e debasement and humiliation of a public figure. The second theme deals with the crushing weight of a materialistic drive on personality. Taken together, these two themes comprise the bitter irony of an American success story that ends in futile nostalgia, loneliness and death. It is also the portrayal of a popular American fiction – a rich man can buy anything but love and, as a result, the rich are desperately unhappy.
The first theme, that of the humiliation of a public figure, is created primarily through conversations in the film. Because it is a theme dealing directly with the personality of the main character, Welles has chosen to develop this theme in a personal manner. In contrast to the theme of personal development, the theme of the crushing weight of materialism is developed visually, with the photo of Xanadu for example. The development of the two themes provides point and counterpoint in the film as the story unfolds.
The structure of the film is built on the premise that the film is searching for the solution to a mystery. The mystery is apparently that of the significance of the first word spoken by Kane in the film – “rosebud”. It is his dying word and, as such, provokes curiosity about its meaning and purpose in the film. The word or object never appears again until the last seen of the film. Then it is revealed that rosebud referred to the brand of sled Kane must have used in his childhood and which became for him a symbol of happiness. The sled also explains the use of the glass ball which contained the snow scene as a transition during the opening scenes of the film.
Rosebud has been the most criticized item in the movie and the only thing which Welles has credited to Mankiewicz. Rosebud symbolizes, in a sort of primitive Freudian way, lost happiness, the unspoiled world of Kane’s childhood and the loss of his ability to love and be loved. The characters in the film ask about the s...