Symbolism in Citizen Kane: Orson Welles Uses Symbols to Develop Charles Foster Kane

In his 1941 cinematic masterpiece Citizen Kane, director Orson Welles uses symbols to develop Charles Kane. Xanadu, Kane’s childhood sled Rosebud and Susan’s snow globe are all used to give the audience glimpses at Kane’s character. Kane’s relationships with his wives, family and friends are all explored through these symbols as are ideas about childhood, innocence and materialism.

Xanadu, the ‘monument’ Kane builds to himself is a symbol of his wealth and isolation (Mulvey). A reference to romantic poet Samuel Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, inspired by the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan, Welles Xanadu has much in common with Coleridge’s. Xanadu has much significance in Kane’s character development in Citizen Kane, as the audience is first introduced to him as “Xanadu’s landlord” in the ‘News of March’ broadcast draft. Then described as “America’s Kubla Khan”, a reference that may explain the name Charles Kane’s sonic similarities to Kublai Khan. Welles is very explicit about using Coleridge’s work to mythologise Kane, taking the opening line of Coleridge’s poem and using it as the opening line of Kane’s obituary newsreel (Coleridge) (Welles). Welles draws on Coleridge’s two female characters for Kane’s two wives Emily and Susan. One dead and the other a singer; the wives are direct references to Kubla Khan. In addition, the film portrays Xanadu as both creepy (in the opening scene) and as a beautiful monument in the newsreel, similar to Coleridge’s dual view of it. This duality is present in Kane’s character throughout the film too and Welles uses lighting and dialogue to build on the character that Xanadu starts. These references to Kubla Khan place Welles’s film in a literary environment where viewers can see clearly the parallels between the emperor and Kane, and can see Kane’s obsessive imitation (down to the size and features of the castle) of Khan. Kane’s obsession with the Mongolian Kublai Khan is spoken of in the film and the inferences it makes about...