Mulvey, Laura. Citizen Kane. London: BFI Publishing, 1992. 9-77.

    In Laura Mulvey’s book Citizen Kane, she adds a European perspective to the film by analyzing it based upon the momentous time in history during which it was made. Mulvey views Citizen Kane as a warning to America of the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome should America continue its isolationist policies into World War II. Mulvey includes her own personal critique on the themes, symbolism and both the visual and narrative style of the film. In addition, Mulvey adds a thorough analysis of the narrative from both a Freudian psychoanalytic and feminist point of view.  Mulvey explores the politics surrounding the making of Citizen Kane including a discussion of the film’s authorship and William Randolph Hearst’s crusade against the film. Mulvey’s short book is not divided into sections or chapters as she eloquently weaves each of these elements of analysis fluidly into her writing. Because of Mulvey’s lack of clearly defined divisions of topic in her book, I have chosen to cite her entire work while only discussing specific points which are relevant to my thesis despite their being spread throughout her book.
     Mulvey discusses the narrative structure of Citizen Kane in great depth describing it as "prismatic," focusing on symbolism, repetition and symmetry to create stability and fluidity. The narrative is structured through five sections of flashbacks, each told from a different character’s point of view, all encompassed by a frame story. The frame story features a reporter, Thompson, who is attempting to put together the pieces of Kane’s private life after his death and does this for the audience and himself through each character's memories of Kane. These flashbacks, while having their own overlaps and discontinuities, comprise the majority of the film. Mulvey points out that each flashback is highly variable and contradictory in its portrayal of Kane and enhances the fragmentation of the narrative. Thus, despite the bulk of information they provide, the characters in Citizen Kane do not give a reliable means of understanding Kane to the viewer. What Mulvey points out that the characters’ inconsistencies make it so that no one view of Kane can be relied on as definitive. Yet, Mulvey believes that because it is our popular cultural tradition, the viewer cannot help but try to judge Kane as either clearly the hero or villain of the story. However, the film’s narrative structure ensures that this goal is consistently thwarted, something not generally done in a classical Hollywood film.

Mulvey, Laura. Citizen Kane. Great Britain: BFI, 1992. 49-57.

Orson Welles, himself, discounted the idea that Rosebud was in some way conclusive insight into the character of Charles Foster Kane, denouncing that such a straight-forward analysis would be simple “dollar-book Freud.” However, in part of this essay, Laura Mulvey goes about doing just that, only deeper, applying thoroughly supported psychoanalysis to some of the films most important scenes and explaining the significance that they play in the deeper level of the story.

Mulvey asserts that the informed view can and should attach significance to the sled because the scene in which the sled is introduced is very important in establishing Kane as a character. From a Freudian perspective, we see Kane’s closeness to his mother and the role that Thatcher plays in tearing young Kane away from her, setting up a type of Oedipal triangle that causes Kane to rebel against Thatcher and “everything [he] hates.” Because Thatcher, in contrast to Kane’s real father, represents capitalism, emotionless financial analysis, and crude decision making, Kane comes to despise these things, stuck forever in his childish past that must rebel and wants to be close again to his mother. As the scene comes to a close, the sled is the only thing left among a blanket of white. Mulvey mentions that in Freudian psychology, a memory is something that can be formed and forgotten, only to resurface again at a later time.

This trend of Oedipal aggression against the variety of father-figures in the film further exemplify the role that Mulvey’s psychoanalysis plays in interpreting the film.