Analysis: “You Can’t Take it With You”After seeing Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s “You Can’t Take it With You” on November 20, 2003, 8:00 p.m. at Rudder Forum put on by the Aggie Players, I have a new found appreciation for playwrights and their uniqu
...v for eight years, and although she was not very gifted as a dancer, dancing made her happy-her skill had nothing to do with it. Also, Penny wrote scripts after a typewriter showed up on her doorstep, and before that she painted. She of course was terrible at both of the hobbies, but it made her happy and content and she was persistent with them. A lesson to be learned from this family is: Do what makes you happy! The Kirby family, on the other hand, was extremely unhappy. Mr. Kirby was so wrapped up in his work that he neglected his wife, and forced his son Tony to go into the business with him, against Tony’s will. This insight is discovered during the word game Mrs. Sycamore forces the two families to play, and Mrs. Kirby’s answers reveal the drab love life she and her husband share, and how he sometimes discusses Wall Street during their intimate time together. A lesson to be learned from this family is: Don’t let success and greed overcome you because no amount of money will lead you to happiness and contentment. The eldest child in each family represents the internal struggle to break away from their family, even though they love them dearly, and enter another world in which they do not belong. Alice is embarrassed by her family and is convinced that her world and her lover’s, Tony Kirby, will never be able to co-exist. Alice is the oldest child in the Sycamore family and instead of thinking with her heart when it comes to love, she thinks too much with her head. Tony is the complete opposite, he is very optimistic about him and Alice’s relationship and has no doubt that he mixing of the two families will work. He believes that as long as they are in love, the families will love each other also. Neither one could have expected to get arrested the night the families got together. Both of these young lovers are embarrassed by their strange families and no matter how much they want to break free from them, they are unable to break the ties that bond them to these people. One can learn from these two lovers is that no matter how strange your family is, they are part of you no matter how much you try to break free from them, and that love conquers all. All in all, I think the best character one can learn from is Grandpa. Mr. Vanderhoff is a very complex character and carries the whole play. Mr. Vanderhoff was once a very successful businessman on Wall Street with a promising future, who one day just decided he...