America's Sardanapalus: Byron, Delacroix, Orientalism, and Citizen Kane

ABSTRACT Orson Welles's film Citizen Kane (1941) illustrates thirst for power and the destruction of a larger‐than‐life but flawed man. The movie is filled with historical allusions, and among these, we introduce the idea here that Citizen Kane suggests the tragic demise of the acquisitive, ancient Assyrian ruler Sardanapalus. Aspects of the film relate to the legendary Sardanapalus, especially to the text of the well‐received Sardanapalus: A Tragedy (published 1821) by English Romantic writer Lord Byron. Those verses soon inspired the leading French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix to paint his Death of Sardanapalus (1827). The action, aspects of the sets, and viewing angles in and near the bedroom scene in Citizen Kane suggest Delacroix's notable picture. And beyond Byron, Delacroix, and the early writings behind them, we can look at the larger cultural and moral context and recognize that a consistent and principal theme of Citizen Kane is exposition of the longstanding Western sense of oriental decadence. Throughout the film, Orson Welles, all the while aiming to expose the failings of the “acquisitive society” of the Gilded Age and early twentieth century, consistently used the trope of the flawed Easterners who were addicted to the acquisition of fine or grandiose objects.