You Can't Take It with You

by George S. Kaufman, Moss Hart

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You Can’t Take It with You, winner of the 1938 Pulitzer Prize, is a classic American stage comedy that deftly blends elements of farce, slapstick, whimsical humor, social commentary, and romance, together with a generous dash of good-natured optimism about the human condition. First staged in December, 1936, at a time when the United States was only beginning to recover from the bleakest days of the Great Depression, You Can’t Take It with You was the third play written by the team of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the most successful collaborators in the history of the American theater.

The play is set in New York City, in the Sycamore household, a zany little kingdom presided over by Grandpa Vanderhof, who thirty-five years before had decided that the world of business could get along quite nicely without him and has “been a happy man ever since.” Grandpa’s iconoclastic attitudes toward work, money, and happiness have obviously infected the entire household: As the stage directions announce, “This is a house where you do as you like, and no questions asked.” In the best tradition of “screwball” comedy, the family is made up almost completely of lovable eccentrics. Mrs. Sycamore, for example, has passed most of her time for eight years writing plays (with titles such as “Sex Takes a Holiday”), not from any deep artistic motives but only because a typewriter was delivered to the house one day by mistake. Mr. Sycamore manufactures a variety of fireworks in the basement with the assistance of Mr. De Pinna, a man who showed up years before to deliver ice and simply decided to stay, and oldest daughter Essie, when she is not making candy that she stores in a skull, takes ballet lessons from a burly Russian emigré named Kolenkhov. The only exception seems to be the Sycamore’s younger daughter, Alice, an attractive and “normal” young woman who loves her family dearly in spite of their eccentricities but wonders at times why they “can’t be like other people.”

The comic antics of the Sycamore household, however, while delightful enough, primarily serve as the background for the play’s central action, which involves Alice’s romance with Tony Kirby, whose wealthy father owns the Wall Street firm where Alice works. Alice is understandably worried about how Tony’s quite proper and conservative parents will respond to her family, and she does her best to arrange a dinner party at her home where everybody will be on their best behavior. The Kirbys show up a day early, however, catching Alice’s family in their full comic glory and ensuring exactly the sort of disaster that Alice has dreaded.

One misunderstanding leads to another, and the Kirbys’ visit ends with an explosion in the basement and with nearly everyone, including the Kirbys, being carted off to the police station by government agents responding to several seditious circulars unwittingly printed and distributed throughout the city by Essie’s husband, Ed. Humiliated, Alice decides on the following day to abandon her marriage plans and leave town, but Grandpa is able, after Tony and his father return, to bring the young lovers back together and to persuade everyone that love and personal contentment are much more likely to produce happiness than wealth and social standing. Even Mr. Kirby becomes a convert to Grandpa’s way of thinking, and the play ends with the entire household sitting down to a dinner of cheese blintzes prepared and served by a Russian grand duchess introduced by Kolenkhov.

Historical Context

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In the mid-1930s, when Kaufman and Hart created You Can't Take...

(This entire section contains 810 words.)

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It with You, Americans were enduring one of the most severe economic downturns in U.S. history, known as the Great Depression. The stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent bank failures wiped out many Americans' savings, homes, and jobs. By 1935, unemployment had soared to over 20%. The economy seemed to be on the mend in 1936, but hopes were dashed when the recovery faltered in 1937.

After winning the 1932 election, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched his "New Deal" legislation, a series of liberal reforms that introduced welfare, social security, and unemployment benefits. These measures significantly altered how Americans interacted with their government, which now provided many with jobs through federal programs or welfare assistance. The presidency itself also changed, with the executive branch gaining new powers that no president since Roosevelt has seriously tried to use.

While the New Deal mitigated some of the Depression's impacts, the 1930s remained an incredibly challenging period for most Americans. The severe difficulties faced by ordinary people led many to question free market capitalism. Socialist ideas gained traction, and labor unrest sparked strikes nationwide.

These political and economic conditions naturally influenced American popular culture. The art and literature of the 1930s included works advocating political ideas and those offering an escape from daily hardships. Newspapers featured more editorial columns than ever, while politically driven magazines like the Nation and the New Republic thrived. At the same time, papers increased their comic strips and serialized stories, and pulp detective and mystery fiction—ideal for escapism—grew in popularity. Radio provided frequent news updates but also entertained with lighthearted comedies like Amos 'n' Andy and Fibber McGee and Molly. In theater, propaganda plays such as Clifford Odets's Waiting for Lefty (1935) were balanced by farces like those by Kaufman and Hart.

Movies also reflected the era's harsh realities with films like I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1936). However, Hollywood more often produced optimistic escapism. Slapstick and screwball comedies featuring stars like Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and Cary Grant were immensely popular, as were classic animated films by Walt Disney, such as The Three Little Pigs (1933) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937). Shirley Temple's cheerful films, including Little Miss Marker (1934) and Heidi, also captivated audiences. With limited funds for entertainment, Americans also enjoyed various inexpensive "fads," such as dance marathons, chain letters, jigsaw puzzles, and bridge games.

The era of the Great Depression is extensively chronicled through both still photography and motion pictures. Late-twentieth-century society is well-acquainted with images like the Dust Bowl, bread lines, and sit-down strikes, captured by 1930s photojournalists such as Margaret Bourke-White and Walker Evans. Magazines such as Life and Fortune published these photos, offering Americans a new perspective on themselves and their nation.

During this period of hardship and societal stagnation, some women ironically found their opportunities in the public sector expanding. The swift growth of New Deal offices in Washington D.C. led to unconventional appointments, bringing women into government roles such as the cabinet, treasury, and higher courts. Occasionally, as was later seen during World War II, women assumed the traditional male role of family breadwinner, especially since many men refused clerical and secretarial jobs typically associated with women. Despite overt discrimination against married women—stemming from the belief that wives shouldn't work if their husbands were employed—the number of women in the labor force grew throughout the decade. Although the fundamental cultural assumptions about "women's place" in the home remained largely unchallenged in the 1930s, some women were drawn into more active roles in government and the workplace.

Unfortunately, many ethnic minorities in America did not experience even slight increases in opportunities during the 1930s. At the beginning of the decade, three-fourths of all African-Americans in the United States lived in rural areas. Life for farm workers had already been harsh in the agriculturally depressed 1920s, and conditions worsened during the depression of the 1930s. In urban areas, unemployment, compounded by discrimination, made life extremely difficult for black workers. African-American leaders protested that New Deal programs did not provide equal relief or eliminate discrimination against black citizens. Although a legally supported system of segregation persisted in the Southern states and racial bias was evident across the country, some reform began in 1935 when President Roosevelt banned discrimination in federal relief programs. African-Americans made some progress in attaining their deserved rights and recognition during the latter half of the decade.

The 1930s were dominated by economic and political concerns. Americans faced significant difficulties at home and witnessed unrest abroad, with civil war raging in Spain (1934-1936), Joseph Stalin exercising totalitarian power in Russia, and Hitler establishing a fascist dictatorship in Nazi Germany. By the decade's end, the United States faced the alarming prospect of going to war as diplomacy efforts in Europe and Asia failed and political tensions escalated.

Dramatic Devices

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You Can’t Take It with You presents the audience with a variety of action. Snakes, a typewriter, a saxophone, a xylophone, and dancing all abound. Offstage are the basement with its fireworks manufacture and the kitchen with its candy making and meal preparation. Any lull in the onstage action is sure to start fireworks from the basement. The dialogue is typical of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Grandpa argues that he should not pay the income tax by asking what the government would do with the money. He continues, “What do I get for my money? If I go into Macy’s and buy something, there it is—I see it. What’s the Government give me?” After listening to the agent’s list of things that government supplies, Grandpa decides that he might pay seventy-five dollars. The dialogue leaps from subject to subject, its logic apparent only to the characters themselves. As Essie asks Ed to remember the music he just played on his xylophone, Penny interjects, “Ed, dear. Why don’t you and Essie have a baby?” Ed and Essie answer, but Penny is already back working with her manuscripts.

A rickety card table used for typing, cages for snakes, a xylophone, and the dining table fill the set; the family really lives in this room. Entrances are timed for comedic effect. Immediately after Alice asks that a nice dinner be planned for Tony’s parents on the next evening, the Kirbys show up in full evening dress. As the Kirbys start to leave, the government agents arrive and arrest everyone. While Mr. Sycamore stalls Alice’s request for a taxi, Tony arrives to intervene. Exits also offer grounds for comedy. The tax agent starts to leave after threatening Grandpa, only to be warned to watch out for the snakes and then to be frightened by an explosion from the basement. He literally jumps out of the room. Penny’s word association game is filled with words that embarrass Alice: potatoes, bathroom, lust, honeymoon, sex.

The action on the crowded set includes Essie dancing through conversations, Kolenkhov throwing Mr. Kirby to the floor in a wrestling demonstration, and the pompous entrance and attempted exit of Mr. and Mrs. Kirby. Sound effects range from Penny typing and Ed printing to the music of Ed’s xylophone and the frequent explosions of the fireworks from the basement.

The hobbies chosen by each of the characters help to build the characterization. Each of the images created by the hobbies indicates how far the Vanderhof family departs from the accepted norm in its pursuit of true happiness. Money, success, and power have no place in their activities. The Kirbys, in contrast, choose hobbies that are fashionable for the rich and powerful: Mr. Kirby raises orchids, and Mrs. Kirby pursues spiritualism. Alice explains to Tony, “Your mother believes in spiritualism because it’s fashionable, and your father raises orchids because he can afford to. My mother writes plays because eight years ago a typewriter was delivered here by mistake.”

Literary Style

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You Can't Take It with You is structured into three well-rounded acts. Act I introduces the quirky members of the Vanderhof-Sycamore family and sets up the main conflict: Alice Sycamore gets engaged to Tony Kirby, her boss's son, but worries that his family won't accept hers. Act II portrays the hilariously disastrous meeting between the two families when the Kirbys arrive for a dinner party on the wrong night. Act III resolves all the issues facing both the family and the young couple.

FarceYou Can't Take It with You incorporates many elements of farce, which is broadly defined as comedy mixed with a significant amount of improbability. Farce typically features highly exaggerated characters placed in unlikely situations. Essential elements include clever wordplay and physical humor aimed at eliciting straightforward, hearty laughter from the audience. The dancing, xylophone-playing, firecracker-making members of the Vanderhof-Sycamore household are clearly exaggerated, engage in witty verbal exchanges, and partake in physical antics.

Romantic Comedy
The core storyline of You Can't Take It with You is that of a romantic comedy, depicting a love affair where the couple must overcome obstacles—usually with humorous outcomes—before they can marry. Similar to many young lovers in Shakespearean comedies, Kaufman and Hart's Alice and Tony encounter challenges on their way to a happy ending. Although romantic comedies are often criticized for being overly sentimental or cute, Kaufman and Hart balance this element with frequent interruptions from the eccentric family members.

Satire
Satire typically critiques political or social ideologies by exposing their flaws through mockery and ridicule. While You Can't Take It with You is not a severe satire, it gently mocks the American tax system, welfare, and market capitalism through the absurd portrayal of Henderson the I.R.S. agent, Donald and Ed's remarks about "relief," and Grandpa's anti-materialist views. It also humorously criticizes the conventional notion of the American Dream, which encourages individuals to tirelessly pursue money and status at the expense of happiness and leisure.

Compare and Contrast

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1930s: During the Great Depression, unemployment peaked at 20% in 1935. By 1938, unemployment was at 19.1%, meaning 10.39 million Americans were out of work.

Today: In the mid-1990s, unemployment fell to as low as 5%. With 66% of Americans participating in the labor force, a higher percentage of Americans were working than ever before. However, the gap between the wealthiest 10% and the poorest 10% was larger in the United States than in any other industrialized nation except Russia.

1930s: Beginning in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal legislation addressed the economic difficulties of the Great Depression. It introduced social security, job-creating acts in the public sector, welfare, and unemployment benefits.

Today: Social Security funding is at risk, and economists warn that the system could soon collapse. In 1996, Congress passed a Welfare Reform Act that limited lifetime benefits to five years and required all welfare recipients to engage in job training or employment programs.

1930s: Starting in 1938, Joseph Stalin, the communist dictator of the Soviet Union, executed 8 to 10 million people in an effort to eliminate his political rivals, an event later termed the "great purge." That same year, fascist general Francisco Franco initiated a revolt in Spain, leading to a three-year civil war.

Today: In the 1990s, Europe saw genocidal massacres in Bosnia-Herzegovina during a civil war, where thousands were killed in the name of "ethnic cleansing." In Africa, the Rwandan civil war in 1995 resulted in mass killings as two ethnic groups attempted to annihilate each other.

1930s: In 1930, the life expectancy for American men was 58.1 years, while American women were expected to live 61.6 years. By 1940, life expectancies had risen to 60.8 years for men and 65.2 years for women.

Today: In 1990, the average life expectancy for men in the United States was 71.6 years, and for women, it was 79.2 years.

1930s: In 1933, Frances Perkins became the first female cabinet member when she accepted the position of Secretary of Labor.

Today: Madeleine Albright became the first female Secretary of State for the United States in 1997.

1930s: Census records show that the U.S. population increased from 123,202,624 in 1930 to 132,164,569 in 1940, a growth of approximately 7%.

Today: In 1980, the U.S. population was 226,504,825. By 1990, it had grown to 248,709,873, an increase of approximately 9%.

Media Adaptations

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Frank Capra both produced and directed the Academy Award-winning film adaptation of You Can't Take It with You. This 1938 film, starring James Stewart and Jean Arthur, was released by Columbia and is available through Columbia Tristar Home Video. The movie does make some changes to the original plot. Selections from Robert Riskin's screenplay were published in Foremost Films of 1938, edited by Frank Vreeland, New York: Pitman, 1939. Unpublished screenplay copies can be found at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the University of California, Los Angeles Theatre Arts Library.

CBS produced a television version of the play, starring Jean Stapleton and Art Carney, which aired on May 16, 1979.

A 1984 recorded performance of the play, featuring Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards, is available from Columbia Tristar Home Video, Vestron Video, and Live Entertainment.

The Moss Hart Papers at the Wisconsin Center for Theater Research include the script for an October 1950 Pulitzer Prize Playhouse television adaptation of the play, along with an undated radio adaptation by Tony Webster.

Bibliography and Further Reading

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Further Reading
Atkinson, Brooks. "The Giddy Twenties" in his book Broadway, MacMillan (New York), 1970, pp. 227-37. This chapter details the New York theater scene when George S. Kaufman emerged, discusses the influence of the Algonquin Round Table, and explores the beginnings of Kaufman's collaboration with Moss Hart.

Cavell, Stanley. Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage, Harvard University Press, 1981, pp. 1-42. Cavell's introduction offers a valuable interpretation of the film adaptation of You Can't Take It with You and analyzes screwball comedies, providing strategies for examining farce in both film and theater.

Frye, Northrop. "The Mythos of Spring: Comedy," in his book The Anatomy of Criticism, Princeton University Press, 1957, pp. 163-186. Although Frye's classic analysis does not specifically address Kaufman and Hart, it provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of comic form from ancient Greece through Shakespeare to the Victorian era.

Goldstein, Malcolm. George S. Kaufman: His Life, His Theater, Oxford University Press (New York), 1979. This detailed and engaging biography by Goldstein examines both Kaufman's life and his works. Chapter 15, "The Birth of a Classic," explains the development of You Can't Take It with You, offers an analysis of the play, and discusses its impact on both collaborators.

Gould, Jean. "Some Clever Collaborators" in Modern American Playwrights, Dodd, Mead & Co. (New York), 1966, pp. 154-167. Gould provides concise biographical sketches of Kaufman and Hart, followed by a discussion of their most successful plays, dedicating several paragraphs to You Can't Take It with You.

Hart, Moss. "No Time for Comedy or Satire: My Most Interesting Work" in Theatre Arts, Vol. 38, no. 5, May 1954, pp. 32-33. In this article, Hart discusses several of his well-known works and shares his philosophy on drama.

Mason, Richard. "The Comic Theatre of Moss Hart: Persistence of a Formula" in Theatre Annual, Volume 23, 1967, pp. 60-87. Mason examines all of Moss Hart's comedies, analyzing the structure of each and arguing that Hart made significant contributions to the farce genre.

Mordden, Ethan. The American Theater, Oxford University Press, 1981. Mordden's book offers an excellent overview of the history of American theater, covering the development of both comedy and serious drama, and includes an insightful discussion of Kaufman and Hart.

O'Hara, Frank Hurburt. "Farce with a Purpose" in Today in American Drama, Greenwood Press (New York), 1969, pp. 190-234. O'Hara provides a brief, complimentary discussion of Kaufman and Hart in this chapter on 1930s farcical comedies.

Pollack, Rhoda-Gale. George S. Kaufman, Twayne (Boston), 1988. In her brief biography, Pollack dedicates a chapter to "The Years with Moss Hart," discussing the critical reception of You Can't Take It with You and its impact on Kaufman's life, without delving into a detailed analysis of the play.

Sources
Atkinson, Brooks. Review of You Can't Take It with You in The New York Times, December 15, 1936.

A Celebration of Moss Hart, University of Southern California, April 12, 1970, p. 16.

Henry David Thoreau. Walden, Bantam, 1989, pp. 111, 172-173, 178.

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