You Can Take It With You Essay, Research Paper

YOU CANT TAKE IT

WITH YOU

The play is set in the 1930’s when the depression was happening. The whole play is placed in a house’s first floor. Grandpa better known as Mr. Vanderhof did not believe in taxes so he did not pay them. A tax man named, Henderson came to the house and asked for Mr. Vanderholf because he has not payed taxes for many years. Henderson said to Grandpa Well,-it seems, Mr. Vanderholf, that you owe the Government twenty-four years’ back income tax. Grandpa is shown papers saying that how much he is owed. Another thing that really said that this was from the depression was when they had the Grand Duchess to there house for dinner. The Grand Duchess is talking about czar from russia. Penny has asked a question to the Grand Duchess Your Highness- did you know the Czar? Personally, I mean. The Grand Duchess replys Of course- he was my cousin. It was terrible, what happened, but perhaps it was for the best. Where could he get a job now? This conversation set the time for me showing that World War I had ended.

The initial incident is the very second Alice invites Tony Kirby to come over to the house. Once the group has meet Tony, the problems begin. Alice does not want the group to meet Tony because she knows how different they are from the Kirby’s.

This play is about how different people can be from each other. The play starts off explaining what each character does for a living. Mrs. Sycamore is a playwriter, she started doing this one day when a typewritter was accidently sent to they’re house, and that was eight years ago. Mr. Sycamore is a fireworks specialist he works in the basement day in and day out. Mr. De Pinna helps Mr. Sycamore out in the basement with the fireworks. Mr. De Pinna has no relation to anyone in the house, one day he was bringing ice to the house and he just stayed. Essie is married to Ed Carmichael, Essie is a ballot dancer and on the side she makes candies and sells them. Ed is a musician he plays music for Essie, he also helps sell the candies. Ed also like to print things up its almost and obsesion, he then would stick the papers in the boxes with the candy. Rheba is maid in the house, she is a black women that likes working in the house, she is married to Donnald who helps out some of the time that he over at the house. Mr. Kolenkhov the russian character is Essies dance teacher. The storie is about these people they all live in a house, everyone does they’re own separate things. Then one night Alice introduces Tony Kirby to the family. Alice and Tony are very much in love and plan to get married soon. Alice and Tony decide they should have a dinner one night so that the parents can meet. Tony unexpedivly takes his parent over to Alice’s house to meet everyone on the wrong night. Tony did this on purpose because he knew that his parents would not be able to go the next night. Alice knows this is a dissaster waiting to happen.

The climax of the story is right after the Kirby’s come to the house to meet everyone unexpedivly. Everything is going along fine until Mr. Kolenkhov says To be ideal, a hobby should iprove the body as well as the mind. The Romans were a great people! Why? What was their hobby? Wrestling. In wrestling you have to think quick with the mind and act quickly with the body. Mr. Kolenkhov then takes Mr. Kirby out and throws him to the ground on his back. By this time the situation was getting intense, just as the Kirby’s were about to leave the police come running in. Everyone in the house is arrested because Ed had been printing things up that Grandpa had said and had been putting them in the candy boxes. The things he had put in the boxes were about the government. One of the officers says You didn’t, huh? Dynamite the Capitol! Dynamite the White House! Dynamite the Supreme Court! God is the State; the Stat is God! That is what it said on the papers that Ed was putting in the boxes of candy. The whole group including the Kirby’s went to jail that night. Ed did not get charged, although the police did find that Mr. Sycamore did not have a fireworks permit, he was charged for that.

The conclusion of the play, Alice is so upset with everything that happened she is going to leave to the mountains. She plans to come back but she needs to be away from the group. Tony keeps on trying to make her stay home but she doensn’t want to. Mr. Kirby comes to the house to get Tony. When Alice is about to leave Grandpa starts to talk to Mr. Kirby telling how he should start to take it easy, he has already made a good living. Grandpa keeps talking and then starts being mean to Mr. Kirby, and Mr Kirby doesn’t think anything of it but as a joke. Granpa invites him for dinner and Alice becomes so happy that she decides to stay and not go to the mountains. Alice then relizes that the families will eventually get along but its going to take some time.

Over all I enjoyed the play, even though I’m not too faund of plays I enjoyed it. It had its funny spots. It was not long and drawn out like I expected it to be. I liked it because of how weird the family was and how two different people raised completely differnet could come together. Even the families began to like each other by the end.