Character Development in �Casablanca� -- 2001-2002 Cultural Literacy Class Forum

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Date Posted: 14:04:23 04/12/02 Fri
Author: Laura
Subject: Character Development in �Casablanca�

I think that the movie does a great job developing most of its characters. Interestingly enough, that development seems to have a trend of leading toward the good of others.

For instance, Rick turns from a person that lives by the phrase "I stick my neck out to nobody" to a person that risks his life so that a couple might escape to the promise of freedom in Lisbon. Another example is Captain Renault, who turns from Mr. Sleaze Bucket ally of the Nazis to a person that can see and act based upon a more humanitarian, "sentimental" nature.

But the other two main characters, Victor and Ilsa, seem to make no changes at all regarding personality. Victor, of course, seems to be a great humanitarian (i.e. all the anti-Nazi work that he does and his understanding/taking in great stride the Paris affair of Rick and his wife Ilsa). But why doesn't Ilsa change?

I thought that it might get back to this movie being representative of the war. If Victor is Great Britain, the driving opposition force against the Nazis, Renault is like your average German citizens at that time, accepting of the Nazis until some fact changes their minds, and Rick the United States of America, at first wishing to be completely uninvolved in an event until something personal drags him into it. So then Ilsa would be like Peal Harbor, not only because she is that something that drags Rick into the problem, but she, like 7 December 1941, is etched into Rick's (America's) mind and is unchanged throughout the years.

[LoL...and I can't back any of this up, but it sounds kind of cool, and it at least makes sense to me. Anyone have a thought on this?]

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