All About Eve (film) Essay Questions

How are Margo and Eve similar? How are they different?

Margo and Eve are similar in that they are both ruthlessly ambitious and committed to their craft. They love the theater and they want to be great actors. They are very different in several ways, however. While Margo has had success in the theater since she was 4 years old, and has a relatively sophisticated and earthy understanding of the business, Eve is basically an amateur with a lot of raw talent and a dream. Where Margo is blasé, Eve is passionate and starry-eyed. Particularly in her characterization of her own relationship to reality versus fantasy, Eve distinguishes herself from Margo. While the viewer senses that Margo could never confuse fantasy with reality—she seems always to know the score—Eve mixes up the two to such an extent that she starts to believe her own story, until Addison reminds her of her sordid past. Furthermore, Eve and Margo choose very different lives by the end of the movie. Margo tires of a life on the stage and wants to become a devoted wife, while Eve chooses the adored but lonely life of an acclaimed actress on the up.

How does Margo characterize being a woman? Does it fit in with contemporary feminist notions of gender?

When the car breaks down, Lloyd goes to find help and Karen and Margo are left alone in the car. Margo takes this opportunity to apologize for her bad behavior to Karen. She also confesses that she feels as though she doesn't know who she is anymore. As an actress, Margo feels that she knows her worth as a celebrity, but not as a person. She also confesses that her work as an actress has led her away from her needs as a woman, and she makes a point of distinguishing the two. To her mind, being a woman and being an actress are mutually exclusive. She then goes on to say that a huge part of being a woman is having a man to love and take care of. Without a man, Margo suggests, a woman just simply is not a woman.

This is quite a statement to make, and it perhaps makes more sense in 1950. To a contemporary feminist, this notion would be somewhat controversial. Effectively, Margo is saying that a woman cannot be a woman and be committed to her career. Today, we know that many successful women have careers and husbands and families, and it is no longer thought that a woman's worth is defined by her connection to a man.

What makes Eve the antagonist of the film?

When we first meet Eve, she is a simple and starry-eyed girl who just wants to break into show business. She is unstylish and earnest, passionately telling her new friends about her devotion to the stage. As she spends more time in Margo Channing's coterie, however, she begins to become more and more amoral and opportunistic. What seems like helpfulness and care turn into meddling and too much involvement. The first instance of this is when she plans a birthday party for Bill without informing Margo, effectively undermining Margo's ability to deal with her own romantic relationship. As the film progresses, Eve's innocence turns to covetousness and greed, as she asks to be Margo's understudy, takes on the role, and eventually blackmails Karen in order to secure the lead role in Lloyd's next play. Later, she tries to steal Lloyd away from Karen as well, and it is revealed that she has a difficult history of lusting after married men. Eve's ambition gets away from her and she becomes outrageously greedy, deceptive, and disloyal.

What is the central dramatic irony of the film?

The main dramatic irony in All About Eve is the fact that it starts at the end, with Eve receiving the Sarah Siddons Award. Because the film starts with Eve's professional success as an actress, the viewer knows that Eve will become successful, even when the characters in the flashbacks do not, so the plot of the film becomes about watching Eve ascend the ladder to success. Even though when we meet Eve she is a humble and easily intimidated fan, we know that soon enough she will be just as famous as Margo. It's just a matter of seeing how she does so.

Mankiewicz won both the Best Director and the Best Screenplay Academy Award in 1950. What are some particularly notable aspects of the script?

The script is notable for its wit, sophistication, and theatricality. Nearly every line in the movie is quotable, a perfectly constructed one-liner or koan about show business in America, about gender, about competition, or about fame. Many of the barbed comments exchanged between characters are incredibly complex and compelling, revealing both the savage competition among them as well as revealing deeply human truths in the process. For instance, when Addison DeWitt enters her party, Margo says to him sharply, " I distinctly remember striking your name from the guest list. What are you doing here?" to which he responds, "Dear Margo. You were an unforgettable Peter Pan—you must play it again, soon." Each character articulates their distinct brand of biting wit, which not only serves to entertain, but also illustrates with complexity and humor the intricacies of their characters and their sophisticated New York milieu.