71 pages • 2 hours read
Joseph KesselringArsenic and Old Lace
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1941A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
The Cellar
The Brewster’s cellar in Arsenic and Old Lace is the source of the sisters’ biggest secret, and this idea applies to all characters with something to hide. Characters only visit the cellar when they are attempting to keep a secret: the sisters visit the cellar to bury victims and hold funerals, Teddy unknowingly uses the cellar as a means of aiding his aunts in their murderous hobby, and Jonathan and Einstein hope to bury Mr. Spenalzo in the cellar. Conversely, characters without secrets, such as Mortimer and Elaine, never visit the cellar. The staging of the cellar reinforces this symbol. While the characters regularly reference the cellar and visit it offstage, the audience never actually sees it. This allows Kesselring to use the stage as a means of visually demonstrating the secret to the audience.
The cellar also functions as a more direct representation of the acts related to the Brewster insanity. The aunts hold funerals in the cellar for their victims, and Jonathan wants to use the cellar to bury his own victim and to have his facial operation. Teddy goes back and forth to and from the cellar–however, he is unaware of the reasoning behind his visits and believes he is digging locks for the Panama Canal. Mortimer never goes to the cellar and becomes repulsed by it when he learns about the bodies. His avoidance of the area demonstrates his desire to sever his connection to his family.
The 12 (or 13) Bodies
Although most of the corpses of the Brewsters’ victims never appear onstage, the 12 bodies in the cellar—13 including Mr. Spenalzo—symbolize the absurd frequency of the Brewster family violence and become a comedic motif throughout the play. Often referred to euphemistically as “friends” or “guests” of family members, the bodies signify the extent of the aunts’ benevolent murders, the extreme degree of Teddy’s delusion, and the severity of Jonathan’s callousness.
While Mortimer is understandably horrified to learn the total number of his aunts’ victims, Jonathan reacts to the tally with a competitive spirit. He claims that he and the aunts are “even” at the end of the play, as they have killed an equal number of people. The number of victims is so preposterously high that it contributes to Lieutenant Rooney’s incredulousness when Abby and Martha confess to their crimes. As the aunts prepare to surpass Jonathan at the end of the play by serving Mr. Witherspoon the poisoned wine, they audience understands that the oft-repeated tally will only continue to increase. Similarly, the corpses that provide much of the physical comedy of the play as characters attempt to conceal them in the window box or transfer them to the cellar will only grow more humorously (or appallingly) difficult to hide.
The Elderberry Wine
Abby and Martha routinely discuss the homemade wine that they serve to their victims, which they see as a means of releasing the victims from a miserable existence. The poisoned elderberry wine symbolizes the simultaneous quaintness and lethality of the Brewster aunts.
Near-fatal encounters with the wine also become a comedic motif throughout the play, increasing dramatic tension and allowing the audience to laugh with relief when the poison is narrowly avoided. Gibbs, the prospective tenant that Mortimer frightens out of renting a room, comes close to drinking the wine just after Mortimer’s relationship with Elaine begins taking a turn for the worse. Jonathan and Einstein also almost drink the wine while trying to kill Mortimer, until they are startled into dropping their cups by Teddy and his bugle. In both of these events, attempts at drinking the wine proved to be a negative harbinger. For Mortimer, seeing his aunts killing up close forced him to face the reality of his family and act accordingly. For Jonathan and Einstein, stopping to drink the wine led them to miss their only opportunity to kill Mortimer. Though most characters leave the play alive, their close calls with the wine cause a variety of problems, from relationship strife to a lifetime prison sentence.
