Theme of identity in Casablanca

Rick Blaine is an enigmatic figure at the start of the film. Before we meet him, there are hints that Rick is important and well-known in wartime Casablanca. Captain Renault tells Major Strasser, the Third Reich representative who has recently arrived in the city, that ‘Everybody comes to Rick’s’ and the German replies that he has already heard about Rick’s café and ‘about Mr Rick himself’. The sense of intrigue increases when the action moves to the interior of the café. We hear that Rick never drinks with customers and that he is indifferent to wealth or status. A customer suggests to Carl, the head waiter, that Rick might be willing to join them at their table if he knew that he, the customer, used to run ‘the second largest banking house in Amsterdam’, but Carl assures him that Rick would not be in the least impressed.

Our first view of Rick is merely a hand authorising a cheque brought to him by a deferential employee. He is clearly a powerful, authoritative figure. In his own café, at least. The first shot of Rick’s face shows him looking intently at the solitary game of chess that he is playing. The doorman looks to Rick for permission to grant or refuse entry to the café. A German is outraged when Rick denies him admission to the casino, but Rick is unmoved by his bluster and threats. He does not need the validation or approval of others and is very sure of himself.

It quickly becomes clear that Rick deliberately cultivates this aloof, mysterious identity. Ugarte, a local criminal, tries to flatter Rick by saying his handling of the arrogant German was so effortless that is seemed Rick had been doing that sort of thing all his life. Rick asks sharply, ‘what makes you think I haven’t?’ and Ugarte vaguely implies that Rick was different when he first came to Casablanca. Rick who has remained deadpan and calm throughout his exchanges with staff and customers, appears irritated for the first time, and Ugarte quickly backs off. It suits Rick that others know little about him and he resists any efforts to categorise him or to get to know him better.

Later that evening, Major Strasser visits the café and attempts to intimidate Rick by claiming to know all about him. He produces a dossier that German intelligence agents have gathered, and through it, we learn more about the mysterious Rick. Strasser hints that Rick did something in Paris that meant his position there was untenable once the Germans occupied the city. Rick appears unmoved by the revelation of his anti-German sympathies and, on glancing at the dossier, merely asks in a dryly amused manner, ‘Are my eyes really brown?’ Again, we see that Rick is self-assured and unshakeable in the face of disapproval.

Shortly after this exchange, Rick excuses himself, telling Strasser, ‘Your business is politics. Mine is running a saloon’. Rick does not want to be identified with any particular cause and when, a short time later, Ugarte is arrested, Rick stands by impassively despite Ugarte’s desperate plea for help: ‘Rick, hide me. Do something! You must help me, Rick. Do something!’ A customer who has observed the arrest says, ‘When they come to get me, Rick, I hope you’ll be more of a help,’ but Rick replies, ‘I stick my neck out for nobody’.

Rick may seem callous here, but his identity is inextricably linked to the American attitude towards the Second World War. In the early part of the film, he represents the American isolationist approach. Having suffered heavy losses in the First World War, Americans were reluctant, understandably to intervene in European affairs again. Therefore Rick will not take a side when Ugarte is arrested, and he repeatedly states his refusal to involve himself in the troubles of others. Renault calls Rick’s attitude a ‘wise foreign policy’ and assures Strasser that Rick is ‘completely neutral about everything’.

Despite his best efforts to appear uncaring, Rick cannot conceal his true nature completely. His basic decency is revealed in a few key moments in the film. One of these occurs when Emil, his croupier, admits that he had not managed to prevent a customer from winning a large amount of money in the casino. Rick takes the news in his stride and calmly assures Emil that there is nothing to worry about. We see the same respect for others in the way Rick treats Sam. He refuses to ‘sell’ him to Ferrari and instead asks Sam if he would like to move to the Blue Parrot. Sam declines the offer because of his loyalty to Rick, reinforcing the idea that Rick’s identity is more complex than his public face. Similarly, Rick’s generosity to Annina Brandel, rigging the roulette table so her husband wins enough money to allow them to buy passage to America belies his earlier claim that he will not stick his neck out for anybody. Of course, Rick is careful in the way he carries out these acts of kindness. He is reluctant to do anything that might publically show him to be other than he appears, and he dismisses thanks and praise with some embarrassment.

The arrival of Ilsa Lund and Victor Laszlo in Casablanca shatters Rick’s composure and his carefully crafted identity as a hardened cynic who has little interest in the affairs of others. Through a flashback, we learn that Rick’s identity was not always that of a cynical, detached observer. He was, and is, more than a mere symbol of a political standpoint. When in Paris with Ilsa, he was far more carefree and much happier: a true romantic hero. However, when Ilsa abandoned him, everything changed for Rick and he internalised his pain, becoming reserved and seemingly unreachable.

The timing of Ilsa’s reunion with Rick is important: Rick mentions to Sam after her visit to the café that it is December 1941: the month that Pearl Harbour was bombed and America entered the war. Rick’s changing attitude and the rekingling of his moral code reflects the shift in the American stance. After he meets Ilsa in Casablanca, Rick gradually moves from an isolationist viewpoint to one of self-sacrificing idealism.

At the end of the film Rick embraces his heroic side and merges his political and romantic identities. He allows Ilsa to leave with another man because the war effort is more important than any individual, Rick tells Ilsa ‘I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of’. Rick claims that he is ‘no good at being noble’ but his actions prove otherwise.

Ilsa’s identity is, for the most part, linked to the men in her life. She tells Rick why she fell for Laszlo, asking him to imagine her as a young girl meeting Victor for the first time: ‘He opened up for he a whole beautiful world full of knowledge and thoughts and ideals. Everything she knew or ever became was because of him’. When she reunites with Rick, Ilsa struggles with who she wants to be: Laszlo’s wife or Rick’s mistress. Unable to decide, she tells Rick he has to ‘think for both of us’. Rick does so, and ultimately asks Ilsa to sacrifice her own needs to be a help and support Laszlo in his work. The message is clear: in wartime, a person’s individuality and sense of self must come second to the common good.

Captain Renault, like Rick, symbolises a political viewpoint. Initially, he represents the Vichy French government: apparently self-ruling but, in reality, a German puppet state. As long as it remained neutral, that part of France would not be occupied officially by the Nazis. At the start of the film, Captain Renault is willing to be whatever the Germans want him to be, although there are hints that this does not sit well with him at times. For example, Renault welcomes Strasser to ‘Unoccupied France’ in order to make it clear that he is not under German rule. However, this façade quickly crumbles. At one stage, Renault tries to assert his independence, assuring the sceptical Rick, ‘In Casablanca I am master of my fate. I am captain of my –’ before being cut off mid-sentence as one of his aides tells him that Major Strasser has arrived in the café. Renault hurries off and Rick smiles cynically at his eagerness to please the Nazi official.

Like Rick, Renault’s identity in the film changes in order to make a political point. At the end of the film, he sides with Rick and turns his back on the Vichy regime. This symbolised in a very unsubtle way: Renault drops a bottle of Vichy water in the bin and then kicks the bin over. He tells Rick that he will join him in his resistance to German rule, and the pair leave together.