Look up a classic discussion of comedy such as Aristotle's Poetics, Charles Baudelaire's On the Essence of Laughter, Sigmund Freud's Jokes and the Comic, or Northrop Frye's TheMythos of Spring: Comedy and evaluate the form and content of You Can't Take It with You according to your chosen theorist's definition of comedy.

Read either Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" (1841) or the chapter "Economy" from Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854). Consider how the ideas in your chosen text are reflected in You Can't Take It with You.

Compare and contrast Frank Capra's film adaption of You Can't Take It with You with Kaufman and Hart's original play. What alterations did Capra make which reflect his definition of family and community? How do the depictions of the business world in the play and film differ? Do the two versions emphasize the same political, economic, and...