All About Eve Literary Elements

Drama Film

New York City, 1950

Addison DeWitt, the critic, narrates the story of Margo and Eve through his own eyes, being the only one who knows Eve's true backstory.

Dark comedic, dramatic

Eve Harrington acts as both protagonist and antagonist to Margo as she chases her own success at Margo's expense

Margo Channing befriends a young fan, Eve Harrington, and invites her into her home. Quickly, Eve begins to use Margo's status to further her own career, eventually attempting to take over her role in a play and to seduce her partner. Eve's scheming quickly goes sour, however, as secrets about her life before stardom are revealed.

Just before Eve's debut as the star in a play, she reveals to friend Addison DeWitt that she plans to seduce and marry Margo's friend, the playwright Lloyd, so he will write plays for her to star in. Addison reveals that he has learned Eve's true backstory, and blackmails her.

Eve sneaks into the theater and bows on the empty stage, pretending to be Margo, showing her true ambitions outside of simply being a fan of Margo's and foreshadowing her later rise to stardom.

At the end of the film, a high-school-age fan appears in newly-minted starlet Eve's home. She is shown trying on Eve's clothes and holding her award, foreshadowing a repeat of the plot of the film.

The sentence "You know all about Eve" is an understatement that both points out Eve's deception -- the audience does not know all about Eve, since she is hiding her true identity -- and signifies that on a meta-textual level, they already do know all, since she signifies an age-old character archetype.

The film makes many allusions to real New York locations and hallmarks, including, most notably, the historic Shubert Theater.
Several plays and playwrights, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Byron, and Clyde Fitch are mentioned

Much of the imagery appears in the way the dominant actress -- Eve or Margo -- carries herself. As she gets closer to stardom, Eve begins to posture and dress like Margo, with a very classic Old Hollywood flair. When Phoebe appears, she begins to posture as Eve, to show her own ambition.

Once Eve achieves her goal of fame and love from the public, she is lonely and unhappy, showing the paradox of pursuing fame.

Margo and Eve parallel each other, in that Eve desperately wants to emulate Margo's life. Later, Phoebe becomes a parallel for Eve, following her same lonely path in pursuit of fame and fortune.

"Hollywood" is used as a synecdoche to refer to the film industry as a whole.

The play itself is referred to as being "on its feet" when it is being rehearsed.