Editing Assassins (musical) (section)

== Themes ==

=== Sacrificing for the greater good / fighting against political injustice ===
According to Valerie Lynn Schrader, out of the nine assassins in the musical, six of them ([[John Wilkes Booth]], [[Giuseppe Zangara]], [[Leon Czolgosz]], [[Charles J. Guiteau|Charles Guiteau]], [[Squeaky Fromme|Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme]], and [[Samuel Byck]]) are motivated to assassinate their targets due to "political injustice and sacrifice for the greater good," and among the six assassins, Booth and Czolgosz have been portrayed to have such motives as their primary reason for their assassination.<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal|last=Schrader|first=Valerie Lynn|date=2017-10-11|title='Another National Anthem': Public Memory, Burkean Identification, and the Musical Assassins|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/abs/another-national-anthem-public-memory-burkean-identification-and-the-musical-assassins/1F3BC3BCA79F04D65ECFD0D67DF4F35D|journal=New Theatre Quarterly|language=en|volume=33|issue=4|pages=320–332|doi=10.1017/S0266464X1700046X|s2cid=194606035|issn=0266-464X}}</ref>

In the musical, John Wilkes Booth believes that his assassination on President [[Abraham Lincoln]] is for the greater good (and is an act of patriotism), which is "supported historically: the Ford’s Theatre Museum notes that Booth was part of a conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln, Vice President [[Andrew Johnson]], and Secretary of State [[William H. Seward]] in order to put the Union in a state of disarray and anarchy."<ref name=":03" /> Raymond Knapp states that Booth's motivation is "conveyed musically, self-servingly by his own singing in a quasi-hymnic, sometimes inspirational style," based on the 1991 original Off-Broadway Version.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal|last=Knapp|first=Raymond|date=2004|title="Assassins, Oklahoma!" and the 'Shifting Fringe of Dark around the Camp-Fire'|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3878305|journal=Cambridge Opera Journal|volume=16|issue=1|pages=77–101|doi=10.1017/S0954586704001788|jstor=3878305|s2cid=190718811|issn=0954-5867}}</ref>

In the scene before "The Gun Song", the anarchist [[Emma Goldman]] inspires Leon Czolgosz to take action in light of his anarchist beliefs and the "societal injustice" that he has noticed.<ref name=":52">{{Cite web|last=Fulton|first=Ben|date=March 5, 2013|title=Dark Horse rides the fine lines of Sondheim's 'Assassins'|url=https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=55931453&itype=CMSID|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-30|website=The Salt Lake Tribune|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930060734/https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=55931453&itype=CMSID |archive-date=September 30, 2021 }}</ref> In "The Gun Song", Czolgosz has a "moody contemplation of how one gun connects backward to the many lifes it consumes in its manufacture," and later he claims that "[a] gun claims many men before it's done. Just one more," referring to his assassination target, President [[William McKinley]].<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":62">{{Cite web|title=Stephen Sondheim – The Gun Song|url=https://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-the-gun-song-lyrics|website=Genius.com|access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref> The political injustice in Czolgosz's timeline would be the "class inequalities in America."<ref name=":42">{{Cite web|last=Wang|first=Deena|date=September 6, 2011|title=THEATER REVIEW How was the show, Mrs. Lincoln?|url=https://thetech.com/2011/09/06/assassins-v131-n34|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-30|website=The Tech|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190918031537/https://thetech.com/2011/09/06/assassins-v131-n34 |archive-date=September 18, 2019 }}</ref>

=== Desiring attention ===
Many assassins in the musical have lines reflecting their need for attention, and according to Wang, "what unites each of the assassins is the desire for attention."<ref name=":42" /> In "How I Saved Roosevelt," Giuseppe Zangara is extremely angry about not having a photographer even at his execution: "and why there no photographers? For Zangara no photographers! Only capitalists get photographers!"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stephen Sondheim – How I Saved Roosevelt|url=https://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-how-i-saved-roosevelt-lyrics|website=Genius.com|access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref> Another assassin, [[Sara Jane Moore]], "proclaims that one of her motives was 'so that her friends would know where [she] was coming from.'"<ref name=":03" />

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and [[John Hinckley Jr.]] are described as a "loving couple" in the musical, but the love that they show is in order to try to draw attention from two different persons.<ref name=":12" /> Unlike some assassins such as Zangara whose goals might reflect many of the themes of the musical, these two assassins have only one motive - to get attention from the person they love (for Fromme, it is [[Charles Manson]]; for Hinckley, it is [[Jodie Foster]]).<ref name=":03" /> In the short monologue before the song "Unworthy of Your Love", Hinckley states that "[he] will win [Foster's] love, now and for all eternity."<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Stephen Sondheim – Unworthy of Your Love|url=https://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-unworthy-of-your-love-lyrics|website=Genius.com|access-date=2021-09-27}}</ref>

=== Idealism and optimism ===
This theme is mainly represented by Charles Guiteau. His idealism and optimism might make audience members "feel more sympathy for Guiteau than for some of the other assassins."<ref name=":03" /> Throughout the musical, Guiteau has lines and lyrics which show his idealism and optimism towards his life and the world. The quartet "The Gun Song", which Guiteau participates in, and the song "The Ballad of Guiteau" both portray him as an optimist while others are depicted as dark and not so optimistic. For example, in "The Gun Song", Guiteau "waltzes in cheerfully, holding a gun up admiringly, and declares: 'What a wonder is a gun! What a versatile invention,'" while Czolgosz just states that "[he hates] this gun."<ref name=":62" /> Guiteau's idealism is delusional, an exuberant but transparently flimsy cover for decidedly more earthly and self-interested ambition, and when his desires are thwarted, he gets angry.<ref name=":03" /> For example, he angrily shouts to Moore that "[he wants a kiss]" after Moore has already turned him down, and he assassinates President Garfield when denied the ambassadorship to France.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stephen Sondheim – "I am a terrifying and imposing figure...!"|url=https://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-i-am-a-terrifying-and-imposing-figure-lyrics|website=Genius.com|access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref> His idealism and optimism are shown even in his execution scene (in "The Ballad of Guiteau"): he believes that "[he] shall be remembered" for assassinating President Garfield.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stephen Sondheim – The Ballad of Guiteau|url=https://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-the-ballad-of-guiteau-lyrics|website=Genius.com|access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref>

=== Pain, desperation, and disillusionment ===
Pain and desperation are central to Zangara's character: he is portrayed as a poor immigrant who suffers a very strong stomachache. In "How I Saved Roosevelt", Zangara's stomach pain and his desperation about not being able to cure his stomachache turn into his anger and hatred towards the upper class.<ref name=":03" /> According to Schrader, the real-life Moore attempted her assassination due to political reasons, yet in the musical, she does so due to an entirely different one: she is so frustrated and desperate about "how to understand and express herself" that she takes "drastic action."<ref name=":03" /> On the other hand, Byck's assassination attempt on President [[Richard Nixon]] is also to "satisfy his personal frustrations."<ref name=":52" /> His solo scene, titled "Have It Your Way" in the 2004 Broadway cast recording, presents his pain and disillusionment through his words and emotional expressions.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stephen Sondheim – Have It Your Way|url=https://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-have-it-your-way-lyrics|website=Genius.com|access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Maurer|first=Roy|date=August 27, 2019|title=Review: Sondheim's Assassins at Signature Theatre. Something just broke.|url=https://dctheatrescene.com/2019/08/27/review-sondheims-assassins-at-signature-theatre/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-30|website=dctheatrescene.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930064447/https://dctheatrescene.com/2019/08/27/review-sondheims-assassins-at-signature-theatre/ |archive-date=September 30, 2021 }}</ref>

Unlike all the other assassins in the musical, "[<nowiki/>[[Lee Harvey Oswald]]] is portrayed as a desperate man attempting to commit suicide and as the only assassin who had no intention of killing a President."<ref name=":03" /> In the scene corresponding to this (the original 1991 Off-Broadway version is called "November 22, 1963"), Booth, as the leader of all assassins, tries to convince Oswald to assassinate President [[John F. Kennedy]] instead of committing suicide using countless tactics, yet he has to rely on other assassins to ultimately convince Oswald to do so.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|title=Stephen Sondheim – November 22, 1963/"Take a Look, Lee"/You Can Close the New York Stock Exchange|url=https://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-november-22-1963-take-a-look-lee-you-can-close-the-new-york-stock-exchange-lyrics|website=Genius.com|access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref> Schrader argues that "audience members who have encountered depression may find a level of consubstantiality with [him], at least until he is convinced to commit murder."<ref name=":03" />

=== Community ===
As Schrader states, "Mark Fulk and Angela Howard suggest that 'family' is ''Assassins''<nowiki/>' central metaphor, particularly noting that family is 'the central concept that binds the group of American assassins and would-be assassins.'"<ref name=":03" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1=Fulk|first1=Mark K.|last2=Howard|first2=Angela B.|date=2008-07-24|title=What we laugh about when we laugh about Stephen Sondheim's assassins|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03007769508591601|journal=Popular Music & Society|volume=19|issue=3|pages=105–123|language=en|doi=10.1080/03007769508591601}}</ref>

In the scene "November 22, 1963", the assassins join together in order to persuade Oswald to assassinate President John F. Kennedy while assuring him that he can "connect" to the other assassins.<ref name=":7" /> In addition, the assassins interact with each other despite coming from different time periods, in the scene "Ladies and Gentlemen a Toast", the scene "I Am a Terrifying and Imposing Figure", and the songs "Everybody's Got the Right", "Another National Anthem", and "Everybody's Got the Right (Reprise)".

Comparing the 1991 original production with other later versions, there is one song later added the musical, "Something Just Broke". This song is an assassin-free one, where five bystanders mourn the assassinated Presidents. These bystanders have different occupations and are in different timelines, yet are brought together by the assassination tragedies, indicating a sense of community among them.<ref name=":03" />