The Meaning of Life in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

This paper will analyze the concept of the meaning of life in Frank Capra’s film It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) from a logotherapy aspect and with the support of Catholic theory. Namely, the film depicts how George Bailey, faced with a major life difficulty, self-transcends himself and discovers meaning through work and deeds, love, and the attitude toward unavoidable suffering. The notions of the responsibility of every human being to their life and God, the uniqueness of every individual and the specific tasks life sets before them, and the acceptance of one’s own position will also be examined with regard to Bailey’s actualization of the meaning of life. The paper will conclude by identifying the effect this film has on its viewers due to the way it tackles the topic of the meaning of life, which makes it suitable for a therapeutic method cinematherapy, used in logotherapy.