Modern Times

The film Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin is in one sense a silly, entertaining slapstick that is quite welcome to watch in the midst of the stress of studying for finals. In another sense, it has some pretty serious themes that were relatable to the 1930s, and also in the present time.

One noticeable theme is the theme of work. As the opening credits roll, a clock can be seen in the background, its second hand always moving. This somehow feels like it ties into work already. Perhaps it is a symbol of someone “working against the clock”. Or it could be a symbol of your life ticking away as you go on with your working life. It could be, of course, that Chaplin did not intend anything special with the clock, but as I was trying to find connections, I thought the clock was interesting.

The very next in the film scene shows a herd of sheep just wandering around, and then it fades to the next scene, which shows a group of men leaving the subway station, heading off to work. This is where the critique on work truly begins. The sheep scene fading into the scene with the commuters symbolizes how people working are often like a bunch of sheep, just going along mindlessly with the norm of society, without ever bothering to change their ways. Because work is necessary, people just move along like sheep every single day. This is a pretty harsh statement, yet there seems to be some truth in it.

Now I will confess that I had some difficulty trying to connect Modern Times with some of the literature that we read. However, out of all the poems that we discussed over the past week, I found that “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg seems to fit the best with the film. First, Modern Times takes place in a city and “Chicago” is describing this great city. Second, “Chicago” gives more images of working than in some of the other poems. When a picture of the city is being painted in “Chicago”, these words show up around lines 13 or 14:

“Bareheaded,

Shoveling,

Wrecking,

Planning,

Building, breaking, rebuilding….” (1437)

These lines are just verbs that are simple yet create a strong image. One can picture a man being outside doing hard labor, trying to get through the day’s work. This is similar to the Tramp (Chaplin’s character) trying to constantly keep up with the machine in the factory, no matter how fast it ends up going. It gets to the point where the Tramp almost becomes a machine himself. He becomes unable to stop twisting the tools that are in his hands (which leads to some amusing and awkward situations). And do his supervisors or coworkers care that his arms are on this strange autopilot? Instead, they just tell him to keep working faster and not to stop. In every job the Tramp does, people constantly yell at him.

The odd thing is that even though work is criticized and poked fun at, it is still something to be desired. Yes, the Tramp and the Gamin have their fantasies about not having to work and just have grapes growing by their house. But ultimately, work is what is going to give them this desired American dream. The Tramp says that he and the gamin will have this dream “even if I have to work for it!” He shoves his way through a crowd to get a job, and he is excited when a department store employee breaks his leg (meaning there will be a job opening).

Modern Times may be a comedy, but its commentary on work can be quite serious and it hits home for us even today.