Mocking vs. Pity

Viewing the Charlie Chaplin film has by far been my favorite part of this course. It has been a way to view the reality of the time period, laced with over-the-top comedy. I found it interesting that I was familiar with Charlie Chaplin's character "the tramp" before I had ever seen any of his films, especially his comedic hat. I don't know WHERE I had seen this character, but he has forever been present in the back drawers of my mind. As I thought about this phenomenon, I wondered why. What could have made his character stand out to significantly in media history?

So as I watched the film, I was struck by the contrast between the comedic mocking of everyone and everything while at the same time feeling pity for 'the tramp'. He is a foreign body thrown into this modernized world where is so blatantly doesn't belong. He is swept up in the world of the "machine" without the ability to adjust, and then swept from one situation to another without finding a true resting place (aside from the jail, which was only temporary). When he gets a job at the department store and even thought the dream that he has, he is surrounded by moment after moment of grandeur that the viewer (and the character himself) could only dream of him ever achieving. It made me wonder what exactly he was trying to convey (and every good film makes one think, yes?).

But personally, the most significant part of this film for me was how "the tramp" and "the gamine" are the only two characters in the entire film who show an ounce of individuality and non-conformity. Everything else is mechanized, routine, and patterned. Ladies stand and shop, men continually work machines with mindless repetition, the masses move uniformly in the streets, etc. But the two main characters go against the tides. Against the masses. They stick out in the most ridiculously amusing yet sad ways. Chaplin's brilliance in maneuvering these situations (especially having his actual wife play "the gamine") can be plainly seen.

Watching Chaplin caused me to dig deeper into what the meanings were behind all of the things being conveyed. It caused me to really think about the situations that "the tramp" and "the gamine" were in instead of just absorbing the comedy and moving on. I wish that there was more examples of this type of film that came out today. Our media tends to be of consistently poor quality, but Charlie Chaplin really did set a pretty high bar.