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Nikhil Agrawal
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May 16, 2016

Chaplin: The Romantic Who Revealed the Luxury of Poverty

Charlie Chaplin is most frequently remembered for his role in his timeless silent films

shown to all ages, young and old, in any decade since their release. Whether it be the four-year-

old child whooping at the Tramps comical misery or the fifty-four-year-old man chuckling over

the same Tramps sense of freedom, the appeal of Chaplins films and characters transcended the

boundaries of age and date.

Chaplins most iconic character remains the aforementioned Tramp, a role marked with

pantomime and quirky movements that allowed him to convey raw emotion in the absence of

spoken dialogue in the silent film era. The character reeks of poverty, but carries himself like a

gentleman. Chaplin had a first-hand account of this level of poverty, shaping the later Tramp. In

true a rags to riches fashion, Chaplins rise to fame began in 1889 London, England; born to an

abandoning alcoholic father and a financially stretched mother who worked several jobs to

support Chaplin and his brother through their childhood. Chaplins mother was a low tier singer,

whos stage presence prompted a young Charlie to pursue a career in show business himself. He

began to perform at an early age, working as a stage actor and comedian until he was 19, when

he was signed to the the company of Fred Karno, a famous theater impresario. Karno took the

young Chaplin to America, where his film career began with his appearances in 1914 for

Keystone studios. This is where Chaplin developed the Tramp, a character that gave him

worldwide fame by 1918.

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In 1919, Chaplin began his own company, allowing him complete control over his films,

ranging from production, direction, casting and writing. He released his first film, The Kid, in

1921, one of the greatest films of Chaplins career and the era of silent films. It explored themes

of loyalty, love and melancholy comedy. It was A picture with a smile-and perhaps, a tear as

Chaplin put it in the opening credits. With its minimal use of subtitles and complete absence of

dialogue, The Kid tells a compelling story with dramatic body language and hidden subtleties

that contribute to the mood of the entire film. Chaplin continued this trend of artful story telling

through his entire filmography through the 1920s and 1930s, releasing other greats such as The

Circus (1928) and Modern Times (1936).

His popularity began to decline in the wake of WWII, when he began to make films with

a very political agenda such as The Great Dictator a clever satire of Hitler. The film itself was a

critical and financial success, with five Academy Award nominations. However, following The

Greater Dictator, Chaplins personal life began to come under increasing attack, with accusations

of communist sympathies with films such as Monsieur Verdoux (1942), a black comedy film with

heavy themes of murder and lust. The film was instead viewed as an attack on capitalism, a view

that Chaplin endorsed, stating capitalism encouraged mass killing through war and WMDs. He

advocated for the opening of a second front during WWII to help the Soviet Union, supporting

various Soviet-American friendship groups. Chaplin was accused of being a communist, forcing

him to flee to Switzerland to escape persecution. He spent the next 20 years of his career in

Europe, concentration on re-editing and scoring his old films for re-release. He tried to produce

another original film in 1967, A Countess from Hong Kong, but due to its box office and critical

failure, a dejected Chaplin failed to produce another film for the rest of his life. He made amends
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with the United States in 1972 when he received an honorary Academy Award, marking his first

visit to the US in over 20 years. He died in 1977 after suffering a stroke in his sleep.

The stories Chaplin created in the early 1900s served to commentate on the material

culture festering in the West, still a relevant theme that pertains to modern society. The off-screen

man Chaplin was often tangled with the man he created in his films, making it hard to discern the

greatness of the Tramp from the greatness of Chaplin himself, a being who left a legacy of one of

the most important artists to mold modern cinema, survived by a remembrance of an

extraordinary performer and a universal icon of comedy.