EXPLORATION OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S THE LITTLE TRAMP SCREEN-PERSONA IN SELECT FILMS: A POSTSCRIPT TO THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

Abstract

The present research proposes to put forward Camus’ philosophy of the absurd that deals with subjective nature of human beings in context to Charles Spencer Chaplin’s films related to his screen-persona The Little Tramp. The Little Tramp follows the absurdist idea of repetition, and the inability to follow a teleological path, with certainty. At the same time, he puts forward an idea of hope to change the prevailing situations—although with a negligible probability, nevertheless, always probable. In a world where an objective vision is hard to find, there is a need for continuous thinking on the dimensions of an individualistic lifestyle. The human race is too weak to survive without a sense of hope—hope to alter the pre-existing position. We cannot live in an eternal phase of liminality—a space of continuous repetition, as Albert Camus has described in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). French philosopher and writer, who put the foundation of his thinking on the idea of Existentialism, later separated himself from the existentialist tradition. He has described, his differences from the philosophy of Existentialism, in his book The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus’ idea of dealing with a permanent meaningless situation of human predicament seems more plausible than the philosophies of Nihilism and Existentialism. But it has one serious problem— it ignores human beings’ psychological necessity of the presence of spark in the eternal chaos, for human beings to survive through the transitional meaninglessness of life. I intend to revisit Camus’ philosophy with the help of ideas provided by Charlie Chaplin through his screen-persona The Little Tramp. The primary texts for the present study include six of Chaplin’s following silent films that star The Little Tramp: The Tramp (1915), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), and Modern Times (1936). The present study intends to explore the implied theme of Alienation and its relation to Heidegger’s concept of Facticity in the films starring The Little Tramp. Furthermore, it tries to diagnose The Little Tramp's behaviour and its outcome with the consideration of the surroundings as more than mere background. The thesis also takes upon the task of analysing the nature of repetition, particularly with respect to the gesture of walking, in the films under discussion. Moreover, it problematizes Sartre’s idea of Free Will, and charts out Chaplin’s implicit idea of hope in despairing humanity.