Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin: Raving Lunatic, Communist Threat, or American Icon?

    In this essay, I want to prove that Charlie Chaplin played an important role in the early development of comedy in films. Many people did not fully understand Charlie Chaplin for what he truly was, a genius. "Chaplin has been a man of position so long that it is difficult to think of him as an apprentice struggling to make his way. Yet up to the time of his success, when he was about twenty five, his life was anything but easy." (Jacobs 227) We always think of Charlie Chaplin as this huge American icon and never think of him as the struggling actor. "To have such far reaching influence, a man must be extraordinary. Yet when we view him with his doleful countenance and foolish mustache, his ill fitting derby, his absurd shoes, his gentleman's cane, his ineffectual gait, we see a child; a child playing grown-up." (Jacobs 227) His childhood shows that he started as an almost normal boy.
   
    Chaplin was born into a dysfunctional family, but that dysfunction in his life created the genius we all remember today. His father was an alcoholic and this probably created his mother's mental instability. "Charlie Chaplin was born on April 15, 1889 to a pair of obscure performers, Charles Chaplin and Hannah Hill. At a very young age Charlie could sing and dance and he dreamed of becoming a star. At the age of five, Charlie sang in London when his mother had fallen ill and hoarse. The crowd loved him. This set Charlie's determination to become a star." (Hale 1) Charlie at this point wanted to escape the life of his parents. "When Charlie was twelve, his father died of alcoholism. After this, Charlie's mother's mental health declined rapidly and she was in and out of mental hospitals. Charlie and his brother, Sydney, were left at a charity home." (Hale 1)

    Even without a formal academic education, Charlie Chaplin made an unforgettable mark on the pages of American history through the... [continues]

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