One day in 1914, acting in Auto Races, a Mack Sennett Keystone comedy, twenty-four-year-old Charles Chaplin suddenly appeared in costume as a tramp, the persona that at once so endeared him to moviegoers that he became the most famous person in the world. His “little fellow,” as Chaplin described his alter ego in his 1964 Autobiography, was based on ‘contradiction’….Incorporating stock figures long a part of the English music hall traditions, Chaplin explored the incongruity and inherent absurdity of class distinctions.
….Like the music hall comedian, he created a distinctive costume for the Tramp: not the ubiquitous striped suit, but his own variation, an outfit befitting his acknowledgment of that original working-class audience.
If the tramp’s pants were baggy, his coat was too tight and pulled at the seams. If his derby was small, his weather-beaten shoes, the fronts pointed precariously upward, were several sizes too large; he walked forward but his toes pointed ever outward. A small black ‘toothbrush’ moustache…’add[ed] age without hiding my expression,’ Chaplin remembered.
The tramp is small, five foot four inches tall, and a scant 125 pounds…,with small hands and feet. His eyebrows are thick and dark. His eyes are blue, appearing very light on screen; they are outlined in black, setting them deep within his skull, to convey abiding sorrow. He substitutes wit and ingenuity for physical prowess….The tramp was Chaplin as he was physically, and as he might have been socially had he not been gifted with extraordinary talent as a comedian, a dancer, a pantomime artist, an acrobat and a musician.
His creation was ‘many-sided,’ Chaplin said, ‘a tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure…not above picking up cigarette butts or robbing a baby of its candy.’ Hounded by the authorities in an endless often hilarious series of chases in which he was outnumbered by bullies twice his size, kicking his pursuer in the rear end was often his best and only defense. If the occasion warranted, Chaplin admitted, ‘he will kick a lady in the rear—but only in extreme anger….’
Innocence humanizes the tramp….An inherent sense of dignity does not permit the Little Fellow to view himself as weak or inferior….He is never vindictive and refuses to acknowledge that he is being insulted. When people ignore him, he tips his hat.
Chivalry defines the tramp. He remains, as Chaplin said, a romantic who, for a time, in each of the films believes he will win the girl…because he bears generosity and a good heart…He does not resort to self-pity, but remains, always, an indomitable Everyman whose ingenuity, good heart and kindness are their own form of transcendence and must often be his only reward in an inhumane society….
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