分類號 編號煙 臺 大 學畢 業(yè) 論 文A STUDY ON THE THEME OF CHAPLINS COMEDY論卓別林喜劇電影的主題思想申請學位： 文學學士 院 系： 外國語學院 專 業(yè)： 英 語 姓 名： 學 號： 指導老師： 二零零九年五月二十八日煙 臺ByYang LikunSUPERVISORAssociate Professor Jiang Li Submitted toThe School of Foreign LanguagesIn Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsIn the Department of EnglishYantai UniversityMay 28, 2009 Yantai煙臺大學畢業(yè)論文（設計）任務書院（系）：外國語學院姓名學號200503501076畢業(yè)屆別2009專業(yè)英語畢業(yè)論文（設計）題目論卓別林喜劇電影的主題思想指導教師學歷碩士職稱副教授所學專業(yè)英語語言文學具體要求(主要內容、基本要求、主要參考資料等)：楊麗坤同學的論文寫作從第七學期的第15周到第八學期的13周周末結束。論文的長度至少4000字左右英語單詞。論文應涉及有關卓別林喜劇電影的主題思想的內容。需充分利用圖書館及網絡資源查閱相關材料。論文必須包括引言（Introduction）、正文、結語（Conclusion）。在整個論文寫作過程中應與指導老師姜莉保持聯(lián)系，按照煙大外院英語專業(yè)本科畢業(yè)論文寫作規(guī)范的要求以及老師的指導按時完成論文寫作和提交論文。論文需立論正確，論據(jù)充分，結論嚴謹合理，文理通順。論文應用電腦排版打印，按照封面、扉頁、任務書、致謝、英文摘要、中文摘要、目錄、正文、參考文獻、指導老師評審表、評閱人評審表、煙臺大學畢業(yè)論文答辯評審表、封底的順序裝訂好后提交論文指導老師。進度安排：1 第七學期第十五周：學生提交論文題目。2 第八學期第一周：學生提交開題報告（中文）和提交論文提綱（英文）。3 第八學期第三周：學生提交論文初稿（不少于4000字）。4 第八學期第十三周末：學生提交定稿。5 第八學期第十五周末：學生論文答辯。指導教師（簽字）： 2009年3月3日院（系）意見： 教學院長（主任）（簽字）： 年 月 日備注：煙臺大學畢業(yè)論文ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSFirstly, I have been most indebted to Professor Jiang Li, my respectable supervisor. Ive always been constantly receiving Professor Jiangs generous help. She does not only influence me intellectually and academically but also morally and spiritually. With such an inflexible will, I am able to accomplish this challenging thesis paper. Particularly, about this thesis, Professor Jiang is the one, who inspired me to initiate such a topic, encouraged me at every stage of writing, scrutinized countless drafts and revisions of this thesis paper, and gave her insightful observation to steady my sentences and to strengthen my reasoning. Here, I really run out of words to say how much her sincere and selfless help means to me all through these days.Secondly, I have been blessed to attend lectures given by Professor Song Hongbo once a week. Professor Song is a knowledgeable teacher. His refined and logical language was really thought-provoking to me, which undoubtedly contributed significantly to my English-writing capacity. Inspired by his lecture, I was able to come up with the idea of this thesis. He constantly urges me to write faster, deeper and better through weekly lectures, which proves to be so effective and eventually ensure me to finish this thesis before the due time. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to my dear friend Vera, for her help on the final edition.Here, I would also like to dedicate this paper to them, whose love always nurtures in me a capacious wonder at the world and the words that fill it. May 28, 2009煙臺大學畢業(yè)論文ABSTRACTSir Charles Spencer Chaplin, better known as Charlie Chaplin, was an Academy Award-winning English comedy actor. Chaplin became one of the most famous actors as well as a notable director and composer in the early to mid Hollywood cinema era. He is considered to have been one of the finest mimes and clowns ever caught on film and have greatly influenced performers in this field. Chaplin concerned more about the fortune of the small potatoes. His film combined humanitarianism and social criticism, reaching an insurmountable peak in history. His film not only made people laugh, but also gave deep thought. Strong sense of reality and deep connotation are the main features. His influence is everywhere, beyond frontiers, beyond era.Since the birth of film, comedy has been always enjoyed by the people of the whole world. It reflects the real life in the way of satire and humor in order to make spectators sympathize with the ideas of creators. There is a more important reason that Hollywood is good at using the most popular elements of art to pack films so as to achieve the best artistic effect, so we can see many elements of modernism and postmodernism in Chaplins comedy films. From these films, we all see the living situation of common people at that time. They use all kinds of humorous and even ridiculous way to struggle with their destiny, but behind their action, the social conflict, exists in the daily life. The portrayal of common people shows the pursuit of the commonalty in Chaplins comedy films. With regard to Chaplins comedy films, the domestic and overseas investigations often focus on the texts of the film, but ignore the discussion of theme and styles during the period ofdecades. Therefore, this thesis will conduct an investigation into the theme and the styles of the comedy through the analysis of theme and characterization. Key Words: commonalty, characterization, impact, 摘 要查爾斯斯潘塞卓別林爵士，作為查爾斯卓別林更為出名，曾經獲得奧斯卡金像獎。卓別林在早期到中期的好萊塢電影時代成為最著名的電影演員，導演和制片人之一。他被認為是在電影界最成功的啞劇演員和小丑，深深的影響了在這一領域的演員。卓別林的喜劇關注“小人物”的命運，將人道主義精神和社會批判因素融入其中，創(chuàng)造了世界喜劇不可逾越的高峰，他的喜劇不但引人發(fā)笑，而且引人深思,有強烈的現(xiàn)實感, 深刻的內涵。他的影響力遍及世界，超越了國界，也超越了時代。自從電影誕生至今，喜劇電影一直為全世界人民所喜愛，它將現(xiàn)實生活以諷刺與幽默的手段夸張地再現(xiàn)了出來。更為重要的是好萊塢這個著名的電影工業(yè)基地善于采用當時最流行的藝術元素來對電影進行包裝，以達到最佳的藝術效果，因此，在卓別林的喜劇電影之中我們能看到大量的現(xiàn)代主義和后現(xiàn)代主義元素，這正是制造喜劇效果必不可少的手段。在這些喜劇電影中我們看到的都是社會下層普通民眾的生活狀態(tài)，這些小人物用各種幽默甚至是荒謬的方式來來和命運抗爭，但是在他們的行為背后所反映出的社會矛盾確是真實地存在于生活之中。由此可見卓別林的喜劇電影體現(xiàn)出一種平民化的本質屬性。國內外對卓別林喜劇電影的研究通常以作品為中心，但是缺少對其在長達幾十年的各個時期里風格和本質的深層次探討。所以，本論文將致力于平民本質的研究，試圖從人物和主題等方面進一步擴展對卓別林喜劇電影更深層次的認識，從而更好地把其精髓所在。關鍵詞：平民化，人物，影響 CONTENTSAcknowledgementsABSTRACT1摘 要21Introduction42The Commonalty Reviewed by the Background72.1The Social Environments72.1.1 The Economy and Technology72.1.2 The Intension of Social Conflict72.2The Living Experiences of Charlie Chaplin83The Commonalty Reviewed by the Themes113.1The Concern with the Fate of Common People113.2 The Exposure of the Seamy Side of the Capitalist Society123.2The Pursuit of Social Equality134The Commonalty Reviewed by the Character144.1Character and Characterization144.2Charlot144.3 Comparison With “Wulitou” in China.155Conclusion17BIBLIOGRAPHY191 IntroductionSir Charles Spencer Chaplin, better known as Charlie Chaplin, was an Academy Award-winning English comedy actor. Chaplin became one of the most famous actors as well as a notable director, composer and musician in the early to mid Hollywood cinema era. He is considered to have been one of the finest mimes and clowns ever caught on film and have greatly influenced performers in this field. Chaplin had a rotten childhood and an early start in the entertainment business, performing as a child on the vaudeville stage. He went to Hollywood in 1914 and began acting in silent comedies. By 1915 he controlled most aspects of his films, in which he usually appeared as a character called simply “The Little Tramp”, a lovably shabby dreamer with a brushy mustache, bowler hat and cane, always found himself wobbling into awkward situations and miraculously wobbling away. Feltham once said, “Laughter should dimple the cheek, not furrow the brow.” Charlie Chaplin was a man who definitely dimpled millions of cheeks in the early 1900s. He had a huge impact on the lives of Americans during the world wars and the hard times of the Depression and he made people laugh for the first time in a long time and changed the way they looked at the world despite his own troubles and loneliness. And even though his films were in black and white, he put a lot of color into everyones life.Among all kinds of arts, film only has a short history for 112 years since December 28,1895. The development of silent film which was mainly performed by expression and action had become quite mature; and a lot of comedy films that we can remember were created by Charlie Chaplin at this time. For over thirty-six years Chaplin had been the unquestioned king of comedy. His films are shown continuously all over the world. In fact, Charlie Chaplin made comedy film become a genre of art firstly, and established the direction of development for the American comedy film, which focused on common people. From then on, global spectators began enjoying American comedy film, whether they had ever made us glad, moved or even sad. If we would like to find the representative persons among so many comedy actors, as the initiator of American comedy film, Charlie Chaplin is the most outstanding one. His works lead the style of the early comedy film, until the end of World War. Charlies first film, released in February 1914, was called Making a Living. From this time on, Charlie Chaplin began his show business, but in the same year, his film named Between Showers became a milestone in the history of his career and even American comedy film. Because the role named “Charlot” in this film appeared for the first time, after that the classical image wearing baggy pants, enormous shoes, and a bowler hat and carrying a bamboo cane, he originated his world-famous character, who is the tramper always existing in his many comedy films. He played this classic role in more than 70 films during his career. Among these famous films, the important pictures Chaplin produced, directed, and starred in include The Kid (1921), The Pilgrim (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights(1931), Modern Times(1936), The Great Dictator(1940), Monsieur Verdoux(1947), Limelight(1952), and A King in New York(1957). He also composed background music for most of his films. His portrayal of the little tramper, a universally recognized symbol of indestructible individuality triumphing over adversity and persecution, both human and mechanical, won him critical renown as a tragicomedian. Therefore, we can say that CharlieChaplins comedy film can be the magnum opus of American comedy film. After World War,because of the cold war, there was a right-wing political movement named “McCarthyism” in the USA, which was a campaign against Communist subversion in the early 1950s. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Chaplin was criticized for his leftist political views because there was a lot of sympathy for the poor laborers and the satire for the dominators and capitalists in his films. As a result, he had to leave the United States in 1952 and established permanent residence in Switzerland. The whole America and Hollywood never forgot him and his contribution to American films, so he briefly returned to the United States to receive several tributes, among them a special Academy Award for his contributions to the film industry in 1972. However, we must see the fact that when Charlie Chaplin left the US, it means that a period of comedy films had been over. Since the birth of film, comedy has been always enjoyed by the people of the whole world. It reflects the real life in the way of satire and humor in order to make spectators sympathize with the ideas of creators. There is a more important reason that Hollywood is good at using the most popular elements of art to pack films so as to achieve the best artistic effect, so we can see many elements of modernism and postmodernism in Chaplins comedy films. From these films, we all see the living situation of common people at that time. They use all kinds of humorous and even ridiculous way to struggle with their destiny, but behind their action, the social conflict, exists in the daily life. The portrayal of common people shows the pursuit of the commonalty in Chaplins comedy films.Comedy, this type makes the film common. However, the deep thought towards society does not throw the film into vulgar. Chaplin once said, comic is quandary. It is this quandary that brings constant laugh to the audience, even laugh into tears. Nevertheless, we do not know whether it is the tear of happiness or sadness. Other comedies only make people laugh, but Chaplin, as a critical realism film artist, can impel people ponder over it after laughing. With regard to Chaplins comedy films, the domestic and overseas investigations often focus on the texts of the film, but ignore the discussion of themes and styles during the period of decades. Therefore, this thesis will conduct an investigation into the theme and the styles of the comedy through the analysis of characterization, structure and setting. Besides, in the development of Chinese films, Chaplins comedy especially attracts our attention. The significance is that it brings forth the film characteristic of comedy, helping film makers set up the conception of harlequin film, tragicomedy film and political ironic comedy film, enriching the conception of comedy film in China. 2 The Commonalty Reviewed by the Background2.1 The Social Environments2.1.1 The Economy and Technology The birth of film profited from the progress of technology during the second industrial revolution. At the same time, American economy had been in the period of high-speed increase, in which the United States became an industrialized and powerful country. The Conjuncture ended in 1915 or 1920, the period depending on whether one stresses the statistics of agricultural stabilization, which favor the former, or the census revelations of 1920 of another sharp decline in aggregate population growth in the 1910-20 decade compared to the preceding several decades. The metropolitan mode continued, unchallenged at last. “The visible signs of contemporary, twentieth century American society, signs not yet all there in the 1890s,had finally fallen into place: ethnic diversity, an urban dwelling majority, large corporations, millions of white-collar workers, electric appliances, spreading car ownership, service stations and paved highways, radio and motion pictures, mass circulation magazines and newspapers.” (Huff, 1951:98) Yet, after World War, the third industrial revolution connects the rate of technological progress with the level of income inequality and productivity growth. A leap in the state of technology occurs and is embodied in new machines, such as those used in information technologies (IT). In the same way, the development of industry promoted the need of labor and the process of urbanization. Many peasants and trampers entered those big cities to find jobs, but the working condition was terrible. As the mainly entertained style of commonalty, the field of film produced a lot of works to satirize the reality. In the films of Charlie Chaplin, the contrast between flourishing economy and poor labor was reflected vividly to strengthen the comic effect of films, for example: Making a living, City Lights, and Modern Times.2.1.2 The Intension of Social ConflictAlong with the progress of science and technology, those capitalists who possessed enormous wealth are able to make use of new invention to create profit for themselves, but the economic and social status of commonalty has determined the fact that they scarcely have possibility to change the income inequality and employed identity, because of the Inequitable System of Distribution. Common people can only choose the strong protest or sharp satire; and American comedy film obviously chooses the latter one. “I am concerned with the representation of social class in American film comedy from the beginning of the sound era to the present. I use the analysis of a variety of comedies from different points in the development of Hollywood film and from different subgenres within the larger genre of film comedy to explore the representation of social class and social mobility. I argue that the issue of social class was crucially important to the development of sound comedy.” (Nugent, 1981:34 )The famous comedy player of France, Jacques Tati had ever thought that “the characters in the comedy films are all victims, because the real enemy is not those rich men, but the system of society. Everybody is like a chessman in the chessboard of society, and just obey the rule of game without thinking, but not stop to seek the cause in them.” However, the films of Charlie Chaplin put up the life and mentation of commonalty to screen in order to make spectators realize their status. The film is just like a distorting mirror, which can reflect the real image exaggeratedly. Perhaps, this is so-called “A story of smiling could also be weeping”. It is the prologue in the film of The Kid, which is one of the famous works of Charlie Chaplin.As a matter of fact, if a person has no any wealth or authority, he or she could not receive the corresponding respect in the modern society. The part of people is called “social vulnerable groups”, who can only express their disgruntled attitude to the unfair social system through the action of characters in the comedy film, but these roles are full of sympathy and justice, such as the tramper “Charlot” in The Kid of Chaplin. Sometimes, in the films, these so-called “small potatoes” in America have to become some leg-pullers to tell a lie or play tricks with those authorities, because the reality forces them to do these ugly things against their real will. Yet we still see that in the films, the tramper treated the kid like his own child.2.2 The Living Experiences of Charlie ChaplinFilm needs wonderful actors and actresses, who can often put their thoughts and comprehension for scripts in the films. Their performances are usually filled with individualization which always makes spectators deeply impressed. Also, we should not ignore the fact that a persons philosophy is associated with his living experiences. After reading the following content about the living experiences of Charlie Chaplin we may understand his films.Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, British comedian, producer, writer, director, and composer who is widely regarded as the greatest comic artist of the screen and one of the most important figures in motion-picture history, Chaplin spent his early childhood with his mother, the singer Hannah Hall. He made his own stage debut at age of five, filling in when his mother lost her voice in mid-song. The mentally unstable Hall was later confined to an asylum, whereupon Charlie and his half-brother Sydney were sent to a series of bleak workhouses and residential schools. Using his mothers show-business contacts, Charlie became a professional entertainer in 1897 when he joined the Eight Lancashire Lads, a clog-dancing act. His subsequent stage credits included a small role in William Gillettes Sherlock Holmes and a stint with the vaudeville act Caseys Court Circus. In 1908 he joined the Fred Karno pantomime troupe, quickly rising to star status as The Drunk in the ensemble sketch A Night in an English Music Hall. While touring America with the Karno Company in 1913, Chaplin was signed to appear in Mack Sennetts keystone comedy films. Though his first keystone one-reeler, Making a Living (1914), was not the failure that historians have claimed, Chaplins initial screen character, a mercenary dandy, did not show him to best advantage. Ordered by Sennett to come up with a more workable screen image, Chaplin improvised an outfit consisting of a too-small coat, too-large pants, floppy shoes, and a battered derby. As a finishing touch, he pasted on a postage-stamp mustache and adopted a cane as an all-purpose prop. It was in his second Keystone film, Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), that Chaplins immortal screen alter ego, “the Little Tramp”, was born. Because of McCarthyism, as a result, he had to leave the United States in 1952 and established permanent residence in Switzerland.Through the above-mentioned contents, we can see the childhood of Chaplin is full of misfortune and hardships and have to afford the burden to provide for the whole family, thus understand the straitened situation of common laborers, who are