Political Power In The Great Dictator

Arguably, this play brings into account how complete political power can produce fascism. The play can be seen as a satire that uses the theme of dictatorship which is seen in the killings of innocent citizens by their own leaders.
Similarly, in Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, we can see the issues regarding tyranny and also antisemitism, shown in his character that satirizes Adolph Hitler. During WWI, a jewish barber (Chaplin’s character) was a soldier of Tomania, a fictional country. During battle, the barber found the wounded Commander Schultz, the high officer of the Tomanian army, and helped escape with him in a plane that eventually crashes. They are separated and the barber is taken to a hospital where he remains for the next 20 years.

The merciless dictator of the country of Tomania, Adenoid Hynkel, has risen to power. Hynkel aspires for a pure Aryan state and the elimination of the Jews. The barber eventually escapes from the hospital, and returned to his house/barbershop in the Jewish ghetto. After returning, the new oppressed life of the Jews is presented to him. The barber is later harassed by Stormtroopers in Hynkel’s army. This is how he meets the washerwoman, Hannah, whom he later shares a close relationship with. The barber is eventually pardoned by a commanding officer who turns out to be Commander Schultz from the WWI battle. With a policy shift by Hynkel himself, the Jews in Tomania were then on provided protection, but only as a distraction. Commander Schultz and the barber are later arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Adenoid Hynkel, who just so happens to be the barber’s doppelganger, develops big plans for world domination and beginning the invasion of Osterlich, which was also threatened by Benzino Napaloni, the dictator of the fictional Bacteria. Meanwhile, Schultz and the barber run into Stormtroopers who mistake the barber for Hynkel. However, Hynkel, was also mistook for the escaped barber, was arrested.