Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Biography

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“My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist” (Chaplin). Charlie Chaplin was known as one that pushed limits in a variety of ways. This is how he thrived. His tip toeing along the boundaries drew people in while his genius kept them asking for more. Charlie was a jack of all trades and of them undoubtedly mastered three. Thus, through his talents, he impacted the worlds through many key elements. Throughout his life time, Charlie Chaplin greatly influenced British history, art and culture through his work as a comedian, as an actor and director.
Comedy came easy to Charlie Chaplin. “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman, and a pretty girl.” But more that acting and directing, his comedy is what paved the road for him to being one of the most well known men in history. The era in which he made a lasting name for himself, 1920-1960, endured some of the toughest times in history from the Holocaust, World War I, the Great Depression, to World War II. But oddly enough it was through those times that that the world tuned into him most. “Chaplin had demonstrated that he believed comedy was the most effective when it was offset by a touch of pathos or sentiment” (Inge 62). He turned the turmoil they were living through into his inspiration. He used humanism to connect with his audience along with satire to make light of current events, however there was much truth to his comedy. .In conclusion, it was Charlie Chaplin’s ability to capture the audience in life’s most trying times that carved his name in history.
In addition, Charlie Chaplin’s comedy was more than a lifestyle, it was an art. The source of most of Charlie’s comedy was trickery. “Charlie and the tricksters confront society’s anxieties about th...

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...Aug. 2006. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Erickson, Harold L., and Michael Barson. "Charlie Chaplin (British Actor, Director, Writer, and Composer)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Dec. 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Faure, Elie. "The Art of Charlie Chaplin." New England Review. Middlebury College Publications, Vol.19. No. 2 Spring 1998: 145-51. Print.
Grace, Harry A. "Charlie Chaplin's Films and American Culture Patterns." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Vol.10. No.4 Wiley, (1952): 353-63. Web.
Inge, M. Thomas. "Jay Gatsby and the Little Tramp: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charlie Chaplin." Studies in Popular Culture. Vol. 28. No. 1. N.p.: Popular Culture Association in the South, 2005. 60-69. JSTOR. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Lieberman, Evan A. "Charlie the Trickster." Journal of Film and Video 46.3 (Fall 1994): 16-28. JSTOR. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.

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