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PARTISAN REVIEW
make him suffer and, ultimately, to kill him. This direct threat demands
a direct response. Merely to escape is not enough, for the final meaning
of such a society must be that there is no escape; what is required of
the Tramp is that he should attempt to destroy the society. But the
Tramp is simply not adequate to the attempt, and in the end Chaplin
feels compelled to speak out in his own voice-what could the Tramp
have to say about politics? (The quality of Chaplin's own politics is of
course not in question here.) Thus the failure of
Th e Great Dictator
results primarily from Chaplin's reliance on an instrument that was no
longer suitable. This becomes quite plain, I think, when one considers
how successfully he handles the figures of Hitler and Mussolini; if it
were simply a matter of his having chosen "the wrong theme," then
one would except this "wrongness" to be most apparent in just those
scenes where the Tramp does not appear. The fact is that the theme
was almost the only possible one for Chaplin; it was wrong only for
the Tramp.
The Tramp has the proportions of a legendary figure. Though he is
among the least "real" of artistic constructs, yet by the very dispropor–
tion of his personality, by his deep and unshakable eccentricity, he can
carry everything before him, like Falstaff or Micawber, achieving a
kind of independent existence apart from the particular movies in which
he has appeared. The Tramp creates his world, and everything else
must take its color from his presence.
Verdoux is not so tremendous a creation. He exists for one movie,
and his whole meaning is contained in the movie. He has made his point,
once and for all.
Verdoux does not create the world, he is only an element of the
world. At bottom, it is his own consciousness of this limitation that drives
him. He is a man with needs and responsibilities, he must make his way.
What are the mechanisms of society? Where are the opportunities? These
questions are vitally important to him; he is therefore a busy and enter–
prising man, full of plans. For the Tramp, it was enough simply to
exist; Verdoux must analyze his situation and find ways to meet it. He
is like the Tramp in many ways: he has the same social charm and
physical gracefulness, above all the same civilized feeling for the possi–
bilities of personal intercourse and good living; but he must put all
these qualities to use-he becomes like a cultured jewelry salesman, or
the manager of a high-class restaurant, making a profit out of his re–
finement.
He is only an element of the world, but he carries the world inside
him. With Verdoux, the opposition between the individual and society
has lost its old simplicity. The society has flowed into the individual, and
the two have in a sense become co-extensive; the struggle is now an
