Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Tragedy of the Common Man?
When the unnamed doorman in The Last Laugh is demoted to bathroom attendant, his world collapses. At the end of the film he is estranged from his family, fellow workers and neighbors and only the night watchman gives him succor. Is this film a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense (that is, does he fall because of some tragic character flaw?)? Is it an indictment of the society of the time? A study of the inevitable effects of aging? Or, to put the point another way, whose fault is the doorman's downfall?
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The main character of "The Last Laugh" adopts some Aristotelian qualities of a tragic hero, including an excessive pride that causes his downfall and a moment of critical self-evaluation. Throughout the beginning of the movie, we see the old man having enormous honor and pride for his job as a doorman for a rich, luxurious hotel. The doorman’s exaggerated posture and his mock salutes to the people in his community all show that the old man has placed tremendous importance on his job, to the point where his entire identity is built around it. His community lavishes him with adoration, which further encourages the old man to become codependent on his job. In the Aristotelian sense, his traits are illustrative of a hero’s tragic flaw of pride, or “hubris.” The doorman’s uniform, appearing similar to a general’s uniform, becomes a symbol for the old man’s source of excessive pride and we see it in play in the old man’s consequential downfall. The uniform is stripped and a tilt shot down the length of his body emphasizes his hunched stature, as if the man was naked without his uniform. Since the uniform is a symbol for his job, this scene of his downfall exemplifies the extreme importance he placed on his job and his resulting loss of identity. After, the doorman relentless attempts to regain his status by stealing the uniform back and putting on a front but he eventually get discovered and is shunned from his community. His actions in the past set up the path to his banishment because the doorman’s sense of pride in his job caused the entire community to only see him as worthy as his job. Following an Aristotelian heroic tragedy, the doorman’s own exaggerated sense of pride in his job causes his descent into a miserable, mad man.
ReplyDeleteThe question “who is responsible for the tradegy of our main character” is, indeed, a question which is not easy to answer. One could argue that it is the doormans fault: why did he not try to keep himself fit so he can fulfill his purposes as a doorman? Why did he not try to get help for carrying the heavy bags and stay the representative of the hotel? For sure, the given reason – his lacking strength – hasnot just popped out in the last week, but has developed over the course of years, which is why our doorman could have taken actions in order to keep his job. On the other hand, we could blame the social mindset at that time: For the hotel it is important to have a strong representative at their main entrance. The first man the visitor of the hotel should meet should be powerful and respectable. As the man does not seem to have those abilities anymore, he just has to be replaced. It seems weird that he does not only lose his post at the main entrance, but with it all his honor and status: working in a toilet seems as low as somebody could go in meanings of working places. This rapid change is caused by our main character’s boss, who does not care about the wellbeing of his ex-doorman. We can also see this mindset when he hands the man the letter containing his demotion and then gets back to work as if nothing had happened.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the second argument applies to that case. It is nobody’s direct fault that the doorman loses his job: There was no change in the job’s requirements or the doorman’s abilities made by a single person. His aging – which can not be stopped – is simply making things harder for him, and although he may have slowed down the process by restraining from cigarettes or similar habits, it eventually would turn out the same way. The social standards – which are described above – force the administration to replace him. This job loss was definitely not an Aristotelian tragedy, but the normal course in which things happen.
While the downfall of the doorman is a tragedy, it is far-fetched to put the blame on anything other than the natural aging process that all humans go through. His pride may be called into question when figuring out the answer to the question of did he cause his own downfall, but he could not have predicted that his bosses were going to replace him. In the film when he reads the letter and finds out that he is being replaced and put into a new job, his face depicted the emotions of shame, sadness, and shock. He had no idea what was going on, and even tried to prove his bosses wrong and that he was still as strong as he was in previous years. Continuing on, when someone loves their job and dedicates a long time of hard work and hours, it is inevitable that the job will consume a large majority of their livelihood and identity. In my opinion, his love and passion for his job cannot be held against him because if we are not allowed to be proud in the work in which we are doing, what’s the point of doing it? However, there is a line between being prideful and trying to show superiority. In class we discussed the idea that he was not showing innocent pride but rather being boastful and trying to seem superior. While I can see how someone can interpret his actions that way, I feel that he was trying to act as though nothing is wrong. We see this in the film after he steals the jacket, and is walking the street and salutes a citizen walking by. To me, the salute is a kind gesture and doesn’t signify anything other than the doorman not trying to draw attention to himself that he shouldn’t have been wearing that jacket. The real tragedy is the treatment of the workers when they get old. The fact that after dedicating so much time to the hotel, the doorman was thrown into the job of keeping the bathroom tidy was an insult and disrespectful to his the time he spent on the job. Being thrown into that job would shake the confidence level of anyone, and would cause a feeling of shame which we see in the film when he tried to lift the chest and fell on the ground. His face was filled with shame and he felt lost. I think the attention should not be on whose fault it is that he lost his job because it is clear that he could not successfully do the job because of the natural human aging process, but rather how was treated throughout the film and was that ethical?
ReplyDeleteThe main character in The Last Laugh reaches his lowest point due to his own actions. I think it is important to emphasize that he was the cause of his lowest point rather than the entirety of his situation. Our protagonist blew out his back while lifting up a piece of luggage that was too heavy. This injury wasn’t caused by any unreasonable act but served as a true indication of his “age and frailty”, which was the explicit cause of his demotion. His Aristotelian Tragic flaw is his pride. If had he not tried to deceive his family and neighbors, he would not have been humiliated. The neighbors’ laughter was induced by the knowledge of his lies and if he hadn’t lied in the first place, his walk of shame would be a walk of sympathy. His family and neighbors lost respect for him after recognizing that his previous boasting and lying were due to pride. The Last Laugh however, cannot be considered as a true Aristotelian Tragedy because the demotion itself wasn’t in the doorman’s control but was a direct cause of his downfall. In addition to being a story about the repercussions of boasting and lying, this film tells the story of how one man’s passion is destroyed due to the effects of age. The moment the doorman reads the letter of his demotion the camera blurs and the images on the screen become layered upon each other. These optical effects magnify the shock and devastation of the news. At this important early moment in the film, viewers can empathize with his feeling of loss. Without playing out the rest of the film, what’s left is the story of the progression of life. This moment captures how hard it can be to come to terms with growing old and loosing physical privileges such as the ability to work a laborious job (manning a door at the Atlantic). In conclusion, The Last Laugh tells an Aristotelian Tragedy but also directs focus to the downfall of every human- age-.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there is one simple and main reason to the downfall of the doorman, he was just getting too old. There is also the valid argument in saying he may not have completely downfallen if society/the men at the hotel had handled his termination more nicely, but overall it came down to the effects of aging. It was not a singular person’s fault, but it may not have been as catastrophic for the doorman if the situation was carefully handled. It was very clear in the film that he had grown too old for the job when he could no longer lift the luggage above his head. We knew before, from a blurred image, that he used to be able to lift the luggage over his head with ease using one hand. There comes a point in life where we just need to accept that we cannot physically do certain things anymore. Even though it is easier said than done, it is not helpful to live a life full of sorrow and pity for oneself. Back to the point of others not handling the situation well, the doorman may have had an easier time giving up his passion if he wasn’t mocked and disrespected so harshly. With his family kicking him out, the neighborhood laughing at him, and the men at the hotel stripping him of his uniform he most likely lost the majority of his motivation due to them and not due to the fact that he was too old. He was so used to being well respected and helpful to others, that he probably felt a slap to the face when everyone treated him as less than before. Overall, the doorman’s aging definitely lead to his downfall, but the actions of those in his life definitely worsened the situation for him.
ReplyDeleteThe main character’s demotion to a mere bathroom attendant in Murnau’s The Last Laugh is a synthesis of many factors at play including the doorman’s old age, society’s overwhelming condemnation of him, and his own tragic flaw – his hubris. Towards the beginning of the film, the main character is portrayed to be ecstatically prideful of his career as a doorman at a fancy and extravagant hotel, even to the point where he is seen constantly parading around and saluting hotel guests grandly. When he is stripped of his position due to his old age and frailty, the doorman feels as if the entire world has turned against him. Several instances point to this idea including the shock and bewilderedness that is present on his face when he reads the letter of demotion or when he struggles to lift a heavy suitcase that comes crashing down on him in an effort to prove his supervisors wrong. Because he has taken so much dignity into his career, he cannot accept the inevitable in that he would be eventually discharged someday, which ultimately distorts the extent to how much of a tragedy his demotion actually is. The movie employs techniques to further this notion such as when the camera slowly pans down to show his exposed under garments after his usual, decorated uniform is forcibly taken off by his superiors to portray him as a shell of the seemingly powerful figure that he used to be. Not only does the film make use of the doorman’s own hubris and pride through various plot devices and techniques to show his downfall, but it also utilizes society’s derision of the doorman to achieve the same effect of tragedy. When news spreads that he is no longer a doorman, his close-by community, who previously praised him in honor, instantaneously shuns and belittles him in the scene where a sea of villagers stick their heads through their windows and snicker at him limping down the street and where a close-up shot of villagers laughing disdainfully is transparently transposed onto the doorman’s sullen face. Society’s deprecation of the doorman’s demotion undoubtedly aggrandizes the degree to which his demotion is actually a tragedy because in reality, society would not scorn a person of old age for having to leave his or her job due to their health. Instead, they would most likely commemorate or even honor the person for his or hers many years of service to their career. Lastly, but most realistically, the film frankly explains to the audience that it is indeed his health and frailty that inhibits the doorman from going to work in the scene where he is reading his letter of demotion. While this is a legitimate reason to discharge an employee, due to the doorman’s own sense of pride and society’s scorn treatment of him, the film illustrates his downfall to be more bitter than it is in actuality.
ReplyDeleteWhen the term tragedy is brought up, works like Antigone and Oedipus Rex are often brought to the forefront. Each of these plays feature a character experiencing a downfall due to a character flaw which is oftentimes pride. In The Last Laugh, the doorman’s downfall is not caused by a character flaw, but instead by the irrevocable changes caused by aging and the harsh criticisms society forces upon others. I believe that the character put his work at the forefront of his life as any reasonable person would do. He took pride in and enjoyed his job and attempted to always act in accordance with how the hotel’s prestige demanded him too both at work and away. He loses his job simply because father time had left him too weak to do his job properly. As a result of being stripped of his prestigious position, he starts to begin his descent into misery. If this piece is too be looked at an Aristotelian tragedy, it would be easier to argue that it is society that has the great character flaw. Society is the one who turned their back on him as soon as it was found out he was no longer a doorman. It took no qualms with mocking the character, and it certainly took no issue with beating him down into depravity. As we look at this piece as a whole we realize that while the doorman took pride in his work, it was society which forced his downfall upon him. I believe that this piece serves as a condemnation of society at the time who was quick to revel in the sorrow of others. The people laugh and mock him despite his age being something he has no control over and in the end are the reason we watch the door man suffer.
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