COMEDY

POLITICS 115Hynkel and the Barber, and the stories move together in order to bringabout a concluding scene in which the Barber, imprisoned for hisreligion, escapes from a concentration camp and is mistaken for Hynkeljust as it is time for him to give a speech. Knowing that his life dependson maintaining the charade, the Barber launches into an impassionedsix-minute plea that closes the movie. From his opening words, thespeech is resolutely anti-dictatorial: ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be anEmperor,’ he says, ‘that’s not my business. I don’t want to rule orconquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile,black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings arelike that’ (Chaplin, 1940). In response to Nazi militarism, which heassociates with the profiteering of industrialized society, Chaplin assertsthe redemptive qualities of nature and instinct, together with anidealization of the power of human empathy:Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world withhate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We havedeveloped speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery thatgives us abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has madeus cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too muchand feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. Morethan cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without thesequalities, life will be violent and all will be lost.(Chaplin, 1940)As Alan Dale writes, ‘the Barber embodies a concept of insignificanceChaplin associates with all kinds of worthiness—honesty, hard work,courtesy, gallantry, the whole load’ (Dale, 2000:47). In the concept of asociety that can be saved by simplicity and considerateness, the JewishBarber’s speech demonstrates a clear continuity between Chaplin’scritique of dehumanizing labour in Modern Times, and what heperceived as the automatism of Hitler’s fascism, ‘unnatural men,machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts’ (Chaplin,1940). Chaplin has abandoned the structure of comedy and the businessof slapstick by this point of the film, as historical circumstances do notallow for a traditional resolution. However, the implicit optimism ofcomedy strongly influences the finale, as the Jewish Barber’s speech issuperimposed over images of dignified Jewish families in pastoralexile. As sheaves of corn blow in the wind with the promise of a newtomorrow, Chaplin’s political naivety seems terribly exposed. Theseimages were utterly hollow for Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer