Saturday, February 4, 2017
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 way I see it, the downfall of the doorman is more of a tragedy due to the inevitable effects of aging more-so than any other cause. No matter which way you put it, the truth is that he ended up being demoted to a bathroom attendant because he no longer physically able to lift heavy suitcases with as much as ease he could when he was younger. Eventually, in such a prestigious hotel where service is supposed to be top of the line, it’s inevitable that he would be replaced by a younger and more able doorman to suit the standards of the hotel, regardless of his character or any other external factors.
ReplyDeleteWhile this is true, one concept which is strange to me is the way in which the hotel supposedly seemed to handle his demotion. One morning he came into work, as proud about his high-class job as he ever was, astonished to find that the job he had held for some many years was suddenly, without a single warning or indication from the hotel manager, and became occupied by a younger, much-less-grateful replacement. If they had let him know about a month in advance about his potential demotion, he would have at least allowed it to set in and plan for a backup career and an explanation to tell his friends and family so that they wouldn’t think he blatantly lied to them. This idea is interesting to note, because wouldn’t you expect that a hotel with such high operational standards would reciprocate its respect for a loyal employee of so many years? An employee who comes into work dressed and ready to go with such relentless, consistent pride. If they had the simple answer justifying this logical inconsistency is the fact that either the hotel itself (for whatever individual reason), or the customs of German society at the time, contribute to the hotel's inability to respectfully communicate the demotion to the doorman in a timely fashion. However, a more complex, and equally plausible justification, could be that the doorman’s excessive pride actually ended up blinding him from the hints and messages the hotel could have been trying to communicate to him regarding a potential demotion. The fact that his pride, being a character trait, would end up biting him in the back this way, does deem his downfall to fall under the definition of an Aristotelian tragedy. So, from one perspective, one can perceive the tragedy to be a result of the unavoidable effects of aging, and from another perspective, one can blame his own pride for resulting in his demotion to the bathroom attendant. Of these two possibilities, however, I will stick with the fact that his demotion was more-so due because of his age. Although it’s more complex and interesting to think of the tragedy being more Aristotelian, I don’t see it making complete sense because I don’t recall many proactive attempts on behalf of the hotel to let the doorman know that his position is in danger.
I do not believe the doorman’s downfall can be blames on one specific flaw, but rather three that coincide throughout The Last Laugh. The first flaw being the protagonist’s immense character flaw of basing his entire self-worth off the opinion of his community. One scene that truly illustrates this flaw is when he breaks into the hotel closet to steal the doorman jacket; simply because he fears returning to his community without it. The second flaw which leads to the doorman’s downfall is not personal, but societal flaw. Once the doorman loses his occupation his community turns their back on him, instead of reaching out in support. I believe this action is based on the inclination that people are in competition against each other, therefor when there is no longer reason to respect someone it is positive for the rest of society. . This inclination is depicted greatly in the scene where the protagonist returns home, and his neighbors open their windows as he walked passed to laugh at his misfortune. The last flaw that leads to the doorman’s downfall is simply the life flaw of growing old. Growing old of itself is an unavoidable downfall; you loses your strength and vitality, and the people surrounding you begin to believe you are in competent. This flaw in life is show throughout multiple scenes of the film. There is the opening scene were the doorman becomes tired and must sit down to take a break. Following that there is the moment the doorman receives a letter talking of his “age” and “fragility”.
ReplyDeleteWhile the class system of Germany at that time does play a big part in the doorman’s downfall, ultimately I think his downfall can be attributed to the fact that the doorman so easily gives up on life. Throughout The Last Laugh, the doorman shows how one’s occupation and social status as well as self-worth are connected. For example, when he goes into work one day, he salutes people as he struts through his neighborhood and protects a child from bullies, all with an air of superiority. He acted as if he was better than the other because of his uniform. The second this uniform, and this title, is taken away from him, his social status, and self-esteem plummet. His entire demeanor changes upon being demoted, hunching over and losing all confidence to speak. The lack of social mobility in this society is also shown by his neighbors’ reactions to his demotion. The doorman’s neighbors laugh at him and his own family disowns him after learning he lost his job. This stresses the importance of one’s job and how it also determines social status. However, looking at the doorman’s reactions to losing his job, the overwhelming feeling the audience gets is one of defeat. The doorman stares at the camera blankly and stumbles throughout the film, missing his own daughter’s wedding to steal back his uniform. He also does not try to fix his problem at all. He mopes around in his loneliness and desperation which leads me to believe the suffering of the doorman’s downfall could have been reduced with some more proactive behavior on his part.
ReplyDeleteI think that the door man does in fact have a fatal flaw, however it is not aging. I believe that his fatal flaw is one that is shared by many, even people today. This flaw is putting too much of your happiness in what other people think of you. Aging is inevitable. At some point in everyone’s life, you are going to have to take a loss in what you can physically can do. If the door man had put less value on other opinion and taken the demotion in stride, maybe he would have been able to gone to his daughter’s wedding and seen the other amazing things in his life. He had a fine family in his daughter and son in law, whom he could have derived his happiness from. In this way, I do think that the downfall is the doorman’s fault, but not because of aging. This story is not only an indictment of society at that time, but also for right now. Even today we still see people valuing other opinions over your real self-worth.
ReplyDeleteI think that in The Last Laugh, the main character’s downfall isn’t that of a character flaw as much as it is of old age. I will admit that he doesn’t have many character flaws such as equating all of his and others self-worth to whatever job they possess. He is always happy and waving at the beginning of the movie while in uniform and after he is fired/demoted to a bathroom attendant, everyone looks at him differently because he doesn’t have that same uniform. He also looks at himself differently and almost doesn’t have the will to live with his new job. Even with that character flaw, he really lost the job because of his performance. He took many breaks because of his old age and many times needed help to bring bags from off of the top of cars while the new doorman could do everything by himself and didn’t need the same breaks. Being fired/demoted was inevitable for any aging person in such a job. It is meant for younger strong men who don’t hurt as easy because it is a lot of demanding labor being a doorman in a city. I don’t think it had anything to do with the class system at the time because being a doorman wasn’t truly a high class job in the first place. However, at the end of the movie when he inherits all the money from an American, he becomes the happiest man alive and does whatever he wants. So in a sense, he was only sad not because he lost his job, but because he loves money.
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