Monday, February 8, 2016
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 ‘downfall’ of the doorman is a commentary on society rather than a result of a tragic flaw. The entire situation for the doorman is a result of inevitable forces that are entirely outside of his control. The process of aging is entirely outside of his control and his demotion is a result of his aging. The movie’s depiction of the doorman as inactive and lethargic serves to emphasize this point. The doorman is only a passive character throughout his life because his life is controlled more by transcendent social forces rather than his individual actions.
ReplyDeleteThe argument that the doorman is to blame for his passivity is laughable. The doorman’s passivity is an expression of his descent into depression. Simply shaking off depression and ignoring the physical effects of aging is not very simple. That the doorman is to blame for stealing his uniform and creating a lie is also silly since it is not clear that the gossip is about his lie or being a washman. Had the doorman simply gone back to his apartment complex and told everyone that he had been demoted because of his frailty, he would have faced the same ridicule and mockery.
The doorman’s downfall is better read as a criticism of society. The written conclusion before the studio ending clearly demonstrates that the film is supposed to portray a depressing image of life. The director intended for the story to show that for many people, their lives are not about what they do, but what happens to them. Many people do not have the ability to simply do something and solve all their problems. The Last Laugh is an illustration of this point by telling the depressing story of a person who is demoted and estranged from his community by no fault of his own.
This film is not a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense since the doorman does not have a tragic character flaw, he is simply too old and frail to do his job like he used to. The doorman’s downfall is not the fault of any particular group or person, but rather a combination of society, himself, and life. Before the doorman was demoted, his job was one of the most important things in his life. Because of this job, he was given respect from his family, friends, neighbors, and fellow workers because of his apparent high status in the social class. When he receives the letter telling him he is too old and frail to keep doing his job, he realizes that one of the most important things in his life is now gone, which affects many other aspects of his life. The other people in his life start looking down on him and he starts becoming more depressed. His demotion to being a bathroom attendant causes him to live a life of negativity. Firstly, his demotion is partly the fault of society, for not appreciating people as much as they get older and thinking that they are not capable of all of the things that they used to be able to do. This isn’t entirely the fault of society though; it’s true that as you get older, you are not able to do everything as well anymore, and that’s simply a fault of age and how life is. His reaction to this is his fault because he has made being a doorman the single most important thing in his life and doesn’t have any other interests that are important to him, so obviously since he lost this, he’s miserable.
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ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh depicts the downfall of an elderly man and the outcomes that follow this decline. The movie presents the elderly man as a victim of his own age- the terrible things that happen in his life are due simply to the aging of his character rather than as a lesson for things he might have committed. The film seems to be displaying age as a drawback and a handicap for getting what you want in life, as if age sucks your life and takes away whatever it wants from it. The movie presents the unnamed doorman as a victim of the bad luck that his life endures. He was demoted to being the bathroom attendant due to his age, not his skill or determination as a worker. The way in which his family behaves after they find this out shows how unfair his life is and victimizes him by the way in which things happen to him that are out of his control. It seems arbitrary for his family to think he has been lying to them all this time and for them to simply give up on him when he is already saddened by the loss of his job. Not only is he falsely blamed for lying, he is mocked for being downgraded at work and treated as less of a man than he was before, even though the reasoning for losing his job is beyond his control. The audience feels sorry for the doorman and is rooting for him to get his old life back since no reason is given for why he is a bad person that deserves a miserable ending.
Age is not a sufficient enough reason for the doorman’s downfall, time and age are factors we as humans cannot control. This movie portrays how age may effect a human’s life as if studying how unfair events that follow a certain age can be seen as cruel and unforgiving for people such as the unnamed doorman. We cannot blame the doorman for the way in which his decline unfolded, therefore the moral of this film seems to be to open the eyes of those of us who give up on the elderly without thinking of the consequences this could have on the rest of their lives.
I think that this film is not a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense, because there is not a specific flaw that the character has other than age. He cannot control this flaw, which is why the eventual depression that the main character falls into seems to be irreversible. This is why I think that it is not the doorman’s fault for his downfall, but rather the effect of aging that becomes his kryptonite. I think this is not only an indictment of society at the time, but through all of time. As humans get older, our bodies and minds begin to fail us and are not able to perform at the peak performance we expect. The acceptance that we cannot do what we once could has always plagued the elderly. The movie does a good job of explaining the doorman’s thoughts and feelings as he develops his depression. In the beginning of the movie he knew that he was struggling to do his job, but the fact that he still had his job allowed him to ignore the signs of regression. When he hears that he has been demoted, he is in shock and is unable to move or deal with what he already knows. Later in the movie, he dreams about developing an unnatural ability to do his job which leaves the bystanders in awe. Dreaming of attaining these capabilities is the life that he desires and expects for himself, but now he is just handing out bath towels. By the original end of the movie, the realities of life and the frailty of the main character had led to him crouched over alone shrouded in his depression. So, it is not that he is hindered by a flaw, but rather becomes estranged from his family, workers, and neighbors because of his age.
ReplyDeleteAlthough some may think that the downfall of the doorman is the fault of society, I believe that most of the fault falls directly on himself. It may seem sad to say, but the doorman’s superior believed that it was time for him to be let go, and it probably was. The film specifically shows the letter detailing the firing of the doorman, paying special attention to the words “frail” and “age.” This reasoning causes me to think that this act is justified. The doorman had beefed up his position so much in his head that he felt almost like an icon for his neighbors and others. This made the fall so shocking that his imagination began to run. When the The Last Laugh depicts what is going on in the doorman’s head, it shows grotesque faces of people laughing at him. This is not what is happening in reality however. This is all going on in the doorman’s head. This is why the downfall is his own fault. He hyped up his position so much in his head that he believed that he was on top of the world. On a different note, the ending does not fit into this film because it just adds to his fantasy, making him actually on top of the world. The use of optical effects specifically showing what the doorman is feeling and thinking is what makes this so prominent in my mind. I don’t think it’s society’s fault because the doorman only makes it seem that it’s their fault, when in actuality it’s a fantasy. In conclusion, the movie specifically shows the doorman making up the fact that society brings him down, when in fact, the reason for his firing is something that he should understand and put up with. He brings himself down.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if the film is somewhat a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense that his downfall is inevitable. We all know that aging is inevitable, however, in most common movies the downfall is no aging. I feel that it is not an indictment of the time, because the doorman’s position somewhat underlies the theory of Social Darwinism. In the doorman’s case, he becomes far too weak to continue on with his job; therefore someone who is stronger and bigger than him takes over his job. I think that society (at that time) really doesn’t have anything to do with the loss of his job. Even today, if you are not preforming up to a set standard of work then your position should be handled with accordingly. Since he wasn’t able to perform up to his standards, and his job was replaced, I believe that it wasn’t a social problem at all, just a practical business decision. Had the doorman been able to keep his strength up and was able to keep up his normal work, he would have evaded the “aging” aspect of his downfall, and would have been able to continue. But in his case, the aging got to him and his strength deteriorated accordingly.
ReplyDeleteThe downfall of the doorman does fall under the definition of an Aristotelian tragedy as in reality; the incredible fall of the doorman is actually his fault. While many may blame the society of the time and the people around him, the actual reason that hiss fall was so profound and pronounced was the impact of the demotion on the doorman’s life. He had built up his entire being around being a doorman at the Atlantic hotel and he had built up the position in his mind so much that when he could no longer do it, he mentally fell apart. In fact to him, this (rather minor in actuality) demotion was so shameful that he lied about it for days to his family and neighbors; in fact this only augmented his downfall because he was proved a fraud in trying to maintain the façade that he still retained his old position. If he had gone home that day without lying to his family and told them that he had been demoted it is quite possible that they would have assisted him or at least not have abandoned him; but because of his lying his family felt betrayed and ostracized the doorman. In his mind, the doorman felt that all the insults about his losing his job were the only thing that anyone thought of him and their laughing destroyed him. Completely enveloping himself in his career and building it up in his brain so much is what, in the end, caused his downfall to be so exaggerated.
ReplyDeleteThe depiction of the unnamed doorman in the movie The Last Laugh is a reflection on aging and its effect on society as well the doorman himself. Aging is inevitable as it happens to everyone, however it happens differently with the doorman. Usually, when people begin to grow older, they develop mentally as well. The movie showed the doorman as old on the outside, but internally he believes he is young. He creates high standards for himself to conquer which he cannot do. This is apparent in the early scene where he attempts to carry a large chest on his own. Even though he was successful in doing so, he was exhausted from the work. His boss notices him taking a break and recovering from such a task, which is when the company decided to demote him because of his physical condition. Yet even after he is demoted, he still wants to ignore it and continue on as the doorman. He has such a high reputation in his “family” and if they were to find out he got demoted, they would lose all respect for him, and eventually they found out. Finally, the doorman accepted the fact that he was old, and that he needs to keep up with himself. Then finally movie then ended with him scrubbing the floors in a bathroom. This displays the importance of aging because it affects the relationships people have with one another and also affects ones emotional state. It shows a sense of reality in the movie, which is was key for the doorman to understand.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh follows the story of an aging doorman who loses his job and subsequently, his sense of prestige and identity. As the movie progresses, he transforms into a struggling, depressed failure. The film is not an Aristotelian tragedy because even though he makes some questionable decisions and does not handle the situation well, his downfall is not a result of anything he could change. He lost his job because of time, and that is a force far beyond anyone’s control. It’s clear that he is too old to be performing his doorman duties when he is unable to lift bags, so the fault does not fall to the hotel or new doorman either. It’s clear that the old doorman villainizes the new doorman and feels like he stole his job and pride, when in reality, it was not the young doorman’s fault at all. No one is especially to blame for the old man losing his doorman position; however, his downfall includes much more than being demoted. The people in his neighborhood took advantage of his problems and made his situation considerably worse than it actually was. His job as a bathroom attendant was probably not much worse than the jobs of many other people in his hometown, but the difference is he started out as something better and then got demoted. Everyone ignored the fact that he lost his doorman job as a result of natural causes, something that would inevitably happen to anyone in that position. The reactions and laughing faces when he enters the neighborhood show that they no longer respect him are clearly making fun of him. In doing so, they were destroying his pride and making him feel like an outcast in society. His distress is mostly a result of what others think of him rather than his situation itself. For this reason, society is to blame for his troubles because of the way they reacted to something that should not have been a big deal.
ReplyDeleteThis film is not a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense because the main character does not have a tragic character flaw. His demotion from a successful doorman to a bathroom attendant seems to be chalked up to the fact that the poor old man had indeed become too old to do his job. This has nothing to do with a tragic character flaw, but instead it almost seems to be the result of a random string of bad luck. In fact, it doesn’t really seem like the character ever receives any actual, direct consequences from his actions, but instead everything that happens to him occurs by an outside power. His downfall in his career clearly falls into this category because it doesn’t really seems like he really has any control over what happened. The other main event that falls into this category of randomness is the alternate ending, when the unnamed doormen comes across a large pile of money (from the person that died in his arms) and lives happily ever after. There was not a specific character trait that caused this random event to happen to the man but it happened anyways. I think the way these events were portrayed in the movie is very interesting because, as I’ve previously said, it is not an average, stereotypical tragedy. Instead, there is an outside power, which seems to be chance. I’m not sure if all these things were intentional decisions made by the director/writers, but if they are, perhaps they were attempting to show the world the bittersweet truth about life. That sometimes things happen, whether good or bad, which we don’t ask for, and we just have to take them the way they are.
ReplyDeleteThe doorman's downfall is his own fault as it follows Aristotelian tragedy. The doorman’s fatal flaw is that he has extreme pride. Even though he is part of the lower class, he is admired within his neighborhood because he has a job in which he is connected with the upper class. This leads to him worrying too much about how others see him and eventually his only happiness comes from the image that he projects onto others. Because of this, when he loses his job, he feels as though his life is over. His downfall comes because he cares too much about his image and he does not want to let people know that he has lost his job, and I believe that the people the people of his neighborhood would not have made fun of him had he not lied about his demotion. The doorman judges his self-worth based only on others opinions, however, instead of trying to improve his image, he feels as though his life is over and there is no turning back. In the director’s cut, the Aristotelian tragedy was complete, as the movie ends with him in the bathroom looking miserable and with no one that likes him. The real ending however, also proves the point that he only cares about others opinions. When he gets the money from the rich man, he is seen as a wealthy and successful man by those around him, and that takes him out of misery since others, particularly those from his neighborhood would look up to him and envy him.
ReplyDeleteThe story of the Last Laugh follows the big man on campus- the door man, and his deposition into a nobody. This begs the question, whose to blame for this downfall? The doorman's decline is a result of both his actions and society's views towards the elder generation as a whole. It is the doorman himself's fault because he simply cared too much about his job. His sun rises and sets with his job, to which he shows extreme pride and fulfillment. However, all of this is simply setting himself up to fail. He arrogantly places all of his honor and self-esteem in his job title so it is merely an effect of his own wrongdoings that when he loses his job, he loses his honor and self-esteem as well. This loss of dignity advances the film to take on a tragic town, as opposed to its previous joyful tone. Nevertheless it isn't entirely the doorman's fault, but society's as well. In this film, society could be represented by his boss, who was the only one who showed a problem with the doorman's aging. EVeryone else seemed to respect him, they even saluted at him whenever they saw him. However, his boss still viewed him as lesser due to his age. This could be a critique of capitalism, as if to say the second you can't do your job you're fired. This film somewhat reminded me of a highschool type story: A guy who cares too much about what others think and it ends up biting him in the leg.
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ReplyDeleteThere are many contradicting theories of why the doorman came to a “downfall”, but it is truly his age that defines him of being incapable of the arduous task. The downfall of the doorman can be seen as a criticism of the elderly by society during the time, but this point is proved invalid because the doorman was physically incapable of doing his job. This is a perfectly reasonable cause to demote a person. Everyone has flaws and in the case of the doorman, it was his ‘age and frailty” that was the cause of his demotion. Unfortunately, in the time period of the film, it is acceptable to fire or demote someone based on how well they do their job. Throughout the film, the doorman’s incapability to lift the heavy luggage, his portrayal of taking breaks from being tired, and dropping the large chest in front of his boss, all foreshadowed his demotion. Another point of emphasis that backs his demotion is when the Doorman is reading his demotion, the camera changes focus to show how the man’s age was stealing his ability to see. All in all, it was the Doorman’s inability to properly do his job that caused his demotion. If this wasn’t the case, then there wouldn’t be a plot for this Aristotelian tragedy.