Code and Meaning

the case of Charles Chaplin's Modern Times

        

         Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" (1936) was the last silent movie he made. This Chaplin's classic film is about two people struggling with the life of the industrial era. It's also a controversial film and has a lot of interpretations. Because of Modern Times and some other films Chaplin made, he was accused to be a communist and forced to leave United States for political reasons. Until 1972 when he was 81 years old, was the long forgotten artist returning to accept a lifetime achievement Academy Award.

In the following pages, I will briefly introduce this film and some of its interpretations. Furthermore, I will discuss some of these theories and try to figure out why this film is open to various interpretations. In short, Audience interprets messages by articulating them into their own codes. It is reasonable to assume that the decoded meaning for a text will differ from the encoded meaning. Because different audiences have different culture and political codes in their minds, the same film can have various interpretations.

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Siliang Xu yu274663@yorku.ca