I'm really late to this thread, but I'll reply because I was also wondering how gender affects (if at all) one's perception of the ending. From reading some comments here I got the impression that some guys who identify with the Tramp's situation (making sacrifices for an ultimately unattainable girl) think she pities him rather than loves him. I'm not sure how most girls would perceive the ending. I'm a girl, but I identify more with the Tramp, so who knows.
Personally I loved the ending, and I love how ambiguous it is. In another thread someone pointed out how useless it is trying to explain it, but I find other people's take on it quite interesting. I believe that it says something about the person, as is often the case with works of art.
On that subject, I wonder where you got the "embraces him" part from. What do I see? Well, my take on the ending is that the girl still loves him, even though she's disappointed he's not what she expected him to be. After all, everything would be so much easier if he were a rich gentleman. But I think she was expecting a rich guy only because that's who he made her believe he was. If she'd known he was poor from the start, I like to think she would have fallen for him anyway, and would have been on the lookout for a humble-looking man at the flower shop instead. Unfortunately the drastic role reversal makes a relationship between them socially unacceptable for the times, which I imagine might be what she finds most disappointing: she dreamed of a fairy-tale romance between her and her benefactor, and now that cannot be. Mind you, if I were her and I truly loved him I'd still go for it, and do everything I could to repay the favor. In real life I'm the kind of person who doesn't let money/good looks/social acceptance dictate who they do or don't date, but of course my values, and modern society's in general, differ from those of a 1930's (late 1920's?) woman.
That said, I still don't think they would end up together in the end, because I suspect our hero would believe that she'd be better off with someone else (SPOILERSasinthecircusorlimelight/SPOILERS). Even if she still loved him, he'd probably try to make her original dream come true by hooking her up with a real millionaire or something, and then walk away alone into the sunset. The only way I can see a traditional happy ending for the two of them is if he miraculously became a millionaire overnight, SPOILERSasinthegoldrush/SPOILERS.
Maybe his millionaire pal finally does himself in during one of his drunken bouts of depression, leaving all his worldly possessions to his BFF the Tramp in order to spite his ex-wife? Just kidding.
I wonder what made your friend say girls don't like the ending. I love it just the way it is, even though I'm of the opinion that it's bittersweet. I'll try to get some of my typical girly-girl friends to see this film and report any interesting findings. None of them have ever seen a Chaplin film, so it should be interesting.
reply
share