The Little Tramp, also known as The Tramp (Charlot in several languages) was Charlie Chaplin's most memorable on-screen character, a recognized icon of world cinema most dominant during the silent film era.
The Tramp, as portrayed by Chaplin, is a childlike, bumbling but overall good-hearted character who is most famously presented as a vagrant who endeavors to behave with the manners and dignity of a gentleman despite his actual social status. However, while he is ready to take what paying work that is available, he also uses his cunning to get what he needs to survive and escape the authority figures who will not tolerate his antics. Chaplin's films did not always portray the Tramp as a vagrant, however. The character (or "The Little Fellow," as Chaplin called him) was rarely referred to by any names onscreen, although he was sometimes identified as "Charlie" and rarely, as in the original silent version of The Gold Rush, "The Little funny Tramp".
Read more about The Tramp: History, Characteristics, Significance, Chaplin's Views, The Short Film
Famous quotes containing the word tramp:
“I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they answered to. I have met one or two who had heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud, and they seemed as anxious to recover them as if they had lost them themselves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)