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Esperanto and Cinema Part Five. The Great Dictator

© David Poulson

Idiot's Delight, which I discussed in my last Topic article, is the first Hollywood film in which Esperanto was used. However, the best-known film to make use for Esperanto is The Great Dictator, which, like Idiot's Delight, was released in 1939. In this film Charlie Chaplin, in his first non-silent film, plays two parts: that of Adenoid Hynkel, the dictator of a fictitious totalitarian state, Toimania; and that of his double, a Jewish barber. http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0032553

The language spoken in this mythical country, as attested by the street-signs and some words of dialogue, is Esperanto. Perhaps Esperanto was chosen as an alternative to a national language for the same reason it was selected by the producers of Idiot's Delight, namely, to avoid offending any of the fascist European governments of the 1930's. But there could be another explanation.

The Great Dictator is a much sharper satirical work than Idiot's Delight and, while being primarily a work of entertainment, is a direct attack on Hitler and his Nazis. It is no accident that the Toimanian dictator's double is a Jewish barber. Chaplin, like most informed people, was well aware of Hitler's pathological hared of the Jews, and he may well have known of Hitler's animosity to Esperanto as well. Chaplin certainly shows his support and sympathy for the Jews in this film and he also reveals, as shown in the speech which follows, if not support for the Esperanto language, then an ideological and moral viewpoint which is entirely congruous with that of Dr Zamenhof and of many committed Esperantists. http://www.afionline.org/cinema/rink.htm...

I'm sorry but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black men, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others' happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and