The Man Who Laughs Review

Review of The Man Who Laughs (1928) by screenqueeen: 👍 4.5/5

HOOPTOBER 9.0 2/32

A haunting premise looms over the entire proceedings of this tragic journey of a member of royalty, turned into a freak according to the general public. Appearing in sideshows since childhood, Gwynplaine is as much a character torn from the pages of previous Hugo novels as he is a character with near-endless life on the tips of our tongues. Those of us who have always been ashamed of their own deformities -- manufactured or through birth -- will identify immediately with his plight.

It also speaks to those whose outer images of bodily presentation do not match how they identify inside (something the direct correlation between this and Batman's Joker loses in translation). It is ultimately a story of love and recognition, tied closely with identity and respect. But the systems in place that value status and appearances of glory simply do not have room for any malformities. This is not a shortcoming of any monarchal governmental system, but a feature that supposedly "weeds out" its undesirables. In MAN WHO LAUGHS Gwynplaine occupies both one who is deserving of his status of power through the system in place and one who is traditionally shunned from any semblance of power; he is the exception in this hateful system of exclusion and xenophobia that fashions itself a Venn diagram of exclusivity, rather with Gwynplaine he exists on two overlapping planes that state he is both a member and and outsider.

I find this incredibly more fascinating as a study of how obsolete structures of power have proven to be. Given that this is pointed out in the year Nineteen Hundred and Twenty Eight and we are still facing such a void of the powers that govern and those who are governed, with just as much if not an even greater distance of understanding those whose lives depend on the former, it's a horrifying lesson that dictates how even brothers and sisters in arms will turn their backs simply if you don't look the part.