Les Enfants Du Paradis: A Film Aristotle Could Appreciate

In chapter fifteen of Aristotle’s Poetics, entitled “The Characters of Tragedy,” Aristotle argues that there should be “four things to aim at;” in terms of character representation (Aristotle 76). The four principles are as follows:

1. Characters should be good.
2. Portrayal should be appropriate.
3. Characters should be lifelike.
4. [Characters] should be consistent.

Does Marcel Carne’s Les Enfants Du Paradis (Children of Paradise), demonstrate these principles of tragedy as Aristotle noted them, and does the complex action of the scene reveal a reversal or recognition in the characters?
Here we see the theory at work in the lower-class theatre district of France, where our mime sits to be ridiculed and gawked at by the upper-class. It is in the opening scene where we are introduced to Aristotle’s first principle regarding characters of tragedy--characters should be good. Aristotle writes, “There can be goodness in every class of person; for instance, a woman or a slave may be good, though the one is possibly an inferior being and the other in general an insignificant one” (Aristotle 76). We see this goodness in the beautiful woman who doesn’t mock the mime, but views him as a person who has hidden beauty and mystique. In turn, we view the mime, who is a slave to his low-class position in society, as having goodness in him for not retaliating against the heavy-set man who berates him. While the mime and the woman are dissimilar in social status—they share an equal bond of substandard ness.
The beautiful women ties in nicely to Aristotle’s second principle of portrayal. Aristotle pens, “. . . a character may possess manly qualities, but it is not appropriate that a female character should be given manliness or cleverness in this way” (Aristotle 76). In this scene, the heavy-set man grabs the woman by the wrists, and she demonstrates weakness to his powerful “manly” grasp. According to Aristotle’s principle, the woman is appropriately dressed in feminine clothing and demonstrates petite ness in stature. She is not representative of the later models of female characters in film, like Erin Brockovich, or Segourney Weaver, who wouldn’t fit under Aristotle’s principle of appropriate portrayal.
The third principle of lifelike characters has never been fleshed out by Aristotle. Perhaps by “lifelike,” Aristotle is referring to audience identification with the characters. As audience members, we identify that the characters are human, demonstrating strengths and weaknesses. We recognize and can relate to the scenes rational and irrational thinking in times of duress. When the film hits its first turning point; the heavy-set man notices his pocket watch is stolen—rational for he is out in public. The woman, who didn’t share in his view of the mime, must have taken it—irrational for the woman is standing on the wrong side of where the pocket watch was kept, and would have had to drop her purse along with part of her dress to reach it. In the end we note the “lifelike” virtues of the scene: compassion demonstrated by the beautiful woman, determination by the heavy-set man, and honesty by the mime.
The forth and final principle of consistency is demonstrated throughout the scene. The mime and the woman remain good through their assisting one another in speech or action, and the heavy-set man returns—remaining ignorant in his cognitive reasoning.
It is interesting to point out, that through all of these principles; the complex action of the scene reveals a reversal in the characters. Aristotle writes, “A reversal is a change from one state of affairs to its opposite” (Aristotle 70). In the opening scene the mime is passed by the noisy crowds, observed by the few who want to gawk and joke. He is on a lower plane of superiority. The reversal comes when he re-tells the story of the pickpocket that he is cast in a new light. Through pantomime, he makes fun of the heavy-set man—and the crowd laughs with him, not at him. We see that his position on the stage is one of superiority, for he is higher then the onlookers looking up at him. The situation has changed dramatically for citizens have grown quite and are giving the mime their utmost attention. You could argue that a moment of recognition occurs at the end of the scene between the three principle characters. The heavy-set man perhaps gains a grain of knowledge from his ignorant accusation; but according to Aristotle must remain ignorant in order to stay consistent. In the case of the beautiful woman and the mime, the woman sees the virtue of the honest mime assisting her in her time of duress, and offers the mime a flower—symbolizing their connected identity. According to Aristotle, this will “likely lead to good or bad fortune” (71).

Work Cited

Aristotle. “Poetics.” Classical Literary Criticism. Trans. Penelope Murray and T. S. Dorsch. London: Penguin Group, 2004. 57-97.