He tells himself that he cannot understand the reasons for Chaplin’s rise. He sees in this other only the reflection of his own longing. He can do what Chaplin does. He could show them, if he were given the chance. He has Chaplin’s grace, Chaplin’s—
Self-belief?
Arrogance?
Appetite?
No, he has few of Chaplin’s appetites—or not yet—beyond the desire for more success.
Beyond the desire for any success.
Any at all.
He listens, too, to the wrong voices, and loudest is A.J.’s. The father has forged the son in his image. Like God, there is the stage, and there has always been the stage, and there always will be the stage. So while Chaplin glides through motion pictures, he stumbles over splintered boards in Lake Nipmuc, Massachusetts, and raises sawdust in Cleveland, Ohio.
He can do what Chaplin does. He has watched him for years. He has played the same roles. He is the shadow of this man.
And so he must become him.
He joins Edgar Hurley and Edgar Hurley’s wife, Wren, to form the Keystone Trio of 1915.
Absent the ability or opportunity to forge a paradigm, each will instead offer a simulacrum.
Edgar Hurley will be Chester Conklin.
Wren Hurley will be Mabel Normand.
And he will be Chaplin.
They present the screen upon the stage. They offer flesh and blood in place of light and shadow. (“He impersonates Charlie Chaplin to the letter.”) He is a success, but only as another man. He is a good Chaplin and so, by definition, he is a failure as himself.
He feels his feet sliding, the ground shifting. The Audience laughs, but it laughs before he commences his routine. It laughs when he appears. It laughs because Chaplin makes it laugh. Without Chaplin, there would be no laughter at all.
Edgar Hurley hears the laughter, and wants it as his own. Edgar Hurley has also studied the master well. If the Audience is laughing at Chaplin, then it does not matter who wears the mask.
They head north—Pennsylvania, New York—and Edgar Hurley simmers, and Edgar Hurley argues, and Edgar Hurley will not be denied. Finally, Edgar Hurley becomes Chaplin, and Edgar Hurley takes the stage.
The Audience laughs. It laughs when Edgar Hurley appears. It laughs because Chaplin makes it laugh.
He watches Edgar Hurley mimic him mimicking Chaplin. It breaks him, and in breaking he understands.
He abandons the Hurleys.
The Hurleys fire him.
Does either version change the plot? There is no plot, so it does not.
He is tired. This is too much for him. He could go home. His family is there. The music halls are there.
The war is there.
He remains.