Filozofski fakultet Ivana Mihaljuk

Odsek za anglistiku EJ/200024

Novi Sad
Body language and humor in silent movies
Abstract
Body language is defined as a form of mental and physical ability of human non-verbal
communication. Such ability implies various categories such as eye movement, facial
expressions, head movement, posture, gestures etc. (Wainwright 2003: 15). It has been proved
that non verbal cues carry approximately two-thirds of a messages communicative value, thus
confirming the old saying: Its not what you say, its how you say it (Gamble & Gamble 2012:
12). But what happens when we exclude the words and use non verbal cues independently of
them? The masters thesis primarily focuses on non verbal communication in silent movies and
analyses ways of successfully conveying the message without using any verbal cues. The starting
hypothesis is that actions are louder than words so it is expected that non verbal communication,
as a dominant and the only type of communication in silent movies, will be equally successful as
verbal one. Theoretical framework and methodological grounds, on which this thesis is based on,
are collected mostly by comparing and referring to the works of eminent authors in the field of
non verbal communication, mainly Gordon Wainwright, Mark L. Knapp and Paul Ekman.
For the purpose of this work, four silent movies featuring Charlie Chaplin as well as an episode
of the popular TV series Mr Bean will be analyzed. The examples collected from the analysis
of these movies will be classified into the categories of touching behavior, eye movements and
gestures and further, into subcategories. Each of the categories will be examined in great detail in
order to see to which extent they contribute to achieving humor. Bearing in mind that the main
goal of these movies is to entertain the audience and provoke laughter, the question raised is how
successful the actors were in achieving this goal without using any verbal signs. The masters
thesis will examine one of the most important questions that emerge: Can silent movies achieve
the same humorous effect as contemporary sitcoms by relying only on body language skills? In
order to do this, the paper will examine types of humor and analyze the ways of achieving it.
Through the analysis of body language in these five movies the conclusion has been made that
non verbal communication can perfectly function in isolation but in order to provoke humor, it
has to go hand in hand with emotional distance, i.e. the audience needs to feel emotionally
attached to the character, to perceive the world through their eyes, to sympathize with them and,
as shown in the paper, that is only possible through a good management of ones acting skills.





Key words: non verbal communication, body language, touching behavior, eye movement,
gesture, silent movies, humorous effect

References:
1. Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. (2012). Communication works. McGraw-Hill: New York
2. Ekman, P. (1982). Emotion in the Human Face (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge.
3. Ekman, P. (1997). Should We Call it Expression or Communication? Innovation, 10 (4),
333-344.
4. Knapp, M. L. (1980). Essentials of nonverbal communication. Holt, Rinehart and
Winston: New York.
5. Knapp, M. L. (2012). Nonverbal communication in human interaction. Cengage
Learning: UK.
6. Wainwright, R. G. (2009). Teach Yourself Body Language. McGraw-Hill Education:
New York.
Sources for the corpus:
1. Modern Times - dir. Charles Chaplin, Charles Chaplin Production, 1936.
2. The Gold Rush - dir. Charles Chaplin, Charles Chaplin Production, 1925.
3. City Lights- dir. Charles Chaplin, Charles Chaplin Production, 1931.
4. The Circus- dir. Charles Chaplin, Charles Chaplin Production, 1928.
5. Mr Bean (TV series) dir. John Birkin, Paul Weiland, John Howard Davies, Tiger Aspect
Production, 1990-1995.