Summary
The scene shifts to the Woman who gave the boy up, who is now a famous performer. She is visited by Professor Guido, an impresario, who compliments her artistry, weeping and writing a glowing review of her work. A delivery boy comes in with a giant bouquet of flowers that is the same size as The Woman, and Professor Guido leaves, weeping. The Woman tips the delivery boy before he leaves, and he smiles wide.
Safely home after getting chased by the police officer, The Tramp and The Kid sit down for a meal of some porridge. A title card reads, "Charity—to some a duty, to others a joy." The Woman visits a poor neighborhood and holds a baby, which brings back all her memories of the child she gave away. As she sits on the stoop, we realize it is the stoop of the Tramp's apartment building, and The Kid comes out and sits beside her, though neither knows the other by sight. The Woman and The Kid smile at one another and she hands him some toys. As she walks away, the Kid waves after her.
We see a fancy party, where The Kid's father is attending, now as a "painter of great prominence." As he speaks with some men, The Woman enters the party, and a title card reads, "Fate." When The Woman and The Man see each other, they are taken aback, nodding solemnly to one another. The Woman goes outside, followed by The Man, and they speak about the past, as represented by a shot of a book entitled "The Past" being flipped through by an unseen man.
As the conversation ends, The Man asks The Woman, "How may I atone for the suffering I've—" and she interrupts him to tell him it's too late.
We see The Kid attending to household tasks at The Tramp's apartment, making pancakes for them both, while The Tramp sits in bed reading the newspaper and smoking. He beckons The Tramp to the table, and after some cajoling, The Tramp comes to eat breakfast. The Tramp notices a hole in the blanket, and puts his head through the hole to turn it into a poncho/robe. He puts on some shabby boots and sits down at the table with The Kid. He divvies up large stacks of pancakes and they eat.
When they are done, The Tramp feels ill and The Kid goes and sits on the stoop holding a stuffed dog.
Analysis
In the years that The Kid has grown into a little boy, his mother, who left him out in the street to be cared for by whoever found him, has become a huge star with a lot of money. She is no longer the desperate woman who cannot afford to take care of a child, but a powerful performer. The irony of this situation is, of course, that given her fame and wealth, The Woman is now much better equipped to take care of The Kid, which makes her all the more regretful of her decision to give him up.
This tension generated by the Woman's change in circumstance is explicated in a tableau of heartbreaking dramatic irony. While visiting a poorer neighborhood in the city and holding a poor woman's infant, the Woman sits on a stoop that just happens to be the apartment of The Tramp. As she sits there holding the baby, The Kid emerges from the door and sits beside her. Neither knows who the other is, and they smile at one another in ignorance. This image pulls on the viewer's heartstrings, as they want to call out to the characters and reveal to them just how fated their meeting is.
The film moves fluidly between playful and absurd scenes of slapstick comedy, involving sentimentality and solemnity. When The Man and The Woman reunite at a party, now each with successful artistic careers, the music becomes dramatic and the characters' gazes turn downward as they recount the past. The next shot is a large book entitled "The Past," next to a small vase of flowers. As an unseen person (God?) turns back the pages of the book, the music dies down and we know that The Woman and The Man are embarking on a difficult but necessary task of untangling their past lives.
The relationship between the Tramp and The Kid becomes a recurring comic motif in the film, always accompanied by the same jaunty music. In each of their segments, no matter how dire or tragic their circumstances are, there are comic antics. For instance, when The Kid is up making pancakes for them both one morning, they strike the viewer as a strange domestic coupling, almost more married couple than a guardian and a child, an absurd irony. When The Tramp arises from the bed, he notices a hole in the blanket and puts his head through it, repurposing it to be a robe of sorts. Theirs is a simple and oftentimes ridiculous domestic life, which tonally contrasts with the sentimental and tragic tenor of the rest of the narrative.
The Tramp remains a lovable and somewhat unknowable person throughout the film, more archetype than individual, a figure who is indistinguishable from Chaplin himself. He has a twinkle in his eye and a puckish charm, and yet he also has a basic selfishness about him. He cannot plan ahead or see anything except what is right in front of him, yet he somehow finds a way to raise The Kid as his own, despite trying to get rid of him so many times at the start of the film. The Tramp is composed almost entirely of appetites, stringing together a life through his thirst for survival and his cockeyed way of looking at the world.
