Jealousy: The Decline in Sanity Portrayed in Tod Browning's The Unknown

Jealousy will drive you mad. It’s an obvious cliché for relationships but is the foundation for the deranged acts the character Alonzo, in Tod Browning’s The Unknown, commits. Lon Cheney’s portrayal of Alonzo really drives that platitude home. The seemingly caring and empathetic, yet "armless", character finds his downfall in the unrequited love of a teasing woman. The viewer begins the film seeing a man who loves a “tormented” woman who is afraid of men’s hands. He believes that since he is armless he can win her heart because he does supposedly doesn’t have what she fears. This sentiment of love and caring quickly devolves into obsession as he sees other men stealing her attention away from him. The narration of The Unknown along with Chaney’s facial expressions show how this once (supposedly) loving man, is truly unhinged by fear of losing a woman he believes belongs to him.

It is easy to see that, in the beginning, Alonzo thinks there is mutual love between him and Nanon, but then we see the progressive mutation into a type of psychotic ownership over her. The narration moves from caring about Nanon and her fears to phrases like, “she belongs to me,” “I will have her,” and “she is mine.” This type or possessive language is coupled with intense facial expressions shows the view a decline in sanity. Although the film itself is silent, the viewer gets a strong sense of yelling and ranting coming from Alonzo. This behavior isn’t exactly attractive, nor is it becoming of a man supposedly in love. He is a man who clearly experiences the extremes of emotions, blissful happiness or deranged anger. There’s not a lot of in between for a man like Alonzo.

Chaney’s features contort in a way that makes the viewer cringe. Because in a silent film, features must be exaggerated, the viewer is able to have an even stronger visceral response to the portrayal of possessiveness and madness of just his face and how Alonzo is truly a crazy individual. Upon first viewing the thought, “I would never want to be alone in the same room with that person,” came across my mind more than once. Obviously, that is the point when you have a character like Alonzo. Lon Chaney’s performance of Alonzo thoroughly depicts the dissent into madness.

There is great juxtaposition, then, between the expressions and words of Alonzo and the strongman, Malabar. Malabar’s words and physical representations are soft, if not a little dopey. Norman Kerry, the actor portraying Malabar, seemingly has an easy job to do because there is not must in way of substance to the character of Malabar. His facial expressions provide an innocence that is lacking in Alonzo. Even the cameral lighting on Malabar is soft. His words are construed as sweet and sadly misunderstood to his object of affection. His language is never possessive. This representation of Malabar lends itself to what the perfect man should be: physically strong but tender and kind, in other words, completely opposite of what Alonzo is. This opposition both highlights the perceived goodness of Malabar, and makes Alonzo's madness that much more distressing. 

Further showing the decline of sanity, Alonzo's decision to actually cut off his arms comes at a time when he truly believes that Nanon is finally his. This decision is clearly not rational or sane to the normal person, however, Alonzo can't exactly be categorized as sane anymore. When Alonzo's delusion of possessing Nanon and her love is eventually shattered, we see a full range of emotions displayed on Lon Chaney's face. The possibly most distressing response of that mental breakdown is the laughter. There is something terrifying about an insane person hysterically laughing about a bad situation. 

Overall the importance of facial expressions and body language cannot be understated in a silent film. It is easy to portray the dopey strong man, but to play the in love deranged man can be no mean feat. Lon Chaney does a great job providing an uneasiness for the viewer watching the decline of sanity in his portrayal of Alonzo.