City Lights Ending

inal Scene Of City Lights Where Virginia Cherrill Recognises Charles Chaplin (Her Benefactor Whom She Supposes To Be Rich And Handsome) By Touch..

he ending is widely acclaimed as one of cinema’s most touching. The tramp, released from jail, ends up on the same street corner where the flower girl, her sight restored, has opened up a flower shop with her grandmother; every time a rich man comes into the shop she wonders if this is her mysterious benefactor. The tramp spots a flower in the gutter and as he goes to pick it up is tormented by a couple of kids as the flower girl laughs. Then he turns around, sees her, and stops. She laughs and tells her grandmother she has made another conquest. Seeing the flower fall apart in his hand, she goes out to give him a flower and a coin–and then she touches his hand and stops when she realizes it feels familiar. Slowly her hand goes up to touch the face of the tramp. “You?” she says as she realizes that the tramp before her is the reason she can see. “Yes” replies the nervous tramp, his face a map of shame, pride, love and devotion. “You can see now?,” he asks. “Yes. I can see now,” she replies (in later prints Chaplin removed the last title card since it was obvious what she is saying). The film ends with an unusual close up of the tramp and the music continues to swell for some time after the shot fades to black.