Consider this final scene from Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (1931). Charlie's Tramp character is pictured walking aimlessly on the streets of New York. His visible shabbiness makes him an easy target for two newspaper boys who play pranks on him. He, on his part, notices a flower on the street and leans down to collect it, only to be attacked once again by the pranksters. Meanwhile, the episode is witnessed from the glass door of a flower shop by two women, the blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and her grandmother (Florence Lee). The former turns out to be no longer blind; she has had her sight restored and now owns her own business. All this thanks to the help of the Tramp, who ended up in jail to help her, and whom she has never seen due to her previous disability. At times, she recalls him and imagines him to be a ‘noble’ millionaire. When they encounter each other in the above-mentioned scene, the camera cuts to the Tramp, who is visibly astonished. Through a series of shot-reverse-shots we see him looking affectionately at the young woman, who is blissfully unaware of his identity and thinks that a stranger has fallen for her. When she kindly approaches to offer him a flower and some money, he shyly tries to run away. The woman insists and after holding his hand to give him the money, her sense of touch makes her recognise him. She then realises that her real benefactor is not a wealthy man but an underdog. Visibly astonished, she asks him ‘is it you’? The Tramp nods coyly and retorts: ‘you can see now’? She responds, ‘yes, I can see now’.

The woman here seems to acknowledge that being able to see the world does not necessarily mean that one gets to understand it too. Her response to the Tramp's question suggests that despite her restored sight, her capacity for understanding the world was confined by her concession to conventional social views.