Certain underlying motifs such as the subjective point of view, social and moral critiques, involvement of the audience, or the not ego ideal male protagonist can be used to characterize the Hitchcock film. His 1954 film Rear Window operates by implicating the viewer in the narrative as it presents a visual analysis on the nature of human curiosity and interactions. Throughout the film, L.B. Jeffries, played by James Stewart, is bound to his wheelchair and finds himself peering into the lives of his neighbors as a form of entertainment and a means to escape his own problems. The cinema, according to Laura Mulvey, derives its pleasure from “scopophilia,” where looking becomes the source of one’s pleasure. Jefferies’ action of looking out of
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Jefferies “watches the occupants of the flats opposite as a means of escape from his problems…but the people he chooses to watch all in some way reflect his own problems.” He becomes most preoccupied with the Thorwalds who act as a double to his relationship with Lisa. In the scene where Lisa serves him a lobster dinner from the Twenty-One Club, Jeffries looks over at the Thorwald’s apartment and sees Mr. Thorwald bringing dinner to his invalid wife. The Thorwalds symbolize the stereotypical unhappy couple, and the ultimate male fear of the displeased and nagging wife. Jefferies views the idea of marriage as the loss of a man’s happiness since he must give up his independence and freedom. Mr. Thorwald cares for his wife, only to be scolded about the meaningless things that compel him to find another lover and murder her. Their relationship speaks of the difficulties of modern marriage. Rear Window, operating singularly through Jefferies’ consciousness, takes a brazen outlook on marriage. The film deconstructs the potential for an image of the perfect marriage. The newlyweds, at the end of the film, leave the blissful honeymoon phase and enter into a reality that echoes that of the Thorwalds at the beginning of the film–the husband tired of hearing his nagging wife. The …show more content…
When Jefferies talks on the phone with his editor, a helicopter hovers over the roof of the apartment complex, presumably to catch a glimpse two women sunbathing topless. The helicopter imitates the mechanics of classical Hollywood film, bestowing upon its viewer complete omniscience. It “provides a perfect ‘vehicle’ for the spectatorial desire… to go everywhere and see everything, and especially for the socially constructed (and largely male) desire to see women in states of undress” (Stam and Pearson 198). It remarks that the audience exists in a voyeuristic world, characterized by the satisfaction of looking into a world that they do not belong to. Jefferies’ voyeurism marks off his perversions and also marks off the viewer’s, since they are forced to identify with him. The act of peering into another world is innate within the world of cinema, however Rear Window undermines the pleasure. Stella the insurance nurse, played by Thelma Ritter, finds Jefferies voyeurism disturbing and proclaims, “We've become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change.” Jefferies strips his tenants, such as Miss Torso and Miss Lonelyhearts, of human quality, reducing them to a series of body parts, whose
Jefferies “watches the occupants of the flats opposite as a means of escape from his problems…but the people he chooses to watch all in some way reflect his own problems.” He becomes most preoccupied with the Thorwalds who act as a double to his relationship with Lisa. In the scene where Lisa serves him a lobster dinner from the Twenty-One Club, Jeffries looks over at the Thorwald’s apartment and sees Mr. Thorwald bringing dinner to his invalid wife. The Thorwalds symbolize the stereotypical unhappy couple, and the ultimate male fear of the displeased and nagging wife. Jefferies views the idea of marriage as the loss of a man’s happiness since he must give up his independence and freedom. Mr. Thorwald cares for his wife, only to be scolded about the meaningless things that compel him to find another lover and murder her. Their relationship speaks of the difficulties of modern marriage. Rear Window, operating singularly through Jefferies’ consciousness, takes a brazen outlook on marriage. The film deconstructs the potential for an image of the perfect marriage. The newlyweds, at the end of the film, leave the blissful honeymoon phase and enter into a reality that echoes that of the Thorwalds at the beginning of the film–the husband tired of hearing his nagging wife. The …show more content…
When Jefferies talks on the phone with his editor, a helicopter hovers over the roof of the apartment complex, presumably to catch a glimpse two women sunbathing topless. The helicopter imitates the mechanics of classical Hollywood film, bestowing upon its viewer complete omniscience. It “provides a perfect ‘vehicle’ for the spectatorial desire… to go everywhere and see everything, and especially for the socially constructed (and largely male) desire to see women in states of undress” (Stam and Pearson 198). It remarks that the audience exists in a voyeuristic world, characterized by the satisfaction of looking into a world that they do not belong to. Jefferies’ voyeurism marks off his perversions and also marks off the viewer’s, since they are forced to identify with him. The act of peering into another world is innate within the world of cinema, however Rear Window undermines the pleasure. Stella the insurance nurse, played by Thelma Ritter, finds Jefferies voyeurism disturbing and proclaims, “We've become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change.” Jefferies strips his tenants, such as Miss Torso and Miss Lonelyhearts, of human quality, reducing them to a series of body parts, whose