ipl-logo

A Feminist Perspective Of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

1460 Words6 Pages

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist from Britain who is known for her essay on visual pleasures in narrative cinema. Being inspired by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan’s ideology combined with psychoanalysis, Mulvey comes up with the ‘Male Gaze Theory regarding sexual objectification on women in the media. The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and the literature portrays women and world from a masculine point of view presenting women as objects of male pleasure regardless of being heterosexual male or female, thus the formula of cinema becomes comprised of “women ad image, man as bearer of the look.” The male gaze consists of three different gazes: - look of the camera that records the film, - the look of the characters in the film and – the look of the audience that views the film. Mulvey then went on to classify women’s role on film functions “on two levels: as erotic objects for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects for the character within the auditorium.” She then criticise Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘the rear window’ made in 1954 for his portrayal …show more content…

By welcoming us to relate to Jefferies through the subjective utilization of perspective shots and most significantly exactly when Mr Thorwald gives back his look by looking straight into the camera (at Jefferies and verifiably at us), this is Hitchcock's comical remark on the primordial status of the observer as voyeur. One of the important characteristics of the gaze is that the object of the gaze is not aware of being looked at, therefore giving the viewers gaze a voyeuristic

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Voyeurism In Rear Window

    422 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is seen when Jeff looks at Miss Torso from his window. While this happens the film goes into a close-up of Jeff's face. Through this, Hitchcock was able to illustrate to the audience that Jeff was looking at Mrs. Torso due to her sexual attractiveness. In the next scene, Stella walks through the door and calls Jeff a “peeping tom”. Because the film was taken in the 1950s, being a peeping tom or a stalker for sexual desire is considered illegal.

    Read More

  • Anxiety And Suspense In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

    973 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the 1954 film, Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock uses the depicted sequence of frames to evoke feelings of anxiety and suspense in the audience by portraying an invasion of privacy and the fear of being caught breaking that boundary that society tends to cherish and protect. When assessed individually, the chosen frames provide a partial, but incomplete evocation of suspense. In the first of the two frames, the audience is outside looking into an apartment building with three people in view, none of whom are composed in a way that would suggest they know where the others in the building are. Additionally, the woman on the upper floor is smiling and waving in the direction of the audience. Coon explains that Hitchcock draws on “societal anxieties

    Read More

  • Symbolism And Motifs In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

    672 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is a fillm full of symbolism and motifs that provides viewers with a bigger meaning. It shows these rhetorical appeals through Hitchcok’s eyes that would not be recognized if not analyzed. Through these appeals I have recognized the window as being a symbol and marriage and binoculars as motifs. After understanding much more than what the eye anitially sees when viewing this film there is a fine line between understanding what is going on in the film and observing what the protagonist Jeff is viewing.

    Read More

  • Social Isolation In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

    1225 Words  | 5 Pages

    Alfred Hitchcock 's Rear Window explores the lives of those who feel isolated within society. The 1954 film, set in the tenements of Grenwich village, depicts those who are incapable of fitting into society 's expectations, as well as those who feel isolated from common interaction with others. Moreover, Hitchcock displays how its human nature to seek comfort and deeper connection even with those who are surrounded by others. Despite depicting characters as lonely, the progression of the film illustrates how individuals can be freed from isolation. The director asserts the loneliness and struggle that comes from fitting into social mores.

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues In Rear Window

    873 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rear Window Argues that people should mind their own business. Do you agree? Rear Window, a 1954 romance/murder-mystery by the renowned golden age director Alfred Hitchcock, is a film that explores a multitude of themes and genres through the voyeuristic gaze of protagonist L.B. Jefferies. Jefferies, or ‘Jeff’ as he commonly known throughout the film, is a middle-aged bachelor recently hospitalised due to his high-risk career as a photojournalist. This hindered condition serves as an important foundation on which the movie is built upon as Jeff’s forced lifestyle being in a wheelchair causes an abrupt stop in his usual high intensity way of life and causes him to quench his boredom in other ways, predominantly watching the other residents in his apartment complex through the ‘rear window’ of his apartment.

    Read More

  • Relationships In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

    827 Words  | 4 Pages

    Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window has several themes. One major theme is relationships. The lead character, Jeff Jeffries, a photographer and committed bachelor, is involved in a relationship with Lisa Fremont, a model, although the relationship has some tension due to Jeff’s lack of commitment. When Jeff is confined to his apartment recovering from a broken leg, he begins spying through his rear window on his neighbors in a nearby apartment. Through her frequent visits, Lisa is drawn into this spying as well.

    Read More

  • Alfred Hitchcock Rear Window Analysis

    1431 Words  | 6 Pages

    In this essay, I will discuss how the film is about film itself. The notions of gaze will also be analysed, through a discussion of voyeurism and Jeff and Lisa’s relationship. This brilliant film about watching the neighbours simultaneously represents a self-reflexive film about the cinema and filmmaking. “[…] Jeff embodies the activity and passivity of both the film maker and the spectator; the director creates and waits, while the viewer

    Read More

  • Psychological Themes In Alfred Hitchcock's Horror Film Psycho

    774 Words  | 4 Pages

    These were explored by the use of the motifs of birds, eyes, hands and mirrors (Filmsite.org, n.d.). Hitchcock skilfully guides the audiences through a tale

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Rear Window By Alfred Hitchcock

    120 Words  | 1 Pages

    Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock depicts men and women in the 1950's and how they are different and the same when representing their gender roles. There are circumstances in the movie where the gender roles change and switch around. When jeff has a broken leg he needs two women to help him around the house. Nurse Stella and his girlfriend Lisa both take pride in taking care of jeff. There were many different roles depicted in the movie, there were happy couples, sad couples, happy singles, and sad singles.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Community In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

    1132 Words  | 5 Pages

    The idea of similarities among all people, an underlying connection, is expressed by Hitchcock when Lisa in Rear Window argues with Jefferies, saying, “There can't be that much difference between people and the way they live! We all eat, talk, drink, laugh, sleep, wear clothes --“. When she says this, Lisa has a lamp light shining from the upper right side of the screen to indicate the truth of her argument. There is also an instance in Rear Window where the ability to understand a person sprouts empathy. Jefferies is sitting in the dark, after Lisa leaves angry, when the piano man comes home.

    Read More

  • Hitchcock's Use Of Mise-En-Scene In Film

    1506 Words  | 7 Pages

    To the unknown eye, Hitchcock has carefully and skillfully used Mise-en-scene to his advantage, causing the audience to feel fear and a sense of caution towards the character of Norman Bates. It isn’t until we reflect back on the scene and notice how intelligently Hitchcock uses the positioning of props and the characters, lighting, camera angle and staging, that we notice how he has added meaning to his characters but has also to the film, creating suspense and fear from one scene to the end of the film. Ultimately proving the point that Hitchcock “the master of suspense” uses Mise-en-scene to not only help make a brilliant film but also uses it as his disposal to add meaning in his

    Read More

  • Essay On Rear Window

    934 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Laura Mulvey’s article, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” she writes about the relationship between voyeurism, cinema, and gender. She begins by describing the concept of scopophilia, which means to gain pleasure from looking. She writes that scopophilia is inherently active/masculine, and that pleasure is derived from looking at other people as mere objects. On the other hand, the passive/feminine is derived from the experience of being looked at (pg.188). Mulvey sees this binary relationship between viewer and object being viewed as a part of our culture, and the greatest example of this is found in cinema.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Man Who Knew Too Much By Alfred Hitchcock

    653 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hollywood has always done a terrible job of depicting real women in film, and although his work has a somewhat misogynistic reputation, Alfred Hitchcock has done so much involving the progression of female roles in Hollywood cinema. Although many of his female victims wind up dead, the survivors have lots of power – and without reliance on their male counterparts. Women remain the central focus in many of Hitchcock’s films, not just because of their beauty, but because the narrative is dependent on them. When you look at his work in the context of this specific Hollywood era, Hitchcock’s female characters are very much out of the ordinary. Looking past the obvious presence of gender roles (male and female) that just so happened to be a part of the social norm during that time, Hitchcock sought to represent women with having more depth, realism, and independence than ever before in women in Hollywood.

    Read More

  • Gender Trouble: The Role Of Gender Identity In Cinema

    2304 Words  | 10 Pages

    The media has long been recognized as important source of gender related information, television and cinema specifically influences its audience in a considerable way. (Denmark and Paludi 2008). With regards to the concept of gender cinema can offer a space where ambiguities of identities are played out; understanding the play of the categories of femininity and masculinity is very important in evaluating our own understandings of gender and how we react to different representations of it (Tasker 2002).If a film can show different individuals and we can recognize how social forces shape and constrain the individual according to classifications of gender it narrates an experience where we experience the film as gendered viewers. Film reflects and generates out own experience of gender over and above out own recognition and observation of it. (Pomerance 2001).

    Read More

  • Secret Superstar Character Analysis

    1240 Words  | 5 Pages

    Abstract: In most parts of the world, females have always been the victim of oppressive patriarchy and male chauvinism since ages. This problem has been represented by many people through various forms of creations be it art, literature or films. Films are the most popular visual mediums of entertainment through which a large segment of people can be approached. Like literature, a film is also a work of art which mirrors the society, it also depicts the reality of the society though it has some fictionality in it.

    Read More

More about A Feminist Perspective Of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

Open Document