Mulvey's Rear Window

The Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is a very interesting movie, once you start to watch the movie you are pulled into the curiosity of L.B. Jefferies’ voyeuristic antics as he spends the majority of the film watching his neighbor’s actions and everyday life at home. This emersion that we get drawn into with Jefferies antics, we almost feel guilty for watch him watch his neighbors which is the intended purpose. Voyeurism will has always had a social taboo feeling, throughout this movie Hitchcock portrays the curious nature of human voyeurism.

Another aspect I would like to brush on is how the conventional and expected “male gaze” is possibly challenged (challenging anything orthodox equals to counter cinema) towards the end of the film.

In this essay, I shall try to illustrate whether analysing the movie Rear Window as a classical example of the Freudian concept of voyeurism, is appropriate. Voyeurism is defined in The Penguin dictionary of psychology as:

Voyeurism is originally defined as ‘the practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity’. However, the term is also used to describe a general spying on, or having interest in, other people’s lives. This kind of voyeurism is the central theme for Alfred Hitchcock’s mystery thriller, Rear Window (1954). The film follows the boredom-induced curiosity of photographer L.B. ‘Jeff’ Jefferies. Bound to his wheelchair with a broken leg, he has little to do with his time, and finds himself looking into and involving himself in, the lives of his

Nonetheless, the disclosure that surrounds the rape of the woman does not break away from the customary views on violence especially towards women. In the entire movie, women are depicted and viewed as extremely traditional and passive. They are supposed to follow whatever is required from them. Gender through the movie exists in the similar way through which race exists. The society in the movie is largely patriarchy, and gender is unconsciously used for the purpose of justifying oppression and patriarchal

In Alfred Hitchcock’s famous film Rear Window, a photographer named L.B. Jefferies is forced to spend the entirety of his time in his apartment after an accident has left him stuck in a wheelchair. To pass the hours of free time he now has, he decides to spend it all looking out his window, overlooking his neighbors and peeking into their business. Throughout the movie, Jefferies takes interests in a large array of characters ranging from a newly-wed couple in their new home, to a bachelor musician who is always having parties, to anything in between. None, however, catch the attention of Jefferies quite as much as man across the way known as Lars Thorwald.

The majority of the film deals with the events occurring within the Thorwald apartment. In many ways the Thorwalds’ marriage parallels Lisa and Jeffries’ relationship, except with a reversal in gender. Lisa and Lars Thorwald, both mobile and healthy, strive to make their respective relationships work. Thorwald brings his wife dinner in bed decorated with a rose. She only laughs at this gesture. On the other side, Lisa cannot even gain Jeffries attention by sitting in his lap. Mrs. Thorwald and Jeffries, who are both physically restrained, only complain to their partners. The Thorwald apartment becomes of particular interest when Jeffries begins to suspect murder. He believes that Thorwald finally became so tired of his nagging wife that he butchered her with a knife and saw. After some time he even convinces Lisa of his accusation, which in turn adds another gazer to the rear window. This makes her more important to Jeffries in that he can now discuss what is going on with someone who will listen. She still does not obtain his full attention until she crosses over into the plot within the Thorwald apartment. When Lisa becomes the subject of the gaze, then, and only then, is Jeffries attracted to her.

In the movie, Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock uses the story of a cripple free lance photographer, Jeff Jeffries, to explain the twisted sense of society in the 1950’s. Hitchcock uses clever things from the way the apartments are being filmed to the dialogue between Jeffries, Lisa, and Stella to show societies interest in pain, tragedy, and discomfort, and in the end you see how tragedy is what makes everyone happy.

In Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 classic thriller Rear Window, Jimmy Stewart stars as L.B. Jeffries, a world traveling magazine photographer accustomed to living a fast pace active lifestyle. When Jefferies injures himself taking a risky picture he is immobilized, confined to a wheelchair inside his apartment for two months. Bored with his uneventful life he becomes completely obsessed with the lives of his neighbors spending the majority of his waking hours watching them from his window. To obtain a better view he begins using a telescopic lens from one of his cameras. By watching his neighbors through the camera he assumes the role of both a spectator and a voyeur. This contributes to

In this essay, I shall try to illustrate whether analysing the movie Rear Window as a classical example of the Freudian concept of voyeurism, is appropriate. Voyeurism is defined in The Penguin dictionary of psychology as:

This trait of a submissive female is reversed within Rrap’s exhibition; Persona and Shadow: Puberty 1984. This piece is an appropriation and deconstruction of Edvard Munch’s work; Puberty 1894 which

“His hair and long, full bearded were white. His gray, lifeless eyes were sunken. His face was wrinkled. He was tall and thin with drooping shoulders-like someone with many problems” (Bierce 1). Murlock seems that he has aged more than he really looks like and that something has been that couse of him aging that quick. It also describes his looks and tells that he looks like he has many problems in his life,that his eyes were sunken as if he had only slept four hours every day. This story tells about a man named Murlock and explains why he is aging faster than what he really looks like, and also explain some or all the problems that he has or had in his life.

“The Psychodynamics of the Family”, taken from The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender, published in 1978, remains one of Nancy Chodorow most influential works.

In the early 1990s Laura Mulvey’s thesis concerning the patriarchal structure of an active male gaze has influenced feminist film critiques and Hollywood. Mulvey’s project is to use psychoanalysis to uncover the power of patriarchy in Hollywood cinema. Patriarchal influence upon cinema is found primarily in pleasure (pleasure in looking) or as Freud’s has put it, scopophilia. Mulvey suggests that it may be possible to create a new for of cinema due to the fact that patriarchy power to control cinematic pleasure has revealed.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film, Rear Window, explores many dimensions in cinematography. The phenomenal film is well known for proclaiming its voyeurism issues that goes on in today’s society. Even though voyeurism is an act that should not be done, this film portrays it in an affirmative way. Rear Window introduces primary structural components in the first act which sets the mood for the audience to interact with J.B. Jefferies in a way as it is the audiences duty to help him solve the mystery on whether Thorwald murdered his wife or not.