Reality In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

The evolution of television content is currently steadily moving towards reality television shows. The shift from interest in fiction drama series to reality shows has turned the regular television viewers into addicted voyeurs. There have been diverse views on the effect of reality television shows ranging from support to criticism. George Will, in his article “Reality television: oxymoron” believes that reality television is making ordinary people degenerate morally and act stupid in the effort to please a disinterested audience. Reality TV shows are relying heavily on building extraordinary characters or events out of the norm and attract the attention of the audience. Kellner argues that the audience is enticed by “media constructs

it is the start of the story. The window fills the whole frame of the

Some very typical examples used by Baudrillard are prison and Disneyland. Prison, as Baudrillard considers, is programmed to exist so as to make people believe that the rational one is entitled to live with freedom.(p89, Lane). In comparison, the irrational are punished and imprisoned. However, resonating with Foucault’s central idea in Discipline and Punis h(p89, Lane), Baudrillard boldly states that freedom does not exist, and the society as a whole is a prison: “Prisons are there to hide that it is the social in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, that is carceral.”(p14, Baudrillard) In this sense, prison becomes a simulacrum where people acquire a sense of freedom that does not have its origin through this fabricated site, in the same way that he describes the function of Disneyland: “a deterrence machine set up in order to rejuvenate in reverse the fiction of the real.” (p25, Baudrillard, 90,

We live in the year 2017, yet we still see a major gap in the treatment and outlooks towards men and women. This however is not a newly implemented construct but has been prevalent since the beginning of time, as demonstrated in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. In this novel we see many examples in which the protagonist of the novel, Janie, is shamed and outcasted due to her identity and actions. Janie in many ways experiences racism, sexism, and stereotyping in which corresponds and propezies the treatment of women in the 21st century.

In order to fit in to society, some people may modify their own actions based on the perceived reality of the TV show. It is easy to reality TV programs and the way they are perceived, could affect society as a whole.

In his article, The Precession of Simulacra, Baudrillard establishes simulation as a copy of an original or otherwise reality. This concept is even apparent in the title, The Precession of Simulacra, since precession is something that precedes or comes first, and a simulacrum is an image or representation of something else; in that sense, the title literally states that an image precedes its original. Thus, Baudrillard argues that simulation adopts a reality effect in which the viewer’s view of the real world is skewed and this notion is easily seen throughout the CSI episode of “The Living Doll.”

Perception involves the use of senses to assimilate information in situations, such as solving the mystery of a murdered husband in the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell. Perception, however, can be impaired by many things. For example, what is being concentrated on at any given moment, upbringing, social biases, and gender can all influence how different people perceive the world. A character analysis between the male and female roles in Trifles illustrates how gender disparities can skew perception, allowing what is right before one’s eyes to be essentially ignored by some of the characters. Glaspell illustrates the effect of gender on perception through her identification of the female characters, the male characters’ attitudes toward the women, and the bonding together of the fairer sex against the men’s patronization.

People who live in a discriminative society constantly face the dangers of being placed in a certain category because of who they are. The trend of stereotypes is reflected among different characters in literature, such as Peter Houghton from Nineteen Minutes and Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God. Peter and Janie both have to constantly face tough challenges as they are labeled by society’s expectations. From Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is defined as being the “woman” in the relationship from her ex-husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. Joe and Logan’s behavior towards Janie shows the struggle and disrespect women receive from men and society.

Also, in many cases, the characters used in these shows are not ordinary individuals, but highly paid actors that simply recite scripts. Clearly, these shows are inaccurately labeled as “reality television,” and many individual’s time is wasted as a result. Time for many is very valuable. Wasting a person’s time because of an inaccurate description could be just as detrimental as wasting a person’s money because of an inaccurate description. Many people watch these shows to view real life situations, but what they are really viewing is the complete opposite. This cultivates confusion about what is real and what is fake.

Throughout the plot line there are an endless amount of characters introduced from the main perspective L.B. Jefferies or ‘Jeff’, an injured action photographer who is spending his days recovering, confined in his apartment while watching his neighbors from his window. Jeff is surrounded by the constant action of his neighbors lives for such an extended period of time that he becomes obsessed with it. His fixation with looking through windows leads him to investigate an apparent murder of a bedridden woman by her husband, Lars Thorwald. With the help of his girlfriend, Lisa and his caretaker, Stella, they explore the possible situation, digging around in Mr. Thorwald’s apartment. The full film is in the

Though she has a kind heart, most don't see past the fact she is a women, even though she is a high social status. Her partner Jeffries is no exception of this. Jeffries assumes that she just cares about her dresses and “She belongs in that rarefied atmosphere of Park Avenue, expensive literary cocktail parties”. Thomas Doyle dismisses her and regards her as a "Seductive Showgirl" and disregards her ideas and opinions as “Feminine intuition... Is just a fairy tale”

going back to the other views to see where the policeman is and how is

What makes the director Alfred Hitchcock’s film about murder story become so mysterious? How does he create a film that not only talks about mystery killing? I believe the mystery murder is more complex and subtle in the hands of Alfred Hitchcock – a world known English film director and producer. Alfred Hitchcock is recognized as “the master of suspense” (Sterritt 20) and receive a high level of appreciation from the film industry. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock 1954) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock 1956) have received a high level of critics in a sense of his own authorship.

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.

To quote Matt Philbin, managing editor of the MRC Culture & Media Institute, “the problem with much of reality TV is that it isn’t about real people or reality at all. These are highly scripted, performed shows, ‘written’ like a piece of fiction and as such they need the classic conflict-driven characters and soap opera melodrama.”