Sexual Identity In Alfred Hitchcock Films

On May 21, 1924, two highly intelligent university scholars from Chicago, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, executed their highly-calculated plan for the cold-blooded murder of a distant relative of Loebπs, 14-year old Bobby Franks. As students of Nietzscheπs philosophy, Loeb and Leopold had set out to commit the ≥perfect murder≤ in order to actualize the belief that they were of an elite group, superior to the common man, to whom the standard moral code did not apply. So infamous is the story of their murder and eventual detainment that it has become entrenched in American popular culture, with numerous books and films aspiring to recreate it in vivid detail. Amongst these, Alfred Hitchcockπs Rope

The Victorian Age was a time of moral behavior and ideas. Sexuality had no place with the norms and mores of society, yet as it is part of human nature, it continued to exist. With sex being a topic so repressed during the period, people took anything not specified in sexual connotations. Realizing this, the authors of the time used this to their advantage and laid a heavy underlying sexual atmosphere as a basis for their stories. Henry James does just that in his Turn of the Screw. Though never directly stating so, his main character suffers from sexual repression that came along with her position in the Victorian age and eventually acts upon it, while the ghosts in the story then serve as protection for the children she acts out

“And then he was a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling, gibbering manikin, no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him [...] Beatty flopped over and over and over, and at last twisted in on himself like a charred wax doll and lay silent.” (p. 113) I can’t believe Guy had decided to kill Beatty instead of talking. I thought he would try to explain his thoughts to Beatty as he did to Mildred.

Montag, brought up to burn books, is confused at his actions. As his mind unravels he begins to think for himself after meeting Faber, he constantly questions how he “could have been so blind” and “how it got to this.” He thinks back to burning books and thinks “my hands did the actions, mindlessly” montag feels anger toward his ignorance, maybe he could have done things different. Guy pity’s himself and his wife, mildred, not because he is sad, because he wish things could have been different for them. Mostly, is enraged by the ignorance and helplessness of the people around himself, and is the cause of most of his confusion.

In the beginning of the book, Guy is shown to be the antagonist, because he was working as a fireman. You may think “ why would someone working as a fireman be bad”. Well in this story firemen don’t stop fires, but instead, they do the opposite. A fireman's duty is to burn down the books and the house the book came from. At this point of the book, Guy enjoyed spraying the kerosene, and watching the bright red flames, he didn’t mind walking into his house listening to Mildred, his wife talking to her “family” on the tv wall. To me, Guy is the type of antagonist that does whatever he is told without thinking, basically like a controlled bad guy. He doesn’t really know what his purpose is in life. Guy thinks that being a fireman is an honor and that he is saving those who have ruined their minds with the gibberish you call a book.Everything changed once Guy met

In The Uncanny, Freud discusses the different definitions and claims that various theorists have made regarding the feeling of uncanny. He defines the different factors that provoke the uncanny in humans and demonstrates how these factors elicit that strange and seemingly inexplicable feeling. Similarly, in Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, adopts the various factors that cause the uncanny to alter Scottie’s identity and beliefs. Ultimately, when Scottie is transformed from a rational being to a psychotic obsessive, it serves to indicate the severity of Scottie’s mental instability and his detachment from reality.

Grotesque images of rape, murder, and sexual abuse are recurring throughout Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. The ideals of the white oppressor, be it murder, rape, or sexual abuse were powerful forces that shaped the lives of many of the characters, especially the character Sethe.

He finds an ex-professor named Faber, whom he met in the park one day. Faber is reluctant, but finally agrees to aid Montag against the firemen. Faber provides Montag with a two-way radio earpiece. That evening Montag loses his temper and breaks out by reading some banned poetry aloud to his wife’s friends. Which wasn’t such a bright decision. That night at the firehouse, Beatty pokes at Montag by quoting contradictory passages from the same books. Which he’s trying to prove that all literature is confusing and problematic. Then he takes Guy to a fire alarm. Which is very astonishing because it’s at Guy’s

    In spite of the novel's heterosexual text, many critics agree that it has various homosexual elements in its characters, in the dialogues, and even in the portrait itself. One of the critics, Richard Dellamora, mentions this feature of the text, and comments that "By definition this context is heterosexual. Wotton is married and pursues actresses. Basil himself is a graduate of Oxford, a well-established artist, and respectable to a fault" (28). However, he also remarks the intensity of male friendships, and referring to Basil, he continues "Later, he repeatedly enjoins Dorian to conformity. Both older men live in a network of male friendships that ramify through the novel "

Bruno goes through with this plan and strangles Miriam at a local county fair. While Guy doesn’t want to kill Bruno’s father, Bruno threatens to blame him for the murder of his wife, while using a lighter that Guy left behind on the train as evidence against him. Guy receives help from his true love, Anne Morton, and her sister, Barbara, by devising a plan where he won’t be accused of murdering his own wife. In this movie, the male castration is that Guy is unable to get out of the trouble he has come across without the help of Anne and Barbara.

Mildred is Guy’s wife which loves to watch TV and hates to express herself. She tried to commit suicide and can't even acknowledge it. Montag says, “‘You took all the pills in your bottle last night.’ Mildred responds quickly “Oh I wouldn't do that’”(19). Masking your pain will get you far away from happiness. You need to acknowledge and change for the better. Since Mildred never wanted to talk about her relationship with Guy. This makes Guy angry and can not clear his mind about something they do not talk about as well as Mildred, senselessly that is a part of her pain. It will not go away till she confronts it. Guy says, “No one listens anymore. I can't talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me. I just need someone to hear what I have to say, it’ll make sense. I just want to learn how to read”(14). This goes to show that he has been distracted by the fact that she is obviously miserable and is crying out for help with her attempt of suicide. Montag is realising that the books might make him closer to his happiness.

At the same time he starts to question the society in which he lives in. When Guy gets home he sees that Mildred tried to kill herself but since they live in a society extremely controlled by the government they immediately send robot doctors to take out all the pills of her system and give her a medicine so she won’t remember any of the reasons why she tried to commit suicide or even that she tried to commit suicide. The government wants the people to think they live in a perfect Utopia when they actually don’t. That same night Guy starts to think about everything that happened that day starting with his conversation with Clarisse, why Mildred tried to commit suicide? Why didn’t firemen now put out fires instead of starting them? “I don’t know anything any more” (Bradbury 18). It’s not the last time Clarisse makes Guy question himself. Clarisse is a really curious girl and due that she asks Guy many questions, which have a huge impact on him throughout the novel. Clarisse makes Guy question if he really loved his wife, which he later on finds out he doesn’t, and why was he a fireman. “He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a

Pages 1-32 - Guy Montag is a fireman at the fire department. Unlike regular firefighters, Guy and his co-workers are the ones to start fires. Guy is contempt with his life, at least until he meets Clarisse McClellan who changes his outlook on his current state of living. Clarisse makes Guy think deeper into what is going on around him. He realizes that he in fact is not happy with his wife Mildred, his job, or the way society acts.

Throughout motion picture history, women have experienced more transition in their roles, as a result of changing societal norms, than any other class. At first, both society and the movie industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in the home, in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. As time passed and attitudes changed, women were beginning to be depicted as strong willed, independent minded characters, who were eager to break away from convention. The genre of the crime film represents such a change in the roles handed to women. Two films that can be contrasted, in order to support this view, are: The Public Enemy by William Wellman (1931) and Bonnie

When it comes to movies, many directors are good at their jobs. However, other directors are great in the art of film making. There is no doubt such statement is considered utterly subjective, but what would life be without subjectivity, for it is our differences that make us thrive against a monotonic existence. By the same token, Alfred Hitchcock and Christopher Nolan utilize their singularities to create films that for decades have impacted the movie making universe. In fact, it is their differences that provide us with a high contrast to compare and scrutinize their job and find what made them great at it.