The Representation Of Women In Hitchcock's Film In Vertigo

Even though Hitchcock presents women as heroes and has taken them outside the so-called “norms,” women still tend to fall in line with gender-role stereotypes at one point or another. For instance, in Rear Window, Lisa is introduced as this beautiful, a high-society fashion consultant in New York City. She is in love with Jeffries, but Jeffries insists that they cannot marry because she cannot live his lifestyle, which involves traveling around the world and living

Hitchcock’s Psycho is a great representative of horror and thriller genres. The director masterfully creates an atmosphere of suspense and creates tension. Hitchcock blends characteristics of a thriller with horror, making the audience terrified. The director creates situations that can happen to anybody of the viewers, and thus, makes such scenes even more scaring and disturbing. For instance, the scene of the murder in a shower impresses the audience to a

Again, the audience is not presented with a perfect copy of such a personality in the character of Norma Desmond; her “appeal” is arguable, considering her hefty age of fifty, and her deception is not exclusive to her victim, but has cast a much heavier net upon herself. However, Norma is still manipulative in the sense that she uses the appeal of her wealth to keep Joe under her control. In this way, she strips him of his pride and manhood by taking him on as her dependent, and eventually into her “boy toy” (for lack of a better term) by inducing his guilt with her suicidal threats. Whether or not she deserves the audience’s pity is no matter—Norma fits her role as the femme fatale since she uses Joe entirely for her own purposes, and eventually brings him to his very literal demise.

Because women now demanded equal or greater satisfaction than the male, they were beginning to control his sexuality (Kolker, 84). Scottie is the perfect example of the 'weak' male of the 1950's. In the film Scottie and his friend Midge go to a local bookshop to try to find out more about the history of Carlotta. They find out that Carlotta had a child with her lover, and once she had it the man took the baby and tossed her aside. The shopkeeper comments that, "men could do that in those days, they had the power." Obviously he is commenting on the lack of male dominance and power of the day, and men are not what they used to be. In the final scene of the film Scottie finally beats his vertigo, and makes it to the top of the bell tower. The audience thinks that the male will succeed and he has made it to the top. However, once he makes it up there his world has once again fallen apart when Judy tumbles out the window, literally illustrating that women are men's downfall. The power that he processed in Judy is lost again and he is left with nothing. In an interview with Alfred Hitchcock's daughter, Pat Hitchcock from the documentary Obsessed with Vertigo, she says that, "I think Jimmy (Scottie) personified, for my father, every man. So that when they would see the picture they could put

Alfred Hitchcock’s, ‘Rear Window’ (1954), is ultimately a film presenting the ideas of a natural voyeuristic nature within society and how the concepts of the traditional gender roles for males of ‘participating’ were challenged during this time. ‘Rear Window’ is a film about a magazine photographer who’s active and adventurous life gets turned around when he is confined to a wheelchair in his small apartment for six weeks. During these weeks he’s found himself occupied by watching out his window and sneakily looking into his surrounding neighbours lives, gathering suspicions that one of them, Lars Thorwald has murdered his wife in cold blood, under the neighbours noses. The typical male gender roles in the 1950’s were challenged as Jeff was

Several film theorists have used a variety of tactics and view points to analyze feature films since their inception. One of the most prominent theorists of those that analyze films from a feminist perspective is Laura Mulvey. Mulvey is famous for her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” which presents an array of theories involving the treatment of women in films. Arguably the most notable idea presented in Mulvey’s work is the existence of the “male gaze” in films. This essay will examine Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze in relation to Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Vertigo. Vertigo does not fit the criteria of a film that

When one remembers “Hitchcock’s first American movie,” Rebecca (1940), a secret lesbian romance is not the first thing that comes to mind. Perhaps one thinks of the exceptionally moody scenery or the perfectly timed score, or even the formidable and terrifying Mrs. Danvers. These elements make Rebecca a beloved and classic psychological thriller, filled with suspense and built around an ever-unwinding and twisting plot. As the film plays out and the mysteries are explained, one detail remains curiously absent: the exact relationship between Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers. Through subtle hints and the strange behavior, one can deduce that it was more than just a friendship between two women.

In the mid-twentieth century, America was always seen as a role-model to other countries due to their great economy and social contract. However, during the Second World War Americans weren’t completely aware of the actual incompleteness of the social contract. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, this imperfectness of the contract became aware as the characters explored many tensions regarding gender, race, and morals. These interactions foreshadow upcoming changes in America such as the New Woman and African American’s fight for rights, and it also hints at the decision of type of government America should have in the future. World War II was a major turning point for women during the war (McEuen, “Women, Gender, and World War II”).

There are women in classic film noir with a similar defiant attitude, to whom the male hero often experiences a sexual attraction: the femme fatale. These women are studied as symbols of ‘peculiar’ power: carrying guns, smoking cigarettes, and going after what they want, similar to the men in these narratives (Gledhill, 1998, p. 24). The femme fatales are mysterious, ambiguous and most significantly: deadly. These women and their power are however mainly defined by their sexuality and the men often still hold the voice of authority – mainly through voice overs and flashbacks (Gledhill, 1998, p. 24). They are both desirable and dangerous to men (Kaplan, 1998, p. 16). The film noir’s femme fatale has for a long time served as a record for anxieties about female sexuality and power, which will be discussed more deeply later in this chapter. The femme fatale fights against the male domination and often ends op losing her life or freedom. “The resistance of these femme fatales are always fatal, if not to herself, it will be to the men who fall for her” (Wager, 2005, p. 4). With the dangers that her sexual performance causes, the classic genre exposed the limitations of a female heroine. It suggests that terrible things would happen if men let these sexual women distract them from their quest, and that the power that these particular women hold, is profoundly dangerous. The sex and gender issues that derive from the femme fatale’s presence supposedly trigger the inevitable demise of herself and the hero, but it is nonetheless important to notice that these early film noirs offered audiences a female character that, although destructive, is not weak, but

Roman Polanski’s 1965 Repulsion was a film atypical of its time in its portrayal of woman. Films in the 1950s and 1960s generally portray women as the damsel in distress and in need of rescue by the knight in shining armor (a man), as Mulvey’s puts it “ she is isolated, glamourous, on display, sexualised. But as the narrative progress she falls in love with the male protagonist and becomes his property.” Essentially, Laura Mulvey, states that women only have meaning by how she identifies with the main male protagonist, how “[his] male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female form which is styled accordingly.” Carol, in Repulsion, could be seen in the eyes of a male spectator as someone in need of desperate help. However, Carol has denied any aid. As we see in the end, Carol never lost her individuality as a person nor compromised her womanhood to cater to any patriarchal ideals. The male characters in the film are seen as intruders, crude and ill-mannered, rather than as saviors and gentlemen. In scenes like when Carol was ‘cat-called’ by some men while walking through the streets, when Colin, Carol’s would-be-suitor, forcibly breaks into her home, and when Carol’s landlord attempts to commit rape against her, illustrate the vulgar nature of the so called

The issue of female persecution throughout many of Hitchcock’s films has been fiercely contested, none more so than the controversial issue of assault and the attempted rape of a woman. Views that Hitchcock represents the archetypal misogynist are supported, Modelski suggesting that his films invite “his audience to indulge their most sadistic fantasies against the female” (18). Through both the manipulation of sound and the use of language, none more so than in Blackmail and Frenzy, the idea of rape and violence does effectively silence and subdue not only the women in the films, but the also the women watching them (18).

Hitchcock shows in these sequences that he has a deep understanding of the human mind and represents here the “worst aspects of traditional marriage, [with] the woman owned, dominated, tyrannized, and eventually beaten by the husband.” (Wood 279). These portrayals are not only incredible representations of reality, but they highlight the astounding contrast that exists between these relationships and Hannay’s, as well as opposing the wives against the single women. In fact, both Annabella and Pamela enter a relationship with the hero and they both remain somewhat free, at least until one of their deaths. In Pamela and Hannay’s, at first, forced relationship, there is the concept of a wished equality between genders. However, within the time frame of the 1930s, this hope cannot be completely realized. In fact, it is Hannay who continues to lead the way, making decisions for the both of them, and reproaching Pamela when he does not agree with one of her decision. He has the position of power and is not afraid to lie and threaten in order to keep it.

The play establishes a contrast in gender roles to suggest that women are not seen as equals. For instance, the men in the play go into the Wright’s home and treat it as a murder scene. They are looking for clues, anything forensically to tie Mrs. Wright as the murderer. In the meanwhile, they down play Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters as if women are not smart enough to solve a crime. Mr. Hale states: “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 150). This quote implies that men view women as trifles and their observations and opinions as unimportant. However, it is the women’s worry over “trifles” that solve the mystery and uncover the truth. The women look at the house domestically and by their worry over “trifles” they uncover the bird cage, bird, and quilt. They figured out that Mrs. Wright was oppressed and unhappy in her marriage and through revenge of her dead bird, she kills her husband. This differentiation of gender in the play allows Glaspell to implicate that men do not view women as their equal counterpart. Treating the women in the play as unequal ties into the main theme of married women are oppressed.

asks if she is OK. I think most people would if you saw this woman

Daisy Miller is breaking these social norms by constantly associating with different men, drawing the attention of many others and Connie expresses her sexuality by abandoning her friends to spend time with a boy in his car; this ultimately leads to society’s metaphorical murder of these women.