Relationships In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window
In the film Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock likes to play around with different perspectives to convey different branches of his narrative without deviating too much from the main plot. The other thing about meddling with perspectives in this film is that it goes hand in hand with the themes of spectatorship and voyeurism that this film is teeming with. What Rear Window tries to do with its shot selection and camera angles is to immerse the viewer by putting them into Jeff’s shoes while also trying to compare Jeff’s relationship with Lisa to the other relationships in the apartment complex.
Rear Window provides the viewer with examples of spectatorship by utilizing objective and subjective camera as well as various other types of shots and angles. …show more content…
As Elizabeth Cowie writes in her essay, Rear Window Ethics, “The series of vignettes of Jeff’s neighbors form a kind of filmic essay on love, desire and marriage…while acting as a counterpoint to the conflict of Jeff’s own relation to love, desire and marriage” (Cowie, Elizabeth, Rear Window Ethics, pg. 520). All of the couples and single people in this apartment complex are allegories for possible outcomes of Jeff and Lisa’s relationship. In the case of the Thorwalds, they reinforce Jeff’s fear of marriage and commitment. But on the other hand, the newlywed couple and the couple with the dog are both examples of happy marriage. The film ties together Jeff and Lisa’s relationships with the Thorwalds with doubling; by making them starkly contrast each other and giving Jeff another reason to not want to get married, Hitchcock effectively tied the two love stories together (Freda, 9/12/16). Clearly, if Jeff was to marry Lisa, he wouldn’t want her to get so sick that he would get fed up and kill her, but this is the kind of irrational fear that Hitchcock wants Jeff to have and the best way to do it is to have the worst case scenario play out right across the courtyard from Jeff’s window. Doubling is certainly a recurring theme throughout the film, and the fact that these two relationships are so diametrically opposed to each other is a clear example of that
Rear Window provides the viewer with examples of spectatorship by utilizing objective and subjective camera as well as various other types of shots and angles. …show more content…
As Elizabeth Cowie writes in her essay, Rear Window Ethics, “The series of vignettes of Jeff’s neighbors form a kind of filmic essay on love, desire and marriage…while acting as a counterpoint to the conflict of Jeff’s own relation to love, desire and marriage” (Cowie, Elizabeth, Rear Window Ethics, pg. 520). All of the couples and single people in this apartment complex are allegories for possible outcomes of Jeff and Lisa’s relationship. In the case of the Thorwalds, they reinforce Jeff’s fear of marriage and commitment. But on the other hand, the newlywed couple and the couple with the dog are both examples of happy marriage. The film ties together Jeff and Lisa’s relationships with the Thorwalds with doubling; by making them starkly contrast each other and giving Jeff another reason to not want to get married, Hitchcock effectively tied the two love stories together (Freda, 9/12/16). Clearly, if Jeff was to marry Lisa, he wouldn’t want her to get so sick that he would get fed up and kill her, but this is the kind of irrational fear that Hitchcock wants Jeff to have and the best way to do it is to have the worst case scenario play out right across the courtyard from Jeff’s window. Doubling is certainly a recurring theme throughout the film, and the fact that these two relationships are so diametrically opposed to each other is a clear example of that