A Tentative Interpretation of Rear Window

肖芳

In Rear Window， Hitchcock interestingly put together suspense and voyeurism. Rear Window has double structures. By means of watching whats happening in these apartments and Stellas words together with Lisas reactions and actions， Hitchcock wants to present wisdom in love and truth in marriage. The movie is also a counterbalance of the obvious male gaze and fantasies of women， because women figures are presented to be more active than men. Besides， Jeff was in many ways an unreliable narrator， but his speculations were proved all right finally， which indicated that sometimes truth lies in ordinary common sense.

I. Truth in Marriage

The movie reveals some truths about marriage by presenting what Jeffs seeing of his different neighbors. Two correlated structures are used to unveil truths in marriage， namely， syntagmatic relation and paradigmatic relation.

First， it has syntagmatic relation. It is a movie in a movie. The male actor Jeff can be seen both as a director and as an actor in his own movie. Observing through a pair of binoculars， Jeff seemed like a director. His eyes plus his binoculars played the role of camera. Thorwalds apartment became the frame of the camera. Matters about Thorwald composed the main plot in his “movie”， later on， as he saw， analyzed and found out more and more clues， he began to actively “participate” in the “movie” together with Lisa， Stella and Dolye in order to investigate the case and stop Thorwalds running away. In this sense， the movie becomes a meta-movie， that is， “he becomes part of what he observed”.

Second， it has paradigmatic relation to love life or marriage. The apartments in his opposite windows have some symbolic meanings from top to bottom accordingly in terms of marriage. Behind all those windows， each apartment had its own unhappiness， shown by a series of montages. The first floor referred to before-marriage/love. The second floor referred to the enthusiastic state of love. Under all this common daily life， in between lived the Thorwalds whose apartment “sticks out”， that is， a contrast of idyllic exterior and threatening exterior. Jeff seemed to identify with Thorwald as if he saw what marriage will be like after some years， and his attitude towards his wife. Thorwald was an extremity of Jeffs reaction to Lisa.

II. Active Females

Female figures were powerfully portrayed in this movie if not mention the erotic male gaze of female. Lisa is the most powerful one among all the women characters. She was the woman who takes action to love， contrasted with motionless Jeff. He was afraid when Lisa decided to find the jewelries by herself. Without Lisa， the case would not be solved so soon or they would lose all the evidence. Lisa was a big contributor， but if not smart enough， it would not be done smoothly.

Stella is another major woman character in the movie. Wisdom of love was told form Stellas mouth. Her “homespun philosophy” sounded banal with her monotonous tone at first， but everything she said had much wisdom in it which the movie not only did not contradict with it， but also was proving that her words are quite right in terms of love and marriage. Hitchcock is also criticizing the education system which makes people numb about emotions and become too rational an advanced machine to cherish beautiful things and people around.

III. Unreliable Narrator

What Jeff sees was only a part of reality in those opposite apartments， especially that in Thorwalds. Jeff did not really see anything bloody or cruel which he could not actually provide any solid evidence. He did see some things， but all the rest that made up the whole story was speculated from the things he sees and was threaded together with these pieces of facts. His findings became convincing only when they were put under the semiotic system. Thus， interestingly， Jeff and his teams speculation about the whole case was true but was proved only in the end indirectly yet convincingly. It was in the end that audience can totally believe Jeffs previous guesses. He has been unreliable all along， so it may be the cultural semiotics that is at work， though which is， not one hundred certain for every individual. Hitchcock makes use of this common sense.

Discrepancies are normal for there are no identical individuals. The community finally restored peace and love. The good life is built with good relationships. Through unreliable narration and subversion of passive female figures， Hitchcock intends to warn people that they should cherish people around them and love them， instead of keeping them far away in the distance. Break up fantasies and accept the truth in marriage， we will get the hang of marital wisdom to create a good matrimony.

References：

[1]Response to Stam and Mulvey on Specttorship in Rear Window.

[2]Mulvey，Laura.“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”[J].Screen 1975：6-18.