Hitchcocks Rear Window Dream Analysis

Among the outstanding filmmakers of the twentieth century, Alfred Hitchcock stands out for his exceptional talent for creating an unprecedented atmosphere of suspense and developing the plot through a range of complicated psychological turns. Hitchcock’s interest in psychoanalytical ideas brought forward by Sigmund Freud finds its reflection in the film Rear Window (1954). At first sight, the action unfolds through the eyes of Jeff, a photographer who watches various courtyard scenes of daily human life. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Dream Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, from the point of view of psychoanalysis, the film can be considered as a representation of the photographer’s dreams revealing his inner impulses and fears. The interpretation of Jeff’s dreams according to Freudian theory of dream symbolism discloses the photographer†™s fear of marriage based on the primary castration anxiety. Jeff’s unwillingness to marry his girlfriend Lisa reveals itself both explicitly and latently. The open and unambiguous explication of Jeff’s negative attitude to marriage is stated at the very beginning of the film when the photographer is talking to his employer: â€Å"If you don’t pull me out of this swamp of boredom, I’ll do something drastic. [†¦] I’ll get married† (Rear Window). And after this statement, a whole range of symbols unfolds in support of Jeff’s negation of marriage and his emphasized commitment to his masculinity. On the one hand, Jeff’s leg is broken: a broken bone, according to Freud’s interpretation of dreams, symbolizes a broken marriage vow and suggests the photographer’s initial inclination towards infidelity in marriage (Freud 256). On the other hand, Jeff constantly employs the main instrument of his work, his photo ca mera with an enormously long lens. In Freud’s dream symbolism this lengthy object stands among the male member representations and becomes a necessary support for Jeff in assertion of his masculinity (Freud 230). Other symbols are scattered through various scenarios of courtyard life representing the possible developments Jeff envisages for his relationship with Lisa. The first and the main scenario that unfolds in the courtyard is the situation with a married couple, where the husband gets so much tired of the wife’s constant complaints and demands for attention that he decides to kill her. Since the very beginning, Jeff shares the husband’s aversion towards female fragility. In his talk to his employer he refers to a wife as â€Å"nagging†, and his mental image of a nagging wife is immediately reflected in a visual perception of a scene in the opposite window (Rear Window). Advertising Looking for essay on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Thus is created the link between imaginary and existing, dreams and reality. The events that take place further on illustrate Jeff’s fantasies on what might have happened and what might have been the solution of the situation when the husband is plagued with his bothersome wife. The two key symbols of Jeff’s dream over the wife’s murder become the knife and the handbag. According to Freudian theory, the knife, as a sharp and elongated weapon, serves as a representation of a male member (Freud 230). Assaulting the wife with the knife symbolizes the victory and the triumph of the male dominance over femininity. On the other hand, the purse, as any container, is symbolic of female organs (Freud 230). Thus, it is no mere coincidence that the murdered wife’s purse attracts so much attention both from the murderous husband and from the people trying to solve the mystery of the murder. The significance of a purse to a woman is paralleled in the handbag belonging to Jeff’s girlfriend. Lisa not only carries everything she needs in her handbag but also lectures Jeff on the meaning and role of a purse for a woman. By stating that a woman would never part with her favorite handbag, not to mention leaving it anywhere on her husband’s territory, Lisa outlines the essential border between men and women (Rear Window). And therefore, capturing the wife’s handbag symbolizes the full and final victory of the husband over the female who bothered him so much. By showing the supposed murder as happening in a family other from Jeff’s and at the same time making Jeff so interested and involved in the situation, Hitchcock hints that this murderous situation is in fact a projection of Jeff’s secret dreams. The only secure way of getting rid of the bothersome relationship is destroying the object causing this conflict. However, Jeff himself would not break the nor ms by committing murder and therefore merely plays it over in his mind. The idea of terminating the undesired relations becomes an obsession, and in order to secure himself against the murderous tendencies, the self-reproachful Jeff employs a mechanism of substituting real people with imaginary characters (Freud 283). Apparently, the only activity Jeff involves with while his leg is broken is looking out of the window and literally spying on the private life of the others. In psychoanalysis, this enjoyment at watching the others and identifying oneself with them is termed as â€Å"scopophilia† and signifies the desire to see the forbidden (Lemire  60). Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Dream Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Too afraid to involve in a normal relationship himself, Jeff projects his fears and fantasies in his dreams, each developing a different cours e of disappointing spousal life. The seemingly happy newlywed couple appears only to involve in intercourse which is nothing more than tiring for the spouse. Their initial dream of happiness turns out to shatter against the ugly truth of the reality when the wife finds out that the husband is jobless (Rear Window). The elderly couple has no children, and their only joy is the small dog, a symbol of little children according to Freudian theory (Freud 231). The killing of the dog by the murderous husband signifies the impossibility of having children within a disagreeing couple and realizes another marital fear of Jeff’s, the fear of being childless. The other participants of various scenarios reflect Jeff’s fears that are associated not with marriage but rather with single life. The songwriter who attracts Lisa with his melodies appears to give big parties but he is still lonely. Even in the biggest and merriest singing crowd he stands alone smoking his cigar (another symbol of male organ). The lonely woman reflects the double-sidedness of human attitude to maintaining relations. On the one hand, she dreams of having a partner and designs a whole imaginary candle dinner. On the other hand, she rejects any attempts of physical closeness from her one-evening suitor, defending her female honor. By showing the man out, the woman demonstrates aversion for the assaultive nature of male power and dominance. Last but not least, the female dancer who makes a daily show of her morning exercise in a bikini top, symbolizes female attractiveness and sexuality that are parallel to those of Lisa. All those separate scenarios reflect different sides of human relationships in married and single life. Despite their variety, they all blend together to produce a multifaceted impression, as the multiple experiences and events of human life merge in the entity of the dream (Freud 121). This successful blending of scenarios is made possible by the symbolic setting of the action: according to Freud’s theory, rooms are representative of female organ, and ladders symbolize a sexual act (Freud 230). Jeff’s excited scopophilia is first aimed at rejecting and terminating the female origins from his life. But gradually his girlfriend becomes more and more involved in the process of tracing the events and solving the mystery, and finally she climbs the ladder up to the crime scene. Advertising Looking for essay on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More By crossing this barrier, Lisa puts her into position of trespasser and victim of the inevitable punishment, and thus repositions Jeff towards her. Now she is seen by Jeff through the lens of sadistic scopophilia and therefore his castration anxiety is gone, giving place to attraction to the weak female (Lemire  63). The intricate imagery and symbolism of Hitchcock’s Rear Window provide opportunities for viewing the film from the point of Freudian psychoanalysis as a story that illustrates male castration anxiety. The separate dream scenarios are saturated with symbolical representation of relationships between men and women and blend into a single entity representing the fears and desires of the main character. The initial aversion of the male to the female is gradually transformed by involvement of the woman in the male sphere and by her trespassing the traditional borders and assuming a subordinate role of a victim. Works Cited Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Drea ms. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1933. Print. Lemire, Elisa. â€Å"Voyeurism and the Postwar Criticism of Masculinity in Rear Window.† Alfred Hitchcock’s â€Å"Rear Window†. Ed. John Belton. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 57–90. Print. Rear Window. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Paramount Pictures, 1954. Film. This essay on Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Dream Analysis was written and submitted by user Ezequiel Colon to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Quotes That Show Macbeths Intentions

Quotes That Show Macbeth's Intentions The motor that drives the tragedy of Shakespeares  Macbeth  is the lead character’s ambition. It is his primary character flaw and the trait that causes this brave soldier to murder his way to power. Early on in the famous play,  King Duncan hears of Macbeth’s heroics at war and bestows the title Thane of Cawdor on him. The current Thane of Cawdor has been deemed a traitor and the king orders him to be killed.  When Macbeth is made Thane of Cawdor, he believes that the kingship is not far off in his future. He writes a letter to his wife announcing the  prophecies, and it is actually Lady Macbeth who fans the flames of ambition as the play progresses. The two conspire to kill King Duncan so that Macbeth can ascend to the throne. Despite his initial reservations about the plan, Macbeth agrees, and, sure enough, he is named king after Duncans death. Everything that follows is simply the repercussion of Macbeths unbridled ambition. Both he and Lady Macbeth are plagued by visions of their wicked deeds, which eventually drive them insane. Brave Macbeth When  Macbeth  first appears at the start of the play, he is brave, honorable, and moral- qualities that he sheds as the play develops. He comes on the scene soon after a  battle, where an injured soldier reports Macbeth’s heroic deeds and famously labels him â€Å"brave Macbeth†: For brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name- Disdaining Fortune, with his brandishd steel,Which smoked with bloody execution,Like valours minion carved out his passageTill he faced the slave.(Act 1, Scene 2) Macbeth is presented as a man of action who steps up when he is needed, and a man of kindness and love when he is away from the battlefield. His wife, Lady Macbeth, adores him for his loving nature: Yet do I fear thy nature;It is too full o th milk of human kindnessTo catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,Art not without ambition, but withoutThe illness should attend it.(Act 1, Scene 5) Vaulting Ambition An encounter with the three witches changes everything. Their premonition that Macbeth â€Å"shalt be king hereafter† triggers his ambition- and leads to murderous consequences. Macbeth makes clear that ambition drives his actions, stating as early as Act 1 that his sense of ambition is â€Å"vaulting†: I have no spurTo prick the sides onlyVaulting ambition, which oerleaps itselfAnd falls on the other.(Act 1, Scene 7) When Macbeth makes plans to murder King Duncan, his moral code is still evident- but it is beginning to be corrupted by his ambition. In this quote, the reader can see Macbeth struggling with the evil he is about to commit: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,Shakes so my single state of man that functionIs smotherd in surmise.(Act 1, Scene 3) Later in the same scene, he says: Why do I yield to that suggestionWhose horrid image doth unfix my hair,And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,Against the use of nature?(Act 1, Scene 3) But, as was made apparent at the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a man of action, and this vice supersedes his moral conscience. It is this trait that enables his ambitious desires. As his character develops throughout the play, action eclipses Macbeths morals. With each murder, his moral conscience is suppressed, and he never struggles with subsequent murders as much as he does with killing Duncan. By the end of the play, Macbeth kills Lady Macduff and her children without hesitation. Macbeth’s Guilt Shakespeare does not let Macbeth get off too lightly. Before long, he is plagued with guilt: Macbeth starts hallucinating;  he sees the ghost of murdered Banquo, and he hears voices: Methought I heard a voice cry Sleep no more!Macbeth does murder sleep.(Act 2, Scene 1) This quote reflects the fact that Macbeth murdered Duncan in his sleep. The voices are nothing more than Macbeth’s moral conscience seeping through, no longer able to be suppressed. Macbeth also hallucinates the murder weapons, creating one of the play’s most famous quotes: Is this a dagger which I see before me,The handle toward my hand?(Act 2, Scene 1) In the same act, Ross, Macduffs cousin, sees right through Macbeths unbridled ambition and predicts where it will lead: to Macbeth becoming  king. Gainst nature still!Thriftless ambition, that will ravin upThine own lives means! Then tis most likeThe sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.(Act 2, Scene 4) Macbeths Fall Near the end of the play, the audience catches a glimpse of the brave soldier who appeared at the beginning. In one of Shakespeare’s most beautiful speeches, Macbeth admits that he is short on time. The armies have amassed outside the castle and there is no way he can win, but he does what any man of action would do: fight. In this speech, Macbeth realizes that time ticks on regardless and that his actions will be lost to time: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrowCreeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded timeAnd all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death.(Act 5, Scene 5) Macbeth seems to realize in this speech the cost of his unchecked ambition. But it is too late: There is no reversing the consequences of his evil opportunism.