Alfred Hitchcock Rear Window Analysis
Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense Rear Window (1954) is focused on Jeff, formally L.B. Jefferies, a cooped up action-shot photographer. After being injured from work, Jeff is left with a full-leg cast and nothing to do but peer at his neighbors (a salesman with a spotty marriage, a dancer, a failing musician, a lonely woman and others) through his back window. Jeff’s girlfriend Lisa Fremont, a model and fashion consultant, and the enthusiastic Stella, Jeff’s home nurse, both assist Jeff by being his ‘feet on the ground’ and doing the actions he cannot due to his immobile condition. Initially, Jeff is watching his neighbors for entertainment to help pass the time, but later Jeff narrows his focus onto Lars Thorwald, the salesman with the dissipating
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This argument supposes Jeff was the only person who could have proved Thorwald’s guilt, Jeff realized it, and acted accordingly. An argument against that theory is the case of Miss Lonely Hearts. In her most desperate time, she had a bottle of pills in her hand and was ready to end her life. Jeff and Stella both saw this and were ready to phone the police had she tried to commit suicide. But when the musician began to play his music, she became lost in the melody, and was saved from her own madness. Events that did not involve Jeff kept her from ending her own life. This example can be used to explain that the natural course of events kept Miss Lonely Hearts alive. This scene shows us that the intervention was not needed on her part, she was saved without Jeff’s assistance. Similarly, Thorwald’s guilt could have been proved without Jeff’s interference. One might also argue that Jeff had sufficient evidence to act as he did, to suspect Thorwald of murder. However, after telling Doyle, a professional detective by trade, Doyle refused to believe murder. Doyle’s remarks about how many knives he’s owned in his life or how many times he has cleaned his walls are entirely true. They are mundane, routine acts that do not warrant any evidence of murder in the slightest. Jeff was wild with his assumptions. Correct nonetheless, but
This argument supposes Jeff was the only person who could have proved Thorwald’s guilt, Jeff realized it, and acted accordingly. An argument against that theory is the case of Miss Lonely Hearts. In her most desperate time, she had a bottle of pills in her hand and was ready to end her life. Jeff and Stella both saw this and were ready to phone the police had she tried to commit suicide. But when the musician began to play his music, she became lost in the melody, and was saved from her own madness. Events that did not involve Jeff kept her from ending her own life. This example can be used to explain that the natural course of events kept Miss Lonely Hearts alive. This scene shows us that the intervention was not needed on her part, she was saved without Jeff’s assistance. Similarly, Thorwald’s guilt could have been proved without Jeff’s interference. One might also argue that Jeff had sufficient evidence to act as he did, to suspect Thorwald of murder. However, after telling Doyle, a professional detective by trade, Doyle refused to believe murder. Doyle’s remarks about how many knives he’s owned in his life or how many times he has cleaned his walls are entirely true. They are mundane, routine acts that do not warrant any evidence of murder in the slightest. Jeff was wild with his assumptions. Correct nonetheless, but