Vertigo Symbolism In Veertigo

Vertigo (1958) deals with three loves-one obstructed, one hopeless, one soured and fourth haunted. Galvin Elster (Tom Helmore) married his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) for wife’s money and later when he wanted to get rid of her, a false Madeleine is introduced and Scottie (James Stewart) falls in love with her who dies hopeless, and the new Madeleine Judy Barton (Kim Novak) becomes soured due to lack of love from Scottie and the fourth Midge Wood (Barbara Bel Geddes) haunted by the lover in asylum. Here Hitchcock has depicted a marriage without love and hence the family becomes dysfunctional. Audience witnessed one of the strangest and hauntingly beautiful film from the Hitchcock canon. But its far-fetched plot drew mixed response from critics and the Time Magazine contemptly called it “Hitchcock and bull story” (qtd in Adair 115) and it has now become one of Hitchcock’s deeply felt pictures.
In North by Northwest (1959), a probable marriage is expected between Eve and Roger whose lives are also based on probability. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) a stable marriage is riddled with thin fractures and by the end of the film disillusioned. Rear Window (1954) presents a marriage carnival with idealism in many forms circling around boredom and loathing. We have seen broken marriage, intending marriage, new marriage, future marriage, loveless marriage etc in the film (Pomerance 226). In Hitchcock’s concept marriage is a bondage and he has shown immense times the figure of the matriarch who wields power over her dutiful son in the absence of her husband.