HITCHCOCKS VERTIGO

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
The Representation of
Masculinity

The Representation of Men

Feminist argument that Hitchcock is misogynist
His films reveal fascination with femininity

Representation of men as:

symbols of power and control
Idealised images of femininity from male gaze
Elster is seen to characterise this idea

BUT, Hitchcock also plays with representation of

Masculinity in Vertigo;
The female characters disrupt his agenda
The narrative structure enables us to experience the film from
Judys pov in the second part
Exposes male romantic love as fantasy and fraud
The male spectator is also deconstructed

Representation of Masculinity
Scottie as Everyman
Scotties consciousness is central to the film
Scottie is the subject who we identify with
and experience the film through
Our relationship with him changes as the narrative
changes and we know more than him
His reconstruction of Judy in the image of Madeline
is considered a ruthless analysis of male desire
Exposes the role of the male gaze
Calls reconstruction of women into question:
Scottie reconstructs Judy into Madeline in the same way
as Elster did before him and Hitchcock has of Novak

Scotties Masculinity in
Crisis
Both Wood & Modleski theorise that Hitchcock
uses Scottie to explore ideas about masculinity
within wider society
Vertigo associated with Femininity
After Madelines death he becomes mad like
Carlotta
Scottie is manipulated by Elster a victim of a man
Use of mirrors and repetition of shots placement
of Scottie in shot with Madeline / Judy :
Suggests Scottie wants to control Madeline / Judy but is
mirroring a relationship - who controls him?
Questions who is the looker and who is to be looked at

Scotties Masculinity in
Crisis
Plays with Lacans theories
If woman does not exist, neither do men
Woman is a social construct, man must know
and possess her for if she doesnt exist, then
neither does he

Scottie is driven by fear of death and his

own existence
His Vertigo represents his fear of nothingness
If he cannot save Madeline, his idealised fantasy of a
woman, then his masculinity is called into question
Without his masculinity he is nothing

Scotties Masculinity in
Crisis
Other aspects in the film that a (post)Feminist Critique reveals as
Hitchcock playing with masculinity
Idea of romantic love
considered feminine but experience through Scottie

Obsession
considered irrational and therefore feminine

Dreaming / following
compared to the dialogue about Carlotta roaming San Francisco looking for
her lost child

Impaired vision
faulty POV shots of Scottie looking for Madeline after her death ties
Scottie to motif of Hitchcock women throughout his films (Marnie,
Notorious, Psycho)

Unemployed & disabled

Therefore unable to work or rescue the woman of his dreams

Reference to towers / sticks

Symbols of impotency