Introduction
The film, Rear Window, by Alfred Hitchcock explores different themes such as voyeurism, symbolism, and characterization to reveal the life of the main protagonist, who is photographer called Jefferies. From his room after breaking his leg and being rendered immobile, Jefferies has time to observe the behavior of his neighbors for almost six weeks he spends on the wheelchair. This analytical treatise attempts to explore the American way of life in the 1950s as depicted in the film, Rear Window.
The Life in America in the 1950s
Hitchcock has created an interesting fictional premise that takes the route of a thought-provoking path of action to reveal the life in America in the 1950s frustrating. Reflectively, this creates a feeling of an imaginative casting, especially in the lives of the newlywed couple staying in an apartment adjacent to that of the main protagonist Jefferies. Factually, the storyline is fascinating as Hitchcock even goes ahead to include the daily challenges that this couple was facing in an attempt to find a balance in their marriage life. This adversely sustains the flow in its original, interesting, and provocative aspects.
For instance, in scene seven, where the couple is in their apartment, the audience is interrupted by the tension between them, which the director modified through arguments that seems to be revolving around the same issues. The frustrations result in violence, which eventually lead to the death of the young lady in the hands of her husband. The film captures the truly poetic orchestrations of the actions and coward display of the young man who is very frustrated and he ends up killing his wife.
The film has an intriguing premise on the theme of frustration: characters in the film are drunkards, smokers, bullies, and are involved in fights and even end up killing. From the third scene to the seventh scene, the young couple is drunk. The anomy in the story line seems to suggest a weak social system and failed family life. Across the film, a series of tragic events unfold and climax with the death of the young lady.
In the film, Hitchcock’s premise is really exploited and used as the framework for limp action set-pieces to portray the main character as equally frustrated with his immobile condition that has to depend on his girlfriend and the nurse. Fortunately, this approach seems to be able to convey the poetry and philosophical inclinations of the storyline of the film such as underlying fear and destabilizations of the imaginative explorations.
The main character looks entirely out of place as he is practically forced to “talk” to his own disassociated “self” amidst a neighborhood where there are very many activities going on. Jefferies is the only person who seems to notice them. The main character looks moderately concerned and a bit confused and hell-bent to try and track the events from his immobile position through visual observation. Visual communication relies on both the eyes that see the images and the brain that processes and makes sense of the information received. An active mind therefore is capable of remembering visual images; consequently having both text and images enables one to analyze the pictures.
The frame in the storyline of this film deals with factors that language is clearly ill-equipped to handle, to be precise the visually salient elements of the subject from the literary perspective. In the third scene, the frame picture of Jefferies invokes meaning by adding information to the words presented, for example, the story teaches on the importance of family values such as care and protection as a measure against deviant behavior, which seems as the norm in the American society at that time.
At the onset the film, the viewer is introduced to the class stratification in the society and the rivalry between economic and social classes, which results in frustrations. Its visual representational meaning conveys the relationship between Jefferies and the depicted structuring of subsequent scenes. The creation of a visual representational meaning proposed the space-based model for analysis centered on the placement of objects within the semiotic space as represented in the plot of the film (Monaco, 2009).
The relationship between the visual participant-interactive or represented- in this film is realized by elements defined as vectors or processes which correspond to a group of action in the surprise of fear. This frame of the film creates a conceptual process that is visually characterized by the absence of vector. This conceptual process defines, analyzes and classifies the place, people or things, including abstract ones in a symbolic and analytical parameter.
The classification categorizes people, things or places in a tree structure in which things are represented as belonging to a particular class or order. In the film, conceptual processes occur when Jefferies encounters a surprised fear of the unknown because of his disparate immobile state and the extremely beautiful girlfriend. As a matter of fact, irrespective of the level of knowledge and understanding of the events occurring within the neighborhood, Jefferies is frustrated that there is little he can do about them but just observe from a distance. Literature comparison is about enjoying the phrases, feeling the actor’s words in action, imagining, and placing oneself in the actor’s shoes.
Creation of scenes with consistent assumptions and symbolic insinuation adds comprehensiveness to film perception by the audience. The film shows how Jefferies’ sense of identity is vulnerable to manipulation from the girlfriend and events occurring within the apartment. The director relied heavily in a balance of irony, realism, and parody in the film to present a distinct literary style in depicting different societal setups, which was predominant in the American society in the 1950s.
The director artistically underscores the traditional position on triangulated frustrations as dependent on desire nurtured by pressure to form the underlying huddles. Reflectively, integrating in the theme of triangulated desires to overcome introduces physical and emotional insistent in the character of Jefferies, which is climaxed in momentous fulfillment achievement as perceived by the protagonist. The theme of hidden and recurring desires, as a result of frustration, controls the life of the main character as depicted in scene 7. This aspect is narrow and creates an essence of assuming a static plot setting.
This is a wise way to maintain the literature touch, making it simpler to understand as depicted in scene 9 where Jefferies had to engage his girlfriend in the extra surveillance. Thus, the director has created a quantifiable and intrinsic viewer understanding of what metaphoric use on a character was about and the resultant effect created. Furthermore, the film also elevates doubt of irony and actually misleads viewers with incorrect and strident imagery in depicting the theme of frustration.
Moreover, the film is a sarcastic declaration on the unrealistic obsession of Jefferies to observe the behavior of his neighbors. Actually, this aspect is informed by the perception that the film holds a solemn disposition on the decay in the society. Actually, the director attempted to suggest a swift change of imagery which entailed street rivalry and darkness. The director deliberately uses such metaphors to portray a practical and likely result of frustrations that the characters face in their daily lives. Reflectively, human soul acquires great experience and remains unhurt in the experience of maturity in expression and emotional display.
Human intellection is healthier when people lead the “life of nature” and are not troubled with societal challenges which in the real sense do not exist. Besides that, when people persistently build original intention, without conforming to recognized culture, they would never be confused in speculation. Instead, their intellection would have achieved significant reality that other individuals would learn from them.
As a matter of fact, these events indicate that the newlywed couple had themselves to blame for their unfortunate situations. Their arguments have not only affected their lives but also led to the death of the wife in the hands of her husband. In fact, their lives are consumed by series of sad events as it is apparent that the couple could not overcome their differences due to frustrations.
Conclusion
In summary, the theme of frustration has been presented across the film. The lives of the main protagonist Jefferies, his neighbors, and the beautiful girlfriend are tense due to relationship, immobility, economic, and social frustrations.