Introduction
Created in 1958, Hitchcock’s noir psychological thriller Vertigo has yet to lose its relevance and the status of one of the most sublime cinematographic pieces of all time. The movie revolves around John “Scottie” Ferguson, a former police detective, who developed severe acrophobia and vertigo after an incident on duty. At his old acquaintance’s request, Scottie starts following his wife, Madeleine, who as per the client’s words, has become suicidal. This essay argues that Scottie’s obsession with Madeleine has never been loving but rather an indulgence in his mental disarray and even sadism.
Scopophilia in Vertigo: Becoming an Object
The point of view (POV) refers to the character through whom the audience has the chance to experience the visual world. Because of its subjectivity, the POV is not always reliable, but it makes the viewer an intimate witness to the narrator’s psyche (Morgan, 2016). In Vertigo, it is Scottie through whom the viewer becomes familiar with the movie’s universe and its rules. Hitchcock presents his point of view through the so-called subjective camera: an angle that implies the POV of one of the characters.
When Scottie starts to follow Madeleine, he soon becomes more voyeuristic than investigative. At the beginning of Vertigo, the camera takes long shots of Madeleine’s face as if it was Scottie’s lingering gaze (Pippin, 2017). The main character’s voyeurism borders fetishism because he objectifies the woman. He knows little to nothing about her personality at first, and her decisively feminine form and beauty are the only aspects of her being that capture his attention. The feminist theory of cinematography refers to this dynamic between Scottie and Madeleine as the male gaze (Modleski, 2015). It is the act of depicting women through the male-centric lens that often deprives the former of their humanity. Vertigo’s main female character is especially defenseless against the male gaze since she is not even aware that she is being watched.
In the field of psychology and, especially, Freudian psychoanalysis, Scottie’s behavior patterns with Madeleine can be classified as scopophilia. According to Freud, scopophilia is the aesthetic pleasure that humans derive from watching others, often in the sexual context. In fact, the pioneer of psychoanalysis argued that all people had the scopic drive – the desire to see others (Allen, 2016). Interestingly enough, inhibitions to realizing the scopic drive allegedly lead to visual disturbances (Allen, 2016). In Scottie’s case, they take the form of vertigo – a mental disorder that gives a person an illusion of objects rotating. It is possible that in the police officer’s unstable world, Madeleine was the only object he could see clearly.
Scottie’s Misogyny and Compulsion
Later in the movie, Scottie turns from watching Madeleine to actually talking to her, which only strengthens his feelings for the woman. The question arises if he has genuine affection for her now that he has a chance to know her intimately or stays a prisoner of his fetish. The answer is no because once Scottie and Madeleine start spending time together, the police officer’s style of communication becomes interrogative. He attacks her with a series of questions that often make the women feel intense guilt and discomfort. In a rather short time, not a single part of her internal world remains untouched by Scottie’s gaze. When Madeleine sees bizarre dreams, Scottie is quick to interpret them and impose his understanding of her visions. It is not love but sadism because empathy is replaced with an intrusion. In fact, none of the relationships portrayed in the film are built on real human involvement.
As the events of Vertigo continue to unfold, the viewer sees the misogynistic side of Scottie. Misogyny, translated as hate of women, diminishes them to a status of the object that does not have the right to exist unless it meets the impossible standards of a patriarchal society (Manne, 2017). After Scottie learns that it was Judy, who was Gavin’s “wife” the entire time, he misses Madeleine. Even though Judy gives him a chance at genuine human connection, he rejects the opportunity and becomes even more engulfed in his fetishist desires. The police officer erases everything that makes Judy unique because it does not conform to his vision of “Madeleine.” Judy has to give up on her usual clothes, hairstyle, and even mannerisms to satisfy her partner’s unrealistic expectations. The woman knows that if she does not perform, she will instantly become unattractive.
Soon it becomes clear that Scottie is pursuing an ideal that does not exist, nor has it ever existed. His encounters with “Madeleine” were brief and did not lead to a deep human connection. In actuality, the police officer construed the image of his perfect woman and proceeded to hold his real-world partner to it. Rothman (2015) makes an interesting point about the relationship dynamics between Scottie and Madeleine by using the concept of Emersonian perfectionism. An alternative theory of ethics, Emersonian perfectionism sees the pinnacle of morality in becoming human by acknowledging the humanity of others. This is something that Scottie fails to accomplish as he gradually turns Judy into an empty shell of herself. By doing so, he deprives himself of a chance to become more human and live an authentic life free of rotating illusions.
The movie finale demonstrates that the entire love story might have been another manifestation of Scottie’s compulsion. After he became traumatized by the death of his coworker, he subconsciously strived to repeat the experience, no matter how harmful it was. Interestingly enough, such a tendency is in line with Freud’s theory of death drive that counters the idea that humans only seek pleasure and avoid pain. In the end, Scottie purposefully puts himself and Judy in a situation that recreates both the coworker’s death and Madeleine’s fake suicide. However, the police officer not only inflicts pain on himself but also punishes Judy for her involvement with Gavin.
Conclusion
After more than 60 years since its creation, the psychological genius of Vertigo continues to mesmerize the viewer. The relationship between Scottie and Madeleine is probably the most intense and complex movie arc. While at first glance, the police officer’s obsession with the woman can be interpreted as romantic love, it soon becomes clear that it is no more than a morbid fetish. From the very beginning, Scottie indulges in voyeurism without Madeleine’s knowledge and later, tries to break down her walls by attacking her with questions. Ultimately, Madeleine becomes an unattainable female ideal that the police officer continues to go after, refusing to accept the humanity of women. He never lets go of vertigo – a compulsion that takes control of his life and substitutes real experiences with illusions.
References
Allen, D. W. (Ed.). (2016). The fear of looking or scopophilic — Exhibitionistic conflicts. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Manne, K. (2017). Down girl: The logic of misogyny. Oxford University Press.
Modleski, T. (2015). The women who knew too much: Hitchcock and feminist theory. Routledge.
Morgan, D. (2016). Where are we?: Camera movements and the problem of point of view. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 14(2), 222-248.
Pippin, R. B. (2017). The philosophical Hitchcock: “Vertigo” and the anxieties of unknowingness. University of Chicago Press.
Rothman, W. (2015). Must we kill the thing we love? Emersonian perfectionism and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Screen, 56(4), 489-492.