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Rear Window

The Gender from Next Door:
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) and Gender Equality

by Efehan Boyacıoğlu

Original release poster, 1954.

Rear Window (1954) by Alfred Hitchcock is a mystery thriller film that highlights gender equality in a patriarchal society. Professional photographer L. B. “Jeff” Jefferies is confined to a wheelchair in his apartment, where he watches his neighbours from his window. Among them is Lars Thorwald, a traveling jewellery salesman with a bedridden wife. Jeff’s girlfriend from high society Lisa Fremont visits him regularly along with his nurse, Stella. Jeff gets suspicious of Thorwald as he thinks that he has committed a murder by killing his own wife. Lisa joins him while watching Thorwald and gets more and more convinced about the murder. They dive into the case to solve the mystery, but they each have different motivations. While Jeff’s motivation comes from his determination to be right about Thorwald, Lisa wants to show Jeff that she is capable of exceeding his expectations about her gender.

In the beginning of the film, Jeff has a phone conversation with his boss Gunnison about going to Kashmir. His boss cancels his job assignment, but Jeff is not happy about the decision despite his injured leg. After he talks about how bored he is in his apartment, he adds; “Can you see me rushing home to a hot apartment every night to listen to the automatic laundry, the electric dishwasher, the garbage disposal and a nagging wife?” This answer both represents his desire to remain detached from commitment and marriage, and the way female is seen in the society. As a celebrated photographer, and more importantly as a male, he sees himself being more brave, more capable, and more powerful than his girlfriend, Lisa. The different events that happen in the courtyard help him run away from his fear of commitment. The nicknames he gives for his female neighbours are objectifying; “Miss Lonelyhearts”, “Miss Torso”. When he describes his male neighbours, he does so by their professions; “The Songwriter,” “The Salesman”.

His broken leg stays at the heart of the narrative throughout the film. It prevents him from living the adventurous lifestyle he has had and physically traps him to a wheelchair. Since he identifies himself with his job, his inability to continue makes him feel powerless. It symbolizes the castration of his manhood and reminds him that he must reconsider his belief that male is the active gender whereas female is the passive one.

At the end of the film, Lisa shows her bravery by taking risks. She climbs to Thorwald’s apartment and defends herself against him after getting attacked as Jeff watches from his window. She proves she is capable of doing things Jeff did not think she was and makes him feel useless. The final scene where we see Lisa reading a book titled Beyond the High Himalayas symbolises her overcoming high social prejudices: she now appears as adventurous as Jeff does. Rear Window, while being ahead of its time, puts female in an equal position to male as it shows Jeff a victim of his own assumptions about females.

James Steward as ‘Jeff’, Grace Kelly as ‘Lisa’.