The Films of Alfred Hitchcock - Movie Review Example

The Films of Alfred Hitchcock Insert Insert s Each of Hitchcock’s films contains some fluctuation on the women concept being recreated into something other than their natural self for the benefit of the male character. Hitchcock film that fits this concept is Rebecca (1940). According to Tania Modleski, the film is more or less concerned with the woman’s problem of over-identification with another woman (1988). She continues to say that Rebecca powerfully establishes the potential terror and loss of self-involved in the identification, particularly identification with a woman. This essay tries to evaluate this with respect to the relationship that is depicted between the unnamed heroine and the character of Rebecca in the film. The film, Rebecca there is a young and shy woman’s companion who marries the handsome master, whose first wife, Rebecca, has died in enigma circumstances. When they the young woman and Maxim arrive at the grandiose family mansion, the newly wedded bride feels inadequate to her new situation. There is increased lack of self-confidence, which is triggered by Mrs. Danvers, is sinister, domineering housekeeper and whose obsessive duty to the deceased Rebecca is demonstrated in her active antagonism to her new mistress (Modleski, 1988). The unnamed heroine appears to be a parentless, an orphan, friendless and completely unsure of herself. In the initial section of the film, the heroine is presented as passive and incompetent as well as not capable of assuming the position of mistress of Manderley. The unnamed heroine continually strives not only to please Master Maxim, but also to win the affections of Mrs. Danvers as well. Mrs. Danvers seems herself to be haunted, possessed by Rebecca, and has a sexual attachment to Rebecca (Modleski, 1988). The lack of naming the protagonist in the film is evidence of lacking a fully formed identity, who, in fact, is seeking that identity, and the question is whether she will successfully find it. The heroine’s character in the film exists only through her desire of being accepted and loved by others. Her personality and identity slowly become invisible when she tries, but fails, fitting into her new role as the mistress of the house. As many women are taught of realizing their own potential through their service to their children and husband, the heroine walks through the film as an empty vessel that is waiting to be filled with ideas, impressions and attention of others (Truffault, 1983). The second Mrs. de Winter feeling of inadequacy becomes focalized in her comprehended inability of living up to the legacy of the first Mrs. de Winter. This evident failure impinges upon her declining self-esteem, tenaciously from all sides. With these traits, the heroine starts feeling overshadowed by the memory of Rebecca, whereby her initials are embroidered on handkerchiefs, napkins, and pillowcases. The former servant of Rebecca, Mrs. Danvers, also dedicates herself to make the unnamed heroine feel inadequate in relation to Rebecca. Therefore, this leads her to seeking out ways of improving herself to make herself worthy of the love of Maxim, which in turn brings about her desire of recreating herself in the image of Rebecca. In addition, Mrs. Danvers forced the Protagonist into inhabiting Rebecca’s identity by imitating alongside her the manner in which Rebecca used to comb her hair (Truffault, 1983). In the film, the heroine uses a fashion magazine in ordering herself a dress that was on the magazine’s cover. Moreover, she styles her hair just like the model on the magazine’s cover. However, when she presents herself to her husband in this guise, Maxim seems merely disported by the effort. She interprets that Maxim’s reaction mean that she has failed in living up to Rebecca, which is an explicit depiction of the young heroine’s over-identification with Rebecca. The dynamic between Rebecca and the unnamed heroine creates a weird doubling relationship the Mrs. Danvers and the youthful heroine, the first wife and the previous possessor of the house. In the film Rebecca, this doubling of the two women, coupled with the unnamed protagonist’s feelings of inadequacy, comes together. Rebecca is a name depicted as without a body while the unnamed heroine who is the spectators’ essential point of narrative identification and is never named in her own right. She is depicted as a body without a name or is searching for a name. Therefore, it can be seen as natural within the bounds of the structure of the film that the heroine should try recreating herself in Rebecca’s image, whose influence so perfectly permeates Manderlay perfectly still in the absence of her physical presence (Truffault, 1983). The identity of the dead Rebecca is hence represented as consuming the identity of the young heroine. The young protagonist’s desire of making herself worth of her husband’s love achieves it most desperate apparent in the wake of her vulnerability to the bedroom of Rebecca. At the masquerade ball sequence, the protagonist is tricked by Mrs. Danvers to wear the same costume, which Rebecca wore the previous year. With this kind of dressing, the protagonist experiences the joy of being a real woman, proud, confident and triumphant because of her charming appearance (light, 1984). However, her happiness was shuttered after Maxim’s utter rejection of her costume. To the young protagonist, it seemed that Maxim had rejected her as an inferior to her first wife, utterly unworthy to take her place. Even though she was tricked into wearing Rebecca’s costume, her problem of over-identification with Rebecca hinder her from realizing that the costume was Rebecca’s. She wanted to be noticed so much that she dedicated herself to becoming someone else. She wanted to get the love that the former Mrs. de Winter had, from her husband to the servants. It depicts that Maxim in his privileged blindness had not considered that, rather than adapting to her own identity, the young heroine might take on Rebecca’s (Modleski, 1988). Moreover, it depicts the potential terror and loss of self-involved in identification. The desire of the young protagonist to identifying herself in Rebecca’s image was because of her insecurities and her own fundamental misunderstandings. In the film, Rebecca can be understood as a product of the imagination as well as a projection of the desired self. Rebecca is the absolute opposite, the dark accompaniment of the unnamed heroine and represents that the latter is not and does not have. The young protagonist unconsciously desires to have a sexually liberated identity, which is modeled on Rebecca. One can see in the film how the protagonist creates in her mind a powerful, suggestive image of Rebecca, solely based on the description by Hopper, which is fuelled by gossip and rumors, as well as the handwriting of Rebecca on the flyleaf. The protagonist is trapped in the patriarchal values since she does not have other means of experiencing sexual pleasure but to imagine herself as Rebecca (Light, 1984). The heroine’s ability to experience pleasure from the intensified sexual desire and excitements is by developing a self-overlapping with Rebecca’s image in order to discover her own independent and sexual femininity. Through her imagination as Rebecca, the heroine finds pleasure in approaching the dangerous-banned knowledge about Rebecca’s secrets and the female sexuality. For an instant, in wearing Rebecca’s costume at the masquerade ball is a symbolic transformation while she presents herself as an attractive woman compare to the plain girl before. With the discovery of Rebecca’s body, the protagonist automatically is given a new identity as well as the ability to create. The audience can notice that he anonymousness and namelessness decrease. Even Maxim now acknowledges her individuality, refers her by her Christian name and gives the title of Mrs. de Winter. Consequently, the young heroine attempts submerging her sexual identity as she rejects the concealed, the real identity of Rebecca as well as denying access to the sexually liberate and created self (Light, 1984). Because now she knows Rebecca quite well, she begins developing inside her and an image of a mature woman who has independent spirits, amply capable of controlling men with her sexual attractiveness. She is also able to make Maxim notice her as a mature confident woman just like Rebecca and she can assume the role of a wife. Moreover, she does not imitate Rebecca in her appearance as she start doing thing her own way. In submission, it can be said that this over-identification of the protagonist with Rebecca depicts the potential terror and loss of self-involved in identification as demonstrated in the film. Even as the lights brilliantly concludes, for the young innocent protagonist that the audience encountered in the first quarter of the film learning about Rebecca is to some extent repeating Rebecca’s fall and losing her own sexual innocence (light, 1984). Maxim sadly indicates that the heroine is no longer an innocent girl; it is gone forever, that young, funny, lost look that he loved. Depressed as Maxim is, nevertheless, this is obviously the heroine’s happiest moment throughout the film because she at last transformed into a powerful lady and achieved her ultimate success in the patriarchal society (light, 1984). That is, becoming Maxim’s wife and mistress of Manderley. References Light, A. “Returning to Manderley’: Romance Fiction, Female Sexuality and Class.” Feminist review 16, (1984): 7-25. Tania M. (1988). The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory, New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall. Truffault, F (1983). Hitchcock Truffaut. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc. Read More