REAR WINDOW: Voyeurism and the Object of the Male Gaze

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film, Rear Window, gives us an inside look at the life of injured photojournalist, LB Jeffries, who as a result of his injury is bound to a wheelchair. Because our protagonist is unable to leave his apartment, he passes the time by observing, or spying on, his neighbors out of the rear window of his apartment. The entire plot is centered around Jeffries’ discoveries as a “Peeping Tom” and therefore, the film has a strong underlying theme of voyeurism.

In her piece, “From the Woman Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory”, Tania Modleski analyzes the relationship between Jeffries and his girlfriend. She discusses the exhibitionist behavior of Lisa and the voyeuristic actions of Jeffries. Modleski makes the point that although Lisa is an exhibitionist, she is also portrayed in a confident and superior manner to Jeffries. She notes most significantly Lisa’s physical presence in each shot as compared to that of Jeffrey’s. On page 727, she makes the observation that, “in Rear Window, however, the woman is continually shown to be physically superior to the hero, not only in her physical movements but also in her dominance within the frame…” While these are notable characteristics of our two protagonists, I do not think that this is the voyeuristic relationship that must be analyzed.

I would like to discuss voyeurism in terms of the object of the male gaze as it relates to Rear Window. When considering the male gaze in relation to Hitchcock’s film, I found the most interesting voyeuristic relationship to be that of our protagonist, Jeffries, as a “Peeping Tom” looking into the windows of his neighbors while they are unaware. At first, we see him observing all of the neighbors and taking equal interest in each of their actions. Two neighbors are females who live alone, one being particularly attractive and desirable, the stereotypical object of the male gaze, and there are couples in the other apartments. At no point is he focused specifically on the attractive female neighbor, as would be expected. As the plot progresses and as Jeffries continues to “peep”, he becomes fixated on the actions of Mr. Thorwald. In film, the vast majority of the time, the object of the male gaze is a woman who is desirable to the man and therefore becomes desirable to us as the audience. Modleski briefly discusses Laura Mulveys views on voyeurism in relation to Hitchcock films and she states that they are “tailored to the fears and fantasies of the male spectator, who…needs to see her fetishized and controlled in the course of the narrative…The film spectator apparently has no choice but to identify with the male protagonist, who exerts an active controlling gaze over a passive female object.” As Modleski stated, Lisa is most certainly not a “passive female object” and in my opinion, she is also not the primary object of Jeffries’ gaze. So, in the case of Rear Window, the object of the male gaze is not a woman, rather, from Jeffries’ perspective as a voyeur, or “Peeping Tom”, it is Thorwald. This interest in Thorwald comes about due to Jeffries’ suspicion that Thorwald has murdered his wife. Although Jeffries is not “peeping” on Thorwald in a sexual context, he still chooses to focus on and become obsessed with the actions of this male individual over the actions of his other neighbors, which is worth noting. His interest in Lisa as a visual subject becomes clearly secondary to his desire to view Thorwald in an effort to find evidence of murder.