The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare and the film Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock both showcase themes of voyeurism and spying which lead to various effects on the characters in both stories. The character Hamlet deals with being the victim and culprit of spying in regard to multiple different people, Scottie reveals an unexpected voyeuristic viewpoint, and the audience watches and interprets the way these characters expose their inner thoughts and desires. In Hamlet by Shakespeare, the idea of spying is not out of the ordinary for the characters, as multiple different characters are shown to be spying on Hamlet at different points in the play. Hamlet is the victim of spying from Claudius, Polonius and his two friends Rosencrantz …show more content…
He tells Gertrude, “Her father and myself, we’ll so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, we may of their encounter frankly judge, and gather by him, as he is behaved, if’t be th’ affliction of his love or no that thus he suffers for.” His actions here show his antipathy for Hamlet in that he does not care what could be wrong with Hamlet, he is only trying to find an excuse to send him away. Claudius even goes on to convince Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to go with Hamlet to England simply just to spy on him. In an attempt to trick Hamlet into confessing his ambition to take the throne from Claudius, Guildenstern mentions that “dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream,” (44) but Hamlet …show more content…
He tells her, “the Chinese say that once you have saved a person's life, you're responsible for it forever. And so I'm committed,” (Vertigo) which shows that he has clearly moved beyond the type of relationship that was intended for them, and has romantic feelings for her. These feelings do however lead him to finding out that Madeleine is Judy, but not before he tries to compare the two women. He tells Judy he “need(s) (her) to be Madeleine for awhile,” (Vertigo) which creates tension in the relationship between the two as Judy wants him to love her for her and not because of Madeleine. Therefore the voyeurism and spying in the movie seem to bring out the worst in Scottie, but end up leading him to the answers he needs to solve the