Voyeurism In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

Voyeurism is a concept that has been used in Freudian analysis to describe the arousal and excitement incited by peering at a person without their knowledge. Within media, voyeurism is often tied to scenes of men spying on women, especially during intimate or private moments, projecting their sexual fantasies onto them. In Freudian analysis, the term “scopophilia” is used to describe a person actively engaging in voyeurism (Jackson and Hogg). Freud defined scopophilia as beginning in childhood, with the initial stages being directly linked to the development of thought which considers women innately the weaker sex. He believed that the male child inherently had thoughts of superiority over a female child because of his phallus, and therefore

In certain forms of literature, voyeurism takes a more passive role, with the audience behaving as the ultimate judge of character to determine if the events involve voyeurism. Within this discussion, it is important to note that the act of looking is most prominently considered a male trait. For centuries, men have been able to use their social, economic, and political power over women to enact their looking, ascribing sexual qualities to women derived from their voyeurism and denoting them as inherent. This has yielded dangerous consequences for women, as oftentimes they suffer the consequences of the labels and qualities voyeuristic men ascribe to them without their consent or knowledge. Overall, Freud’s definition of scopophilia being inherently tied to the consideration of women as the inherently weaker sex manifests itself in literature that oftentimes equips this Freudian concept to punish women for being looked at by men. By analyzing the poetic devices employed by the authors, their use of imagery, and the underlying psychological motivations of the characters in connection with Freud’s postulations regarding scopophilia, the underlying complex relationships between voyeurism, power dynamics, and gender roles can be

Through imagery, Plath is able to depict her suicidal ideation and attempts as if she was a circus animal, performing for an audience to take and examine her body and brain once she finally dies. She says, “What a million filaments/The peanut crunching crowd/in the bible/rubberneckers shove in to see” (Levine et al. 634-636). Plath uses words to invoke imagery of a circus or performance that people ascribe to her suicide attempts and overall mental health. She compares these people to the “peanut crunching crowd,” much like in an audience watching circus performers defy death through amazing stunts. The audience “shoves in to see” Plath’s retaliation against life and towards death, as if it's amusement for them (Levine et al. 634-636). She is able to compare her mental health and its struggle to a performance that the audience is watching, as if they consider these aspects of her personality to be part of a performance of a tortured artist. Furthermore, Plath recognizes the fetishization of her mental health others place on her through these comparisons, as if her suicidality is merely a quality of her character that adds dimension and draws to men, ignoring its implications for her well-being. These rubberneckers invade her privacy,