Notice that Hitchcock uses art collecting as a means of underlining the masculine sense of ownership of the feminine in North by Northwest and in Vertigo. In Vertigo we see it in the Portrait of Carlotta, which preserves her as an object (and which her story presents); in North by Northwest we see it literally in the first image from auction scene of Van Damme's possessive grasp on Eve's neck:
Hitchcock seems to place men as the dominant possessors. Women are ideal possessions which can be kept or thrown out like the example of when Carlotta was thrown out of that rich man's life. The scene when Judy is vamped out and does finally, after not wanting to, her hair like Madeleine, the ghost of Madeleine reincarnates into Judy. I agree that in the beginning Scottie was like a stubborn child that was afraid and by the end he became a man/monster and cured from his weakness (his vertigo and love for Madeleine).
ReplyDeleteHitchcock definitely displays men as the controller and women as the controlled. This is evident in the story of Carlotta. She was thrown away when her husband didn't want her and he had complete control, even to the point of keeping her child. This possession is shown in Stewart making Judy into what he wants. He even says to her about her hair "it can't matter to you", as if she shouldn't even have an opinion about her own looks.
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