Vertigo Analysis

In Vertigo, two men, Galvin Elster (Tom Helmore) and Scottie (James Stewart), have total control over Madeleine/Judy. The images at the beginning of the film are fragmentations of a woman, suggesting from the beginning a Freudian castration complex. Laura Mulvey said that Vertigo provides no woman’s view at all, “[…] since every moment of patriarchy’s ideological is reframed by a masculine perspective.” And in fact, if one divides the movie into sections: first, Madeleine’s section; secondly, Judy’s section, in both sections of the film Madeleine/Judy is controlled by men. Hence, castration because of the deprive of power and autonomy of her life. The first section, Madeleine, is told by Elster to play another character; to play Carlotta Valdes. …show more content…
Madeleine is told to wander around San Francisco and is told to direct Scottie to the stairs in the tower that leads to the bell, where he witnesses the supposed abrupt suicide committed by Madeleine. The second section of the film follows Judy; another woman who Scottie happens to see an incredible physical resemblance of Madeleine. In the second section, Scottie wants to convert Judy back into the dead character of Madeleine who was playing Carlotta. In Vertigo the real women are overlooked in favor of fantasies and images. Judy is never too realized as a character in the film, it is only her body and image that Scottie pursues. Scottie never asks Judy questions about the real her or her history, he only wants to make her look like Madeleine, sort of like playing Pygmalion. In the end of both sections of the film, the men castrate the women. Elster castrates the real Madeleine; Scottie castrates Judy taking their independence away and conducting them to their own death before they have any chance of revealing and flying …show more content…
She has an almost maternal presence; the only difference is that she shows signs of still loving Scottie. Despite the fact that, according to Scottie, she was “the one who blew it” after “three whole weeks” of being engaged to him during their college years. Even though Midge seems to have a love interest for Scottie doing all kinds of things, such as showing herself jealous when she sees Madeleine exiting his apartment during the night. She also juxtapositions her face in a replica of Carlotta’s portrait as a way for Scottie to see her just as he sees Madeleine. When he ends up in the hospital after Madeleine’s supposed suicide, she shows to be genuinely worried about him, demonstrating him that she cares like no other woman would. Nevertheless, Scottie does not care much about real women in his life, not Midge, not Judy. But Midge has another quality other than being a real woman that explains Scottie’s sexual disinterest for her. Midge is the only independent woman who works to make a living and who has a history for making her own decisions, such as terminating her engagement to Scottie years earlier. And Hitchcock could have castrated Midge as well, but she does not meet Hitchcock’s standards of the beautiful icy blond and as a result he has made her wear glasses. In previous films, such

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