Gender Roles In Rear Window

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The stereotypical view of women is that they should have multiple children, clean, cook, and be obedient. Women had no authority or independence, women who were married couldn’t own property, or work unless given permission from their

Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is a fillm full of symbolism and motifs that provides viewers with a bigger meaning. It shows these rhetorical appeals through Hitchcok’s eyes that would not be recognized if not analyzed. Through these appeals I have recognized the window as being a symbol and marriage and binoculars as motifs. After understanding much more than what the eye anitially sees when viewing this film there is a fine line between understanding what is going on in the film and observing what the protagonist Jeff is viewing.

One term that will be mentioned multiple times through-out this presentation is the term "Cult of Domesticity". Summarized by "Notes on The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood,ʺ by Catherine J. Lavender, Cult of Domesticity is the standard ideal or characteristics held for the average middle class that was originated in the 19th century. Specifically, there are ideally four characteristics that a young woman should have: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. So, while women also had to hold these characteristics, there were also standard roles the wife and husband were recommended to hold within the house hold. Catherine J. Lavender discusses these standards by first stating men would work outside the house while their wives and

Men believed that women served only one purpose which was to take care of the household. Being a wife and a mother was considered

Alfred Hitchcock 's Rear Window explores the lives of those who feel isolated within society. The 1954 film, set in the tenements of Grenwich village, depicts those who are incapable of fitting into society 's expectations, as well as those who feel isolated from common interaction with others. Moreover, Hitchcock displays how its human nature to seek comfort and deeper connection even with those who are surrounded by others. Despite depicting characters as lonely, the progression of the film illustrates how individuals can be freed from isolation. The director asserts the loneliness and struggle that comes from fitting into social mores.

Women in the 1600s to the 1800s were very harshly treated. They were seen as objects rather than people. They were stay-at-home women because people didn’t trust them to hold jobs. They were seen as little or weak. Women living in this time period had to have their fathers choose their husbands.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window has several themes. One major theme is relationships. The lead character, Jeff Jeffries, a photographer and committed bachelor, is involved in a relationship with Lisa Fremont, a model, although the relationship has some tension due to Jeff’s lack of commitment. When Jeff is confined to his apartment recovering from a broken leg, he begins spying through his rear window on his neighbors in a nearby apartment. Through her frequent visits, Lisa is drawn into this spying as well.

Women wanted to work and pursue jobs just like men did, except women couldn 't work. Based of their sex and gender people thought women needed to be a stay at home, homemaker. They thought that they needed to

In the film Rear Window, the director, Alfred Hitchcock uses a variety of techniques to create suspense and leave viewers on the edge of their seats throughout the film. Hitchcock uses a good assortment of tempo to create thoughts in the viewer's mind. He slows down the pace to create anticipation, and speeds it up to show a change in intensity. In the ending scene of Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock uses changes in pace and tempo, lighting, and a short term deadline to constitute an immense atmosphere of suspense in the viewer's mind.

Eliza Penn Gender roles in the mid-1900s held a prominent place in society because they defined an individual’s behavior and outlook. In A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, two of the protagonists, Stanley and Blanche, strongly represent and embody the extremes of masculinity and femininity. Stanley exemplifies the strong and aggressive male in the 1900s, while Blanche represents the frail and superficial woman. When these two types of characters are placed in close proximity to one another, the results can be devastating. Tennessee Williams wrote this play in order to demonstrate what happens when Blanche, a feminine woman, and Stanley, a masculine man, are brought into conflict; when these extremes clash, it can result in violence and the shattering of an individual’s defense system.

The play An Ideal Husband was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895 in England’s Victorian era. This era was characterised by sexual anarchy amongst men and women where the stringent boundaries that delineated the roles of both men and women were continually being challenged by threatening figures such as the New Woman represented by Mrs Cheveley and dandies such as Lord Goring(Showalter, 3). An Ideal Husband ultimately affirms Lord Goring’s notions about the inequality of the sexes because of the evident limitations placed on the mutability of identity for female characters versus their male counterparts (Madden, 5). These limitations will be further elaborated upon in the context of the patriarchal aspects of Victorian society which contributed to the failed attempts of blackmail by Mrs Cheveley, the manner in which women are trapped by their past and their delineated role of an “angel of truth and goodness” (Powell, 89).

Most women were expected to act as housewives and be loyal subjects to their husbands at all times and did not have many rights. Women in different classes had different responsibilities. Low class women were expected to be housewives. They were obligated to take care of everything in the house. They occupied themselves by cooking, cleaning, entertaining their spouse and other relevant

Trophies are not always made of gold, or even placed on a high pedestal. That’s right, housewives can be trophies as well (at least, that’s what men thought during the early 20th century). Unless they wore an apron, had food in hand, and maintained an hourglass figure, society forced women to believe that this was the only way the could be housewives, and deserved to be married to a husband. Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie featured Amanda Wingfield, a housewife that is unfortunately a victim of societal pressures.