Rear Window

In Rear Window Hitchcock purposes a process through which people gain more satisfaction from viewing than living. Jeffries is a photographer who landed himself in a leg cast due to an accident. To entertain himself he watches out his rear window the people the surround him and it becomes an obsession. Their lives become more important than his. After all, they are vital and mobile; he is trapped. It is like the camera is trapped within the confines of his room, never venturing outside. Hitchcock tells the story through Jeffries view. We are given peeks into the rooms of many of Jeffries' unknowing neighbors: Miss Torso, Miss Lonelyhearts , Thorwald and his wife, a songwriter, the newlyweds, and a local busybody. Even though many of them never interact with Jeffries, except as an object for him to watch we still become curiously engaged by their personal stories.

Jeffries girlfriend, Lisa is young, beautiful and successful, which seems to intimidate him. They didn’t really have much in common, but it was made clear that she had very strong feelings for him. When she tried to being up taking the relationship further he would change the subject. He fumbles for reasons why she wouldn't make a good wife, the only fault he can find is that she's "too perfect, too talented, too beautiful, and too sophisticated." The newlyweds related to their relationship by possibly reflecting their relationship’s possible future. He was scared of commitment. But then again he notices Miss Lonelyhearts and how lonely she is and that’s not what he wants either. Miss Torso, that dancer, is a beautiful woman that fights off men everywhere she goes trying to find the right person.

One day, Jeffries observes something that forces him to abandon his safe, cocooned role as a spectator and become a participant. Mr. Lars Thorwald and his nagging wife were one of the main characters that Jeffries watched constantly. That was not what he wanted in a relationship. He sees or thinks he sees one of his neighbors, Thorwald, commit a murder. However, with restricted mobility Jeffries can only watch through his rear window as Lisa puts herself in harm's way, and, when danger strikes, he is helpless to go to her rescue. This is when he realizes that she does mean more to him and starts to fall more in love with her.

The second part of the movie is constant to the murderous act. For the most part, we see only what Jeffries sees, but, in one critical scene that determines the issue of whether or not there was a murder, Hitchcock allows us to observe an incident that occurs while Jeffries is asleep. It is when Jefferis and Lisa team up to investigate the murder that Hitchcock increases the tension. Practically the entire film is shown through Jeffries' window, including when Lisa sneaks into the killer's apartment. When the neighbor returns to the apartment the tension multiplies and we can feel the powerlessness because all we can do is watch due to Jeffries’ restricted mobility. In Jeff's rear window world, each story is resolved: Miss Torso is reunited with her boyfriend, Miss Lonelyhearts hooks up with the songwriter, whose music prevents her from committing suicide, Thorwald apartments are being repainted, the newly-weds are beginning to have marital friction.