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I’ll be sharing key information about Alfred Hitchcock’s film, including its context, the central themes, and how to properly break down the film to ensure your essay responses are top-notch.
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Summary of Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock
Key Characters
Context
Themes Explored in Rear Window
Analysis of Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock
Summary of Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece begins with the protagonist, a talented photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, breaking his leg and being relegated to his apartment by the injury.
He hates being stuck in the situation and resolves to spy on his neighbours to entertain himself. His neighbours keep open windows due to the hot summer weather. What makes the situation unbearable is his beautiful and dependent girlfriend Lisa, who is very clingy.
Among the group of neighbours he is spying on, one night he notices Mr Thorwald, a businessman married to a bed-ridden grumpy woman, walking in and out of the apartment with his case, after the mysterious scream of a woman.
When Jeff learns Thorwald’s wife has been murdered, he suspects the husband of murder.
He becomes obsessed and persists in spying on the businessman, convincing both Lisa and Stella, his nurse, that Thorwald is guilty.
Detective Lt. Doyle, a policeman and friend to Jeff, is called to the scene and dismisses his friend’s theories.
A dead dog is then found buried in a flowerbed, a fact that further consolidates Jeff’s theory, as Thorwald seems unflinching and unbothered by the discovery, unlike everyone else in the neighbourhood.
Jeff baits the businessman into leaving his apartment by anonymously phoning him and sending him a letter, threatening to tell everything to the police.
Lisa is then sent to the apartment to search for clues, finding Thorwald’s wife’s wedding ring.
The businessman returns, however not before the police arrive too in the nick of time. Lisa signals to Jeff that she has found the ring by wiggling her finger, a sign that Thorwald interprets too, unfortunately.
The businessman pays a visit to Jeff with the intention of killing him, pushing him out of a window. He survives, and the police manage to catch Thorwald. It ends with Jeff having two legs broken instead of one.
Doyle admits Jeff was right.
Lisa keeps Jeff company, glad she has proven to Jeff that she isn’t just a useless pretty hassle, as she was instrumental in finding the evidence to convict Thorwald.
The movie is a much less gruesome affair than the usual Hitchcock, but nevertheless it still carries an edge to it.
Key Characters
Jeff
There are three aspects to understand about the protagonist.
The first being his love of adventure. Given his background as an on-site photographer, he enjoys being called to remote or dangerous parts of the world to do photojournalism.
He craves adventure and travel. This is one of the reasons why he struggles so much when he must stay put in his apartment for recovery.
The second aspect is his relationship with Lisa. Given his love of adventure, a clever, beautiful and dependent woman like Lisa who wants to marry and settle down is a big red flag for him, as he may lose all his freedom by settling down in a committed relationship.
On top of that Lisa is very clingy, which only strengthens his doubts as to whether he should settle down and spend his entire life with her.
Thirdly, his background in Journalism makes him the perfect detective, and the perfect medium of communication between the audiences and the other characters. He raises the same points we would and asks the same questions as if we were there with him, or as if we were him.
Lisa
Being a fashion model paid her weight in gold, Lisa is the polar opposite of Jeff, at least on the surface.
Jeff thinks she is not made for the adventurous life he leads.
Hence they are divided. She tries to distract Jeff from the investigation, but gets drawn in, and proves that she is as forward and adventurous as him by putting her life at risk and trying to gather evidence at Thorwald’s apartment.
Lisa is the victim of many misogynistic stereotypes common at the time of the film.
She is misunderstood by her male partner and dismissed, like many minor female characters in the movie. This misunderstanding collapses as the movie is resolved.
Understanding the dynamics within Jeff and Lisa’s relationship is crucial in your Rear Window analysis as it reflects mainstream societal attitudes of the 1950s.
Thorwald
It is extremely telling that the villain of the movie is seen so little, and speaks so little in the entire film. Everything the audience experiences about Thorwald is through Jeff’s eyes, it is his perspective, his account.
This ensures audiences see Thorwald as if they themselves were in Jeff’s apartment, observing. It also serves to keep the businessman mysterious, except for his disclosed unhappiness in the marriage and his peculiar comings and goings.
Further, the simplicity of his context and his life humanises him, and doesn’t dismiss him as just a grand, theatrical villain.
His life is so mundane, normal and unhappy, that he resolves to murder to escape it.
This gives audiences some form of sympathy towards him, a feeling Hitchcock demands in all his works when it comes to villains.
The allusiveness of Thorwald’s persona is evident in the film clip below, heightened by the tense lighting and sound of his approaching footsteps toward Jeff’s apartment:
https://youtu.be/t8eNpwLPwog?si=fKeIPEnpEnCy7E0R
Stella
Stella is a nurse who attends to Jeff as he recovers.
In terms of storyline, you can think of her as the sidekick or comic relief of the movie.
In her droning on about love, marriage and the reality of it, she provides comic relief during tense moments, but also serves as a bridge between Jeff and Lisa, suggesting to Jeff they should get married, and explaining the difficult reality of a relationship.
Context
A cross between a thriller, a romance, and a comedy, Rear Window is a perfect reflection of American life in the 1950s. Real world events occurring at that time hugely influenced the Rear Window themes that Hitchcock centres the film on, so keep this information in mind.
Released in 1954 following the end of World War II, the film draws heavily on the feelings of isolation and paranoia that plagued society at this time. This is a crucial element to include in your Rear Window analysis.
The Cold War began in 1947, causing widespread fear in the United States of Communist power from the Soviet Union. During the early 1950s, around when Rear Window came out, US leaders were telling the public to fear Soviet Communism and to exercise caution as anyone could be a Communist.
Known as the Red Scare, fear of internal Communism caused the public to grow increasingly worried that they were being surveilled by Communists, and trust within society was completely fractured.
This underlies many of the Rear Window themes, with Jeff’s hobby of spying on his neighbours nodding toward how US citizens feared for their privacy during the Cold War.
Marriage was extremely important within society during the 1950s and divorce was shunned, which explains Lisa’s eagerness to marry Jeff. Not only was tying the knot essential in protecting Lisa’s reputation, but it also granted her financial stability as men worked higher-paying jobs.
Additionally, during this period domesticity was becoming more and more established and people had to come to terms with the dynamics of at-home life, a quiet life that had been so removed in the previous decade.
This is hence why Hitchcock pries into the apartments of different people with different struggles. Individual desires and struggles could no longer be put aside to participate in something ‘bigger’ than individual life, like a world war.
People had to re-learn how to figure out their relationship problems and home dynamics after facing economic and social hardships of the past decade — Jeff is an example of such a learning curve.
Themes Explored in Rear Window
Dissatisfaction
All main characters are dissatisfied with their situation. The murderer can’t stand his wife due to her nagging him and being sick all the time. Jeff also can’t stand Lisa because she intimidates him and she’s too different to him in his mind.
This is clear when Jeff expresses his disdain towards marriage, believing that it will rob him of his freedom;
“If you don’t pull me out of this swamp… I’m going to get married. Then I’ll never be able to go anywhere.”
These circumstances set up the central conflict that the movie is about.
So what makes Jeff different from Thorwald if they find themselves in the same situation? It is how they deal with dissatisfaction.
Jeff comes to terms with it and tries to work through it with some help from Stella and Lisa, while Thorwald resolves to murder.
This Rear Window theme is so central because it reveals the fundamental difference between hero and villain in the story, and because it is responsible for setting up the central conflict of the movie.
Perseverance
As we have concluded, the resolution of dissatisfaction comes with perseverance. Characters are rewarded for it.
Jeff perseveres with both his relationship and investigation, a fact that saves both things by the very end. He does this with some hesitation at first, but he is sweetly rewarded after.
Hitchcock also gives us an example of what happens when perseverance and dialogue are thrown out of the window. Literally. Thorwald has no patience, and he suffers the consequences morally and later materially when he is arrested.
Morality
Rear Window raises questions regarding how ethical Jeff’s actions are in spying on his neighbours. Despite his suspicions that Mr Thorwald committed a murder, does that excuse Jeff for violating his privacy?
In response to Jeff’s questionable hobby, Stella comments on peoples’ obsessions with intruding on others’ personal matters rather than sorting out their own;
“We’ve become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their house and look in for a change.”
This Rear Window theme is heavily based on life during the Cold War and peoples’ mistrust towards others, as fears of secret communists infiltrating society led many individuals to betray others.
Isolation
One of the primary Rear Window themes is isolation. Due to his fixation on spying on his neighbours, Jeff becomes extremely secluded from the outside world. Not only is he restricted by his injury, but by spending his days watching people through a lens he becomes disconnected from others.
With the majority of the film set within Jeff’s apartment, it further enhances the sense of loneliness and detachment he has from others, impeding his sense of empathy.
As a professional photographer, Jeff is already accustomed to distancing himself from the subjects he is photographing. However, since his injury, he becomes completely consumed in his spying hobbies and solving Thorwald’s suspected crime.
Once again, this Rear Window theme closely links to how the threat of Communism had alienated members of society from one another and stunted human connection.
Paranoia
A Rear Window theme interwoven within the entire film is paranoia. As Jeff becomes more and more consumed by his hobby of spying on Thorwald, his suspicions and mistrust towards him dominate his thoughts.
As he engages other characters in his investigation of Thorwald, they also adopt a constant mindset of paranoia. This is evident in a quote spoken by Lisa as she joins in watching:
“The more you watch, the more you begin to wonder.”
This mirrors how the general population felt at the time, as the threat of Communism fostered a culture of mass hysteria and mistrust towards others.
How to Analyse Rear Window in 3 Steps
Step 1: Choose your example
When writing your Rear Window analysis, the best way to choose a film example is to choose one with a technique.
Remember you must include stylistic devices (how images and words are arranged in a text to produce meaning), and aesthetic features (elements that prompt a critical response from the reader) in your essays to gain the most marks.
In this case, we will use the quotes:
“If you don’t pull me out of this swamp… I’m going to get married. Then I’ll never be able to go anywhere”
“If she was only ordinary.”
Step 2: Identify your technique(s)
To highlight dissatisfaction within Jeff, Hitchcock employs metaphor and characterisation.
The audience has to realise Jeff cannot come to terms with the fact that his lover is more successful than him and, on the surface, less adventurous.
He thus sees her as an impediment rather than a partner. This is what these two quotes reveal.
However, if you’re doing your Rear Window Analysis and you’re stumped at the task of finding a technique, our AI Tutor Artie can help in a few simple steps. Let’s use a quote by Stella as an example.
Once you’ve logged in, click on “Identify Techniques” in the tab to the left of your screen.
Next, type the film into the “English Text” bar, the author, and the quote.
Alternatively, you can type into the “Ask me anything here…” bar, “Please identify the literary techniques in this quote from Rear Window”, and Artie’s response should mirror the screenshot below.
Then you simply send through the quote and Artie will generate a detailed list of techniques plus an explanation for each!
Step 3: Write the analysis
Always be ready to ask yourself how the author intended you to feel/respond emotionally by watching parts of the film.
This will make sure that you tackle an important part of the Rear Window analysis, which is the effect on the audience.
Alfred Hitchcock employs both metaphor and characterisation to identify dissatisfaction and mistrust in his protagonist, Jeff, revealing his most compromising flaws at the beginning of the movie.
His remarks to his employer, “If you don’t pull me out of this swamp… I’m going to get married. Then I’ll never be able to go anywhere”, highlights a deep divide between the two, and we are thus drawn in to observe not only the investigation dynamic, but how the protagonist will navigate this situation of self doubt.
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Luka Russell is an English tutor at Art of Smart Education, and graduated from UTS in 2023 with a Bachelor of Communication, majoring in Journalism. Aside from educational content, she is passionate about health and beauty journalism, having written various articles on female health topics. She also loves to draw in her spare time.
Vittorio Manessi is an Art of Smart tutor based in Queensland studying environmental science. He was one of the first Year 12 students to study under the new ATAR system in Queensland. He enjoys Maths, Science, English and Ancient History and is keen to share his knowledge of the QCE by making awesome resources.
