In Vertigo, Mulvey claims, we are led to identify with Scottie's voyeuristic gaze:
"In Vertigo, subjective camera predominates. Apart from flash-back from Judy's point of view, the narrative is woven around what Scottie sees or fails to see. The audience follows the growth of his erotic obsession and subsequent despair precisely from his point of view. Scottie's voyeurism is blatant: he falls in love with a woman he follows and spies on without speaking to. Its sadistic side is equally blatant: he has chosen (and freely chosen, for he had been a successful lawyer) to be a policeman, with all the attendant possibilities of pursuit and investigation. As a result. he follows, watches and falls in love with a perfect image of female beauty and mystery. Once he actually confronts her, his erotic drive is to break her down and force her to tell by persistent cross-questioning. Then, in the second part of the film, he re-enacts his obsessive involvement with the image he loved to watch secretly. He reconstructs Judy as Madeleine, forces her to conform in every detail to the actual physical appearance of his fetish. Her exhibitionism, her masochism, make her an ideal passive counterpart to Scottie's active sadistic voyeurism. She knows her part is to perform, and only by playing it through and then replaying it can she keep Scottie's erotic interest. But in the repetition he does break her down and succeeds in exposing her guilt. His curiosity wins through and she is punished. In Vertigo, erotic involvement with the look is disorienting: the spectator's fascination is turned against him as the narrative carries him through and entwines him with the processes that he is himself exercising. The Hitchcock hero here is firmly placed within the symbolic order, in narrative terms. He has all the attributes of the patriarchal super-ego. Hence the spectator, lulled into a false sense of security by the apparent legality of his surrogate, sees through his look and finds himself exposed as complicit, caught in the moral ambiguity of looking."
Vertigo, voyeurism, and Jean-Paul Sartre
In "Vertigo and Being Seen", Katalin Makkai also considers the significance of voyeurism in the film. But while Mulvey's main theoretical touchstone is Lacanian psychoanalysis, Makkai instead turns to Jean-Paul Sartre's discussion of voyeurism in Being and Nothingness. In doing so, she self-consciously puts herself in conversation with Laura Mulvey, but comes to different conclusions about Vertigo.
Please read "Vertigo and Being Seen", and answer the question posed to you in the comments below. You can find it on YSCEC, or by clicking on the link below:
Katalin Makkai - "Vertigo and Being Seen"
By the way, the PDF is 89 pages. But don't despair: it's just a normal, 20 page-ish essay. The PDF turned out to be so long because of a quirk of the software I used to make it into a PDF...
By the way, the PDF is 89 pages. But don't despair: it's just a normal, 20 page-ish essay. The PDF turned out to be so long because of a quirk of the software I used to make it into a PDF...
Jeongmin: What is the distinction that Makkai draws between two senses in which we can treat something as an object? And, why is this important for the argument of her essay?
ReplyDeleteNancy: Why does Sartre think that shame is a fundamental way in which we experience other persons? And, why is this important for the argument of Makkai's essay?
ReplyDeleteMakkai expresses that Sartre claims shame is a fundamental way we look or apprehend the look. She inserted a quote texted mentioned by Sartre saying that, “shame is by nature recognition, I recognize that I am as the Other sees me.” (1956:302) In my opinion I agree with this claim because if there did not exist a so-called ‘Other’, we would not have any reason to be or feel shame. You are an object in the world that is being looked upon, and this exposition is what brings shame. Sartre also explains that there are certain ways of seeing the look, and they are to “be understood as articulated in some relation to a more basic feeling of shame.” Later Makkai brings up Sartre’s thought on pride being an attitude that is brought up in response to shame and that many results of shame rely on the Other and their own perspective of seeing you as an object. The feeling of being looked can be considered to be, at the same time, one of being exposed, according to Sartre. The other is free to evaluate and interpret particular qualities of the object they are looking at. This look of the Other and the way they see you from their point of view, causes a feeling of shame. Sartre says, “shame, is shame of oneself before the eyes of another person.” This shows his claim that the experience of shame cannot happen without the Other making it a fundamental factor in such a situation.
DeleteOn the other hand, Makkai argues that Sartre’s claim of the apprehension of shame is problematic because he has not given enough grounds for that claim. She believes there are aspects of his own claim on shame that seem to be lacking, therefore making his ideas important for her argument.
Daisy: What are Makkai's criticisms of Laura Mulvey? And, how are these criticisms important for understanding the argument of Makkai's essay?
ReplyDeleteLaura Mulvey focuses on the theme of voyeurism in her essay about the movie Vertigo. We can see Scottie being attracted to Madeline and watching her with fascination. Mulvey says that this situation makes Madeline appear as an object rather than human being. She talks about how by following and watching Madeline, Scottie invades her privacy without her knowing. So in Mulvey’s opinion Madeline is an object of a sexual fantasy. And the fact that Scottie spies on her without her being aware of it makes him in control of the situation. Mulvey also says that the movie constantly identifies with Scottie since most of the story is told from his point of view, audience sees his emotions, while Madeline is just presented as an OBJECT of his desire. However Katalin Makkai disagrees with Mulvey’s view on male domination in this movie. She says that technically from the start it was Elster together with Judy who are in control of the situation. Scottie is manipulated into being a witness to the fake murder therefore it is safe to call him their tool, and tool is an object. Makkai also disagrees with Mulvey about viewers identifying only with Scottie since Madeline or mostly Judy also gets her points of view, although less often but during crucial scenes. Makkai’s criticism of Mulvey’s argument is important because further in in the essay Makkai talks about how Scottie is self conscious about how other people see him therefore puts him in the position of the object rather than viewer.
DeleteJohn: How, according to Sartre, is the consciousness that another person has of us something that we perceive to be threatening? How does this view impact upon Makkai's interpretation of "Vertigo"?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Satre, the consciousness another may have of us is perceived to be threatening because it exposes us and; therefore, to that ‘other’ we, in many ways, become an object rather than an individual and become reliant on the viewer. Satre argues that it is not the intent of the look or the type of gaze but the very fact we are gazed upon as it exposes us; thereby, objectifying us and making us form a type of dependence on the gazer. Satre continues on to say that it is not the type of action that we might be doing but rather the fact that everything we do is something we are or something we can be caught doing. This shows that the meaning of all our actions is not up to us to decide, but rather is defined by what we’ve done. In many ways, I think this question can be answered by the age old maxim, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” Although we, who do the actions, may assign a certain intent or meaning to our actions but, ultimately, cannot control what they actually mean. This power of giving value or significance to our action can only be commanded by our action itself. Therefore, as we are not permitted to give our actions meaning, we become objects. Satre goes on to say that the other who perceives us has “a privileged position,” (20) because “[we] can be an object only for the other, not for [ourselves]” (20). This affects Makkai’s interpretation of “Vertigo” as the film is completely from the perspective of Scottie and we, as the audience/voyeur, are watching Scottie. From this Makkai believes that the tragedy in “Vertigo” is not from Scottie’s objectification of Judy/Madeleine but from his efforts to not be objectified himself. Makkai states that much of Scottie’s behavior stems from his desire to not be objectified. Scottie takes the job because; Madeleine cannot gaze upon him. Therefore, prevents him from becoming an object.
DeleteYe Rim: What is the significance of Scottie's relationship to Midge, according to Makkai? And, how does this relationship, as Makkai understands it, contribute to her overall reading of "Vertigo"?
ReplyDeleteChristine: Makkai claims that Scottie has an ambivalent relationship to 'the look' - specifically, the points of view that the women in "Vertigo" have on him. What does she mean by this, and how is it important for her overall reading of the film?
ReplyDeleteThe way that Scottie views Madeline in the film is a sort of male fantasy, a "male gaze" that the audience follows. This view that he has for Madeline dehumanizes her in a way, and objectifies her as an object of his desire. It becomes clear that he has a desire to see and avoid being seen. This is perhaps what made Madeline so alluring and desirable to him in the first place. Once Elster said that sometimes her eyes went "cloudy" and she couldn't see where she was, suddenly Scottie was willing to take on the case. In the scene at Ernie's he is able to gaze at her without being seen, and this continues as he follows her and each time avoids being seen by her. He spies on her and this voyeurism makes his relationship with her to attractive. On the other hand, Midge is able to see right through him because of their long relationship. Her gaze is slightly averted by her glasses and short glances, but the more she "looks" at him, the more he avoids her. There relationship is limited and once she tried to force him to gaze at her and enter his privacy, thus seeing him in return, he cut himself off from Midge.
DeleteIn Vertigo there are several instances of gazes being exchanged. "Madeline" gazes at the painting of Carlotta, while Scottie gazes in turn at her, and Midge tries to look at Scottie. However, he is only comfortable with the first two. Because of a sense of shame that he may feel by being seen (perhaps by being objectified himself), he does not want the women in the film to look at him. However, near the middle of the film just before "Madeline" dies, Scottie tried to force himself into her view, that is (what he believed to be) Carlotta's view. The first half of the film is Scotties view, the looker, and the second half shows him in turn being looked at.
The women in the film, mainly Judy, can now see Scottie more clearly as he falls into madness. He becomes an obsessive monster, yet is still desirable to Judy to the point of giving up herself entirely. This is all too much for him, I believe, and he tries to tame Judy in an attempt to prevent himself from being objectified by her. However, his attempts to tame her distort her love and leave him dissatisfied. He cannot fully "look" at Judy/Madeline since he knows the truth, and cannot stand her or Midge looking at him and seeing him fully.