27 pages • 54 minutes read
Cornell WoolrichRear Window
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1942A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Noir Fiction
As one of the creators of the noir genre alongside writers such as Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, Woolrich wrote much of his work before the term was commonplace in American literary criticism. Noir writing grew out of French expressionism and film noir, a style of filmmaking popularized during the 1940s. “Noir” means “black” in French, and this style of crime fiction is characterized by dark themes, morally ambiguous characters, and gritty urban settings. Stories typically feature protagonists who are morally compromised or struggling with inner demons and settings are usually urban environments filled with danger and despair. Noir stories often focus more on character development than plot twists or action sequences.
Unlike much detective fiction, noir characters are often ordinary people whose circumstances or desires lead them into a central mystery or crime. Both Hal Jeffries and Lars Thorwald fit this mold. Jeff’s investigation originates in his voyeurism, and Thorwald is no hardened criminal but rather a desperate husband who resorts to alcohol to cope with his troubles.
The setting, an oppressively dark and humid New York alley, also belongs to the noir world. It’s heavily atmospheric, and the open windows blur the boundary between private and public spaces. Jeff’s neighbors expect privacy as they perform their acts of affection and violence in their homes. Jeff’s prying is transgressive, but his snooping solves a murder. This complex morality in which none of the main characters is innocent is a hallmark of the noir style.
Popular Culture Context: Hitchcock’s Rear Window
Director Alfred Hitchcock adapted “Rear Window” into a 1954 motion picture that is often ranked among the greatest American films. Screenwriter John Michael Hayes provided the script, and the movie is more famous today than the short story that inspired it. Hayes and Hitchcock retained the bones of Woolrich’s narrative but made changes, adding embellishments that appealed to movie audiences and arguably deepened the themes of the source material. Most notably, they gave Jeff a love interest. In the film, he is dating a beautiful socialite named Lisa Fremont, played by Grace Kelly. Both Hitchcock’s camera and Jeff’s detective friend, here renamed Doyle, spend much of the movie lingering their gaze on Kelly, who alternately wears light summer dresses and lingerie. While viewers may find Jeff’s voyeurism distasteful and even immoral, they engage in the same act toward the movie’s female lead.
Lisa initially dismisses Jeff’s suspicion that Thorwald killed his wife. She eventually becomes convinced, however, and she (rather than the housekeeper) investigates Thorwald’s apartment. When Thorwald returns, he catches her in the act. The movie’s emotional peak comes as Jeff watches desperately and helplessly as Thorwald begins to assault Lisa. Hayes and Hitchcock relieve the tension by having the police arrive to arrest Lisa for breaking into Thorwald’s apartment.
Hayes and Hitchcock portray Jeff as a professional photographer, which adds depth and complexity to the character’s voyeurism. He is, in a sense, a professional voyeur. Spying on his neighbors is only an intensified and more intimate version of his (nominally respectable) job. This choice also allows Hitchcock to use several innovative directorial techniques. In perhaps the most iconic scene in the film, Jeff uses a long telephoto camera lens to spy on Thorwald. The movie camera looks at Jeff from the front while the scene Jeff observes appears as a reflection in his lens. Hitchcock spies on Jeff while Jeff spies on Thorwald, and the movie viewer becomes complicit in the double act of voyeurism. At the end of the film, when Thorwald comes to Jeff’s apartment to attack him, Jeff holds him off by repeatedly firing camera flashbulbs in his face. Hitchcock points the movie camera directly into the flash, filling the screen with bursts of light, and then coloring the film red to mimic the human eye’s response to a camera flash.
Rear Window was nominated for (although it did not win) Academy Awards in the following categories: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Sound. The American Film Institute ranked Rear Window number 42 on its list of greatest American films of the 20th century and the third greatest mystery movie.
