July 13, 2022
Hero and Motif:
The hero typically lives in a small, enclose world of his own, a fabrication, a protection, a prison
It’s an artificial, unrealistic world into which real chaos erupts, demanding to be faced, forcing to hero to get out of himself and in the process he’s shaken up, (Robin Wood, p. 100)
Jeff in Rear Window
Melanie, The Birds
Donda descent inti hell, Wrong Man
Cary Grant, Nort, he is deprived of the security of his office and cocktail bar
Male characters pop up from off screen space in a sudden fashion (Richard Allen, note 14)
Johnny, Suspicion
Uncle Charlie, Shadow
Rusk, Frenzy
Female villains
Rebecca, housekeeper out of nowhere
Freudian Overtones:
Suspicion: Lina treats men as either children or horses. She associates Johnny with a horse; Johnny also bets on horses
Marnie: also horses
sexual repression and withdrawal
Heroes as Practical Jokers and Aristocratic Rogues
R. Donat, 39 Steps
C. Grant, Suspicion
C. Grant, To Catch a Thief
The Birds: Melanie introduced as practical joker
Narcissism
H’s American heroes change from the 1951 Strangers on train
A callous, lonely and violent narcissist
narcissism is produced by obsessive desire for mastery, or obsessive fear of statis (boredom)
Lack of Self Knowledge
Rear Window: Jeffries, a man who has never come to terms with himself, his lack of self-knowledge, self-awareness and consequent tendency to lapse into compulsive behavior make him an archtypical H protagonist.
Lisa describes him early on as “a tourist on an endless vacation.”
