Humanities

2/10/2018

Respond to one of the following two questions. Develop a clear line of analysis and point of view. Integrate quotes from at least two Humanities texts we have discussed this semester into your response. Back up your argument with plenty of examples from VERTIGO. Please use the questions as jumping off points and don't try to cover everything in them. Focus on what interests you most in the film. As always, please tell us something we didn't already know! Write as much as you wish, but note that it would probably be difficult to respond in anything less than 200-250 words. Pay attention to what your peers' have observed before you, so as to ensure that the conversation is advancing. You may have until Thursday before class to complete your response. For reminder of the character names, see this link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/. Good luck!

1) How does VERTIGO illustrate, complicate, or challenge Riviere and Grosz' idea of "womanliness as masquerade"? For Riviere, there is no "essence" to womanliness. Instead, the qualities stereotypically associated with femininity-- such as passivity, coyness, and appearance--are a "lure" and a "mask" to capture and deceive the patriarchal male gaze. Similarly, for Grosz, under patriarchy, there are socially constructed subject positions for heterosexual "masculine" and "feminine" desire. The man "exalts" the woman by placing her on a pedestal and acts as her knight in shining armor. The woman, who adopts all of the accessories of femininity (centered around appearance) cooly waits for the man to woo her. According to Grosz, however, the man projects his own narcissism onto his object of desire (the woman who is actually interchangeable). The woman, by contrast, who superficially seems to have all the independence associated with narcissism, is actually in the relatively powerless position of object rather than subject. She is dependent on the man's desire for her own self-esteem. Meanwhile, the man often "splits" woman into the angelic "ego-ideal" that he rescues and protects (again, serving his own narcissism) and the debased "whore," on whom he can project his socially unacceptable desires. Woman is coded as "being the phallus" (for the man) while the man is coded as "having the phallus" (to offer the woman). From this perspective, since no one can actually be or have the symbolic phallus (it's always a performance), and the power dynamic between the masculine and feminine positions is so imbalanced, it's actually inaccurate to even speak of heterosexual "relationships" under patriarchy. As Lacan (in)famously wrote; "there is no sexual relation." In what ways does VERTIGO illustrate aspects of Riviere and Grosz' arguments about femininity, masculinity, and desire? In what ways might it also challenge them? Your are encouraged to embrace complexity in your response. Please feel free, as you employ each text, to push them forward in new directions.

2) What is the relationship between loss, death, and desire in VERTIGO? From a psychoanalytic perspective, desire is structured by loss. This includes the loss of our earliest object-choices, which we overcome only imperfectly through the resolution of the Oedipus Complex. As Edmondson points out, in love we are always looking for what we fantasize that we once had, or believe that we should have had, in our childhood. Throughout our lives, as Freud notes, "every object-finding is really a re-finding." With loss, an object often gains new and powerful qualities that we did not notice when we actually had it. The object, in a sense, only becomes real after we no longer have access to it. Then, it is only after a painful period of mourning, where we detach our libido from a lost object, that can we love another. When we fail to give up what we have lost--when we cling to it in our psyche even to the point that it starts to persecute us--mourning fails and becomes melancholia. The phenomenon of loss, and our responses to it, are also conditioned by psychic time, where past-present-present future, as Loewald observes, do not move forward in a linear fashion but continually shape and reshape each other. In general, no matter how much we search after an object that we believe will complete our sense of lack--in everything from consumer objects, to careers, to relationships--we are never able to find the one that fully satisfies our desire. Lack therefore actually serves to sustain desire; it keeps it moving. Death, the ultimate loss, may then appear as the most coveted object of desire; the only way that desire could ever fully be satisfied. On an unconcious level, according to the concept of death drive, we may be driven by a compulsion to repeat our earliest failures and pulled towards the lifelessness of an archaic past. Death, like the experience of Vertigo, both frightens and fascinates us. In what ways does VERTIGO treat the relationship between loss, desire, and death?

72 Comments

INSTRUCTIONS

Please respond in the Comments section. To see this section, just click the red "comments" line). To create a new response, use the "Leave a Reply" box.

Do not use the "reply" button under the previous user's comment. Add your comment as an entirely new one.

It is best to write your response in a document that you can save, and then paste it into the comments box.

Be sure to read all comments by your peers before writing your own, and to consider the ongoing discussion in your own comment.

Be original!

Sophie-Leprohon Watters

3/10/2018 01:45:32 pm

Topic 1:
In REAR WINDOW, Scotty loses his masculinity when he his colleague dies. There’s a feeling of regret, that if he would have been strong enough (stereotypically manly enough) not to slide off the roof, his colleague wouldn’t have needed to save him. He blames himself for his death. He yearns to have his masculinity validated. He steps up on chairs to show Midge he isn’t afraid of heights, placing himself on a pedestal, being a narcissist. Although, he falls in her arms. He projected his insecurity onto her and when his masculinity wasn’t validated, it fell along with him. He feels as though she has castrated him. When he meets ‘Madeleine’ (Judy masquerading herself), he is amazed by her feminine beauty. He admires the look of her hair, her made-up face, and her dress while desiring her, “She may become the phallus, the object of desire for another” (Grosz, 132). He can only love her as an extension of himself which proves him to be a narcissist. This is why he couldn’t love Midge, she had a job, a hobby for painting, she was stereotypically more masculine, “Not long ago intellectual pursuits for women were associated almost exclusively with an overtly masculine type of woman” (Riviere, 1). This would threaten his own masculinity, he loves ‘Madeleine’ because she is feminine and in need of saving, he makes her the phallus as she is his object of desire. When he sees Madeleine fall out of the church window and die, the phallus dies too castrating him again. In his search to have his masculinity back, he finds Judy. However, she also falls to her death signifying the loss of the phallus, of Scotty’s masculinity. He is repeatedly castrated throughout the entirety of the movie. This leaves the audience to wonder whether he will get passed his fixation of needing his masculinity constantly validated or if he will continue his pursuit.

3/10/2018 05:39:29 pm

*VERTIGO

Julian

19/10/2018 02:06:52 pm

Very thoughtful response, Sophie. It's funny that you make the slip with REAR WINDOW, which plays with similar themes of castration. I'm not entirely convinced that Scottie sees Midge as a "masculine" threat. I do think, however, that she lacks the "mysterious" quality on which he can project his own narcissism. She's become too much of the "overbearing " mother in his mind, which serves to remind him of his vulnerability/castration. There's a lot of good material in this response and it would be interesting to see how you would apply it to the film's ending. Nice job. ✔

Emily Trankarov

3/10/2018 04:28:30 pm

Topic 1

Hitchcock’s film VERTIGO captures to perfection the essence of “womanliness as masquerade” as described in Riviere’s and Grosz’s works, in most instances. Judy changes the entirety of her appearance with the sole purpose of pleasing Scotty and making him attracted to her. She even goes as to asking,“If I do as you tell me, will you love me now?” Subsequently, she proceeds to changing her hairstyle, makeup, and wardrobe. All to Scotty’s taste. She unconsciously, takes on the frail and helpless aura which oh so attracts her beloved. Thus, unknowingly embodying what Grosz talks about when she writes, “The narcissistic woman strives to make her body into the phallus.” In other words, the object of attraction for the man(Scotty). Judy initially looks like an independent, self-assured working woman when Scotty shows up to her doorstep. But, we come to see later, in fact, that she desperately longs for Scotty’s approval and sexual attraction towards her. She even depends on it when feeling a sense of satisfaction when pleasing him. In that way, she incarnates the narcissistic woman which Grosz describes in her text. In addition to that, Madeleine (who is played by Judy as well) demonstrates quite literally the “acting” or rather “masquerading” done by women to please men. Riviere writes, “…The aim of compulsion was not merely to secure reassurance by evoking friendly feelings towards her in the man; it was chiefly to make sure of safety by masquerading as guiltless and innocent”, when explaining the coquetting and ogling of the first woman she writes about in her text WOMANLINESS AS MASQUERADE. In Madeleine’s situation, she tries to achieve that “guiltless and innocent” look in the eyes of Scotty, although not by flirting necessarily, but by acting ‘fragile’ and ‘feminine’. Whether it be by the way she dresses or her constant ‘confessions’ of fear to him. As Sophie wrote in her post, “…he is amazed by her feminine beauty.” As a result, Madeleine demonstrates a certain form of delicateness which needs protection and is the stereotypical position of a feminine woman. We understand, in the second part of the film, that it is all an act. An act which helps her be desired by Scotty and consequently make her seem blameless for what she’s committed.

Julian Nemeth

19/10/2018 02:10:53 pm

Very good response, Emily. Nice use of evidence from the film. I do think this response would be even more effective if it more clearly delineated Judy/Madeleine's conscious/unconcious wielding of the "mask" of femininity. There are times when she's presumably quite self-conscious in her manipulation and other's where the mask seems to become her face. Overall, good job. ✔

Meghan Rulli

4/10/2018 10:55:11 am

I strongly believe that Grosz belief on constructed subject positions between heterosexual masculine and feminine desire is illustrated in Vertigo between Judy and Scottie. It’s evident that Scottie believes he’s saving Madeleine, and actually enjoys it, as he tells her “I’m responsible for you now”. Madeleine is waiting for Scottie to woo her, and plays the masquerade of the innocent and helpless woman for him. Once Madeleine ‘dies’, and Judy is now in the picture, we can assess that Judy initially looks, like Emily said, like ‘an independent, self-assured working woman,’ but because of her strong love towards Scottie, she becomes the narcissistic woman. She is highly dependent on Scottie’s desire for her own self-esteem, when in reality Scottie’s desire is for a dead girl, Madeleine. She “strives to make her body into the phallus” as Grosz states, she dyes her hair blonde to resemble Madeleine and wears less make up to become the object of desire for Scottie.
I like what Sophie brought up about Midge being the masculine woman that, essentially, causes Scottie to seek out a woman in search of a knight in shining armour. I also would like to add that Midge plays a significant role in compensating for her ‘phallic loss’ by motherhood. Although obviously Scottie isn’t Midge’s child, she “extends her self-love through maternal love”, we see this in the scene where Scottie is in the psychiatric hospital, and Midge tells him that “Mommy’s here”. Like Grosz says “Affection and sexual desire seem to inhabit different spheres, often being resolved only by splitting his relations between two kinds of women — one noble, honourable, and pure (the virgin pure), the other a sexual profligate (the prostitute figure).” Scottie definitely had the asexual admiration towards Midge, while Madeleine is under his sexual attraction. This can also explain why Scottie wasn’t as interested in Midge as he was in Madeleine.

4/10/2018 10:55:54 am

Answer to Topic 1

19/10/2018 02:13:31 pm

Meghan,

There are so many good ideas in this post! I love your observations about Madeline/Judy, Scottie, and Midge. Your application of concepts in the texts is also excellent. This post would be even more effective with just a little more organization; it goes from one point to the other without sufficient transitions. I do think you should consider writing about VERTIGO for your final essay. Nice job. ✔

Julia Prud'Homme

4/10/2018 03:59:55 pm

Topic 1
Like Sophie explained, it is clear to me that Scotty is desperate to regain his masculinity. Madeleine is a hopeless victim, and I think that Scotty thinks that if he can save her, he is then manly again and his “weakness”, which is his vertigo and is a symptom of femininity in his opinion, is then forgiven. He loves her, not because of her, but because he thinks he can save her. When Madeleine dies, he is immediately thrown back into the thoughts of femininity because he wasn’t masculine enough to save her. When Judy returns, he is desperate to recreate Madeleine inside her, not because he loves Madeleine, but because he is desperate at a second chance to regain his masculinity. Even when Judy keeps resisting his perseverance in changing her appearance, he repeatedly begs her to. As Freud says in his text about Eros and power, “so, erotically, we repeat. We continue time and again trying to regain an illusory former happiness”. In VERTIGO, Scotty’s happiness is his masculinity. He was happiest when it appeared he was saving Madeleine, and so he desperately tries to recreate her. Judy also where’s her femininity as a mask to protect herself from Scotty. As Riviere says in WOMANLINESS AS A MASQUERADE, “Womanliness therefore could be assumed and worn as a mask, both to hide the possession of masculinity and to avert the reprisals expected if she was found to possess it.” As herself, she does not need saving, and is therefore not feminine or desirable enough to Scotty. To get him to love her and also because she is scared of how insistent he is, she eventually gives in and lets him change her appearance, turning herself into the hopeless victim Scotty fell for, so that he will be desperate to save her once again, therefore desperate to love her.

19/10/2018 02:19:39 pm

Very good post, Julia. I appreciate the clarity of your thesis. This would be even stronger with just a little more detail on how Scotty's "masculinity" and "femininity" is expressed in the film. One could argue, for instance, that he is symbolically castrated again in the courtroom scene after Madeline's death. If you develop this into an essay, I would also like to see you expand upon the question of Judy's agency. Good job. ✔

Idia Boncheva

6/10/2018 04:49:14 pm

TOPIC 1:
In Womanliness as Masquerade, Riviere supports that the entire concept of femininity is merely an act, and that nobody is born a gender; we simply perform traits associated with a specific gender. In Vertigo, one character that demonstrates the struggle in society of the over-masculine woman is Midge. Like Sophie mentioned in her response, Scottie couldn’t love Midge because her ‘lack’ of femininity would threaten his male superiority, which was already fragile to begin with. To gain his affection, she puts on an act. As Grosz formulates in A Feminist Introduction to Lacan, “She retains her position as the sexual object of the other’s desire only through artifice” (132). In the movie, Midge tries to become the phallus by mimicking Madeleine who is the perfect embodiment of femininity—a beautiful and mysterious damsel in distress. When Midge recreated Madeleine’s ancestor’s portrait, she not only demonstrated her obsession with Scottie, she also showed the viewer her role as the narcissistic woman. Thus, she is “especially dependent on men who may withhold or withdraw their love” and because “she is bound up with the desire to be loved.” (Grosz, 128)
When she realised her masquerade wouldn’t work on her former lover, she took up a different position. She became a parental figure and even referred to herself as “mother” while trying to comfort him. As twisted as this sounds, it makes a lot of sense for Midge. She has been trying to repress her desire of being the phallus for far too long. The role of the mother allows her “to effect a ‘proper’ object-choice, and yet to maintain her own central narcissistic position as the love object of another” (idem). In other words, she posses the phallus, while still being the phallus.

19/10/2018 02:22:48 pm

Nice post, Idia. I would only add that Midge already has some of that "motherly" concern from the first scene in the film. There's also the fact that her painting over Carlotta represents both her desire to become the object of desire but also her attempt to awaken Scotty from his descent into obsession. Nice job. ✔

Kelly Rosialda

7/10/2018 03:10:15 pm

Topic 2

Loss is only consciously present when you have least expected it. Your behavior guides you to an inevitable loss of an object, an essential process in order to make connections between the following concepts: desire and death. It drives our desire to replace the original object. The realization of having lost something shapes our mind into thinking that what was lost brought us satisfaction although it never truly did. That being said, loss gives us the perception of fulfillment so we are motivated to replace and desire new things. Loss shapes the previous object in a way that we will desire a similar object to the one we have lost. That being said, we will never find a perfect replacement to the very first object that we have lost, our nurturers and will always be led to disappointment. In reality, we will never be satisfied by the finding of a new object, a new person that solely is a representation of our parents. Therefore, what’s desirable will eventually die, become no longer important to us in order to keep the cycle of loss, desire and death functioning.
Judy is a representation of the connections that exist between loss, desire and death. These concepts actually form an endless cycle, going back and forth until – well the person actually dies. For instance, she once desired Ester and wanted a relationship like the one he had with Madeleine but was left unsatisfied no longer after the death of the wife. The opportunity was hers but rejected it as it was no longer what she wanted. She only felt regretful when Ester left and was longer hers. Affected by the loss, she had an urge to replace and fulfil her desire of attention and affection that she longer had, notably through Scottie. Desperate in need to replace her object, she followed all of John’s command as he was trying to mold her into the image of Madeleine. She tried to resist or include some of herself into the picture but John wasn’t satisfied with those slight changes. For example, when she had left her hair down, insisting that it was because her hair up didn’t fit her too well, Scottie immediately told her to change to how he wanted it and without any resistance, and she did as she was told. She finally got the attention and affection that she wanted but needed to get rid of her desire for Scottie in order for the cycle to complete, in order to keep the image and the feelings associated to her nurturer unsatisfied. Judy’s death can be perceived as her way to lose connections of the present and to return to her mistakes of the past as she recreates the death of Madeleine, the death that brought her in between the hands of Scottie. Her own death is what abled her to leave herself unsatisfied which is the ultimate desire.

19/10/2018 02:27:02 pm

I'm glad to see this thoughtful focus on Judy's psychology, Kelly. That said, this post would be more effective if you moved more quickly into the film at the start and also included the two references to course texts noted in the instruction. This shows a lot of potential, though and I look forward to hearing your thought on this and other films develop further. ✔-

Taïna Dushime

7/10/2018 07:41:17 pm

Topic 2

From a psychoanalytic perspective, desire is driven by loss and the ultimate way to fulfill desire is death because it’s the only permanent and satisfying loss. In VERTIGO, the connection between these three aspects is perfectly explained by Scottie and Judy’s relationship.
After Madeline’s death, Scottie was devastated, but he still tried to go through the journey of mourning as we can tell from a scene in which he goes to her grave to send her off properly. “If the objects are destroyed or if they are lost to us, our capacity for love (our libido) is once more liberated” is what Freud says in ON TRANSIENCE. (1915, p.306) However, Scottie’s obsession over Madeline kept him from letting go of her and desiring someone else because he never actually thought he had completely lost her. That’s why as soon as he saw Judy, he immediately saw the Madeline in her because, to him, Madeline wasn’t gone. She was still there and it was his duty to bring her back by completely changing the appearance of Judy and unleashing the true person she is. Unfortunately, after getting her back, his desire was almost fulfilled and that’s why he unconsciously needed her to die once again to not lose this feeling of unsatisfaction that gave purpose to his life. By bringing Judy to the top of the church tower, he was bringing her to her death by recreating his previous failure with Madeline. He says it was a second chance for him, but it wasn’t a second chance to do the right thing by saving her. He just needed to lose her again and bringing her to the specific location of Madeline’s death was the best way to do it because he already knew how things would end having lived it before. We can also say that in these last moments of the movie, Scottie was trying to become the master of how things would go down during his own recreation because as Freud explains in BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE “At the outset he was in a passive situation-he was overpowered by the experience; but, by repeating it, unpleasurable though it was, as a game, he took on an active part” (1920, p.16). In other words, as he tells Judy “I need you to be Madeline for a while”, he’s setting a game with his own rules in which he needs her to play Madeline and die in order for him to keep lacking to move forward.

19/10/2018 02:38:01 pm

Very promising response, Taina. I love the way you have honed in on the Lacanian concept of "lack" that motivates desire. The connections you draw to "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" and "On Transience" are also fascinating. If you choose to expand this into your final essay, which I encourage, you would probably want to go into some more detail on what exactly Scotty's desire is circling around. You could also expand upon the failure of his mourning, which leads him to the hospital. Overall, this shows serious promise. Looking forward to seeing your work continue to develop. ✔ +

Victoria Caputo

8/10/2018 03:48:29 pm

[TOPIC 2]

Looking at VERTIGO through a psychoanalytical lens, Scottie’s obsessive desire to save Madeline can be seen as an effort to redeem himself for the loss of the unarmed policeman that died in the opening scene of the film. While said scene is short, its effects linger for the rest of the 2 hour movie. Scottie feels an overwhelming amount of guilt. He was unable to move due to his acrophobia, and as a result all he could do was watch as the poor man fell to his death. This loss plays an essential part in shaping his desire to “save” Madeline. He couldn’t save the cop, so he develops the need to save Madeline to make up for his past mistakes. Furthermore, Scottie’s actions throughout the movie are driven by his past and his inability to accept loss and death. He is intrigued by Madeline because of the air of mystery around her. She is just another case for the retired detective to solve, and if he can do so successfully, then maybe he will feel like less of a failure. Unfortunately for him, he “fails” again, and Madeline falls to her death. Overwhelmed with guilt and unable to deal with another loss, Scottie holds onto the image of Madeline he formed in his head and internalizes an ideal version of her. She is a lost object that Scottie’s delusions and lack of proper mourning do not permit him to see as truly “lost”. Even when he starts seeing Judy, he remains perpetually unsatisfied because his sole desire is shaped by the loss of a woman that never existed to begin with, a loss he never fully accepted. He is constantly looking for Madeline, even though the “Madeline” he believes he knew was a character created to manipulate him. However, he refuses to accept this harsh reality, and continues living in the past, using Judy to try to bring Madeline “back to life”. The concepts of death, loss and desire are linked and influence most of Scottie’s decisions and actions throughout the entirety of VERTIGO.

8/10/2018 04:11:41 pm

Please disregard this answer, it lacks quotes from the Humanities texts. My official answer is the one that follows.

8/10/2018 04:12:41 pm

[TOPIC 2]
**Official answer**

Looking at VERTIGO through a psychoanalytical lens, Scottie’s obsessive desire to save Madeline can be seen as an effort to redeem himself for the loss of the unarmed policeman that died in the opening scene of the film. While said scene is short, its effects linger for the rest of the 2 hour movie. Scottie feels an overwhelming amount of guilt. He was unable to move due to his acrophobia, and as a result all he could do was watch as the poor man fell to his death. This loss plays an essential part in shaping his desire to “save” Madeline. He couldn’t save the cop, so he develops the need to save Madeline to make up for his past mistakes.
Furthermore, Scottie’s actions throughout the movie are driven by his past and his inability to accept loss and death. He is intrigued by Madeline because of the air of mystery around her. She is just another case for the retired detective to solve, and if he can do so successfully, then maybe he will feel like less of a failure. Unfortunately for him, he “fails” again, repeating his past failure and watches as Madeline falls to her death. As Edmondson points out: “Erotically, we repeat. We continue time and again trying to regain an illusory former happiness. And too, perhaps, we repeat our former humiliations as punishment.” Overwhelmed with guilt once again and unable to deal with another loss, Scottie holds onto the image of Madeline he formed in his head and internalizes an ideal version of her. She is a lost object that Scottie’s delusions and lack of proper mourning do not permit him to see as truly “lost”. Even when he starts seeing Judy, he remains perpetually unsatisfied because his sole desire is shaped by the loss of a woman that never existed to begin with, a loss he never fully accepted. Freud explains what successful mourning looks like in his text “On Transience”: “When it has renounced everything that has been lost, then it has consumed itself, and our libido is once more free to replace the lost objects by fresh ones equally or still more precious.” Scottie is unable to do so and to fully move on, therefore he is unable to love Judy for who she is. Scottie is still constantly looking for Madeline, even though the “Madeline” he believes he knew was a character created to manipulate him. He refuses to accept this harsh reality, and continues living in the past, using Judy to try to bring Madeline “back to life”. The concepts of death, loss and desire are linked and influence most of Scottie’s decisions and actions throughout the entirety of VERTIGO.

19/10/2018 02:43:26 pm

Great post, Victoria. Clear argument and effective use of evidence. To push this just a little further, I would be curious to see you expand on the second part of the Edmondson quotation regarding repeating our humiliations as punishment. Overall, very good job. ✔+

Ameera Kabir

8/10/2018 05:52:09 pm

As mentioned by Taïna and Victoria, Scotty’s desire for Judy is fuelled by his refusal to mourn for Madeleine. Whatever love he might have felt for Judy is possible due to the latter’s existence; the future that he wants to create for them is an imitation of the past he once had with Madeleine, as a result Judy’s importance is dependant on Madeleine. In reality, Scotty does not desire Judy at all, but Madeleine’s ghost. By pursuing a relationship with Judy, Scotty is attempting to return to a time when Madeleine was still alive, and in remaining there, regain his former happiness. He perceives Judy’s transformation into Madeleine as the resurrection of a corpse, thus bringing the past back into the present. While attempting to recreate Madeleine, Scotty pays her more attention than he ever did when she was alive, in other words, reproducing her image required more contemplation than being with her did. When she was alive, she was the object of his desires, in other words, the phallus. Her existence was easily replaceable with another equally vulnerable woman, since her identity revolved solely around his longing for her. Her transition from “phantom” to “idol” is what consolidates her existence. In sum, Scotty wants Madeleine more now that she is no longer with him and will do anything he in his power to bring her back. However, when he does succeed in recreating Madeleine through Judy, he is unsatisfied with the results. He is unable to find the object that he was looking for. Edmundson notes that “even the best-made reality, is too poor for our hopes”, and in that sense, Judy is a poor substitute for a dream. Scotty’s fantasy will never be realized since neither Judy nor Madeleine herself fit the idolized image he has created in his mind.

8/10/2018 05:52:57 pm

Response to Q.2

19/10/2018 02:49:13 pm

Good work, Ameera. To push this even further, you might focus on the fact that Madeleine, in reality, never actually existed. While I see you gesturing towards the Grosz text, note that the instructions called for two quotations. Overall, nice work. ✔

Angele Wen

8/10/2018 05:58:28 pm

As Kelly said, loss, death and desire are an endless cycle. In Vertigo, Scottie fell in love with his own vision of Madeleine, rather than Madeleine herself. He idealized Madeleine as the “perfect” woman and wanted her to be his. When he thought she jumped out of the tower, he lost her, but didn't want to admit she died. For Scottie, she was still alive, especially when he sees Judy in the restaurant, he was more convinced that she didn't die. He desired Judy, but realizes she is quite different from the Madeleine of his invention and desired to transform her so he could bring back what he lost. It's just like Emily Dickinson's poem: “'Tis so appalling - it exhIlarates -”. Judy looks like Madeleine, but isn't exactly like Madeleine in her appearance and personality, which frustrates Scottie a lot and drives him crazy. What he didn't know is that the Madeleine he once knew only existed in his imagination. His love for her blinded him. He didn't see any imperfection in her and expected Judy to be exactly like her. We often compare our boyfriend or girlfriend to our ex, because we want to find what was missing from the first one in the second one, but also re-find the positive points. Humans desire what is perfect and always seek improvement in the next one, after losing the first one. The first one never dies and we will always desire more from the second one until we accept the loss of the first one. Scottie wasn't capable of loving Judy properly, because he couldn't mourn his loss of Madeleine. His capacity of love is full: “We possess, as it seems, a certain amount of capacity for love—what we call libido” (ON TRANSIENCE p.306).

8/10/2018 05:59:31 pm

TOPIC 2

19/10/2018 02:52:51 pm

There are some nice observations about loss and desire, here. Your points about relationships and comparisons are insightful and would have been well-supported with some Adam Phillips quotations. I do think that the organization of the post could be stronger (avoid ending with a quotation that should be analyzed) and some more evidence from the film could have been provided. The Emily Dickinson quote, while well chosen, would have been more effective with just a little more analysis. Overall, though, a thoughtful response. ✔-

Kathleen Fabella

9/10/2018 12:23:51 am

-Topic #2-

In the movie VERTIGO, as many of my classmates have mentioned, Scottie was stuck in an obsession of wanting to keep the idea of Madeleine alive but was continually unsatisfied. Furthermore, it’s clear to see that there is another desire that drives Scottie especially during the last scene of the movie which was his desire of wanting to be free. It’s as if he was chained like a prisoner because of his obsession over Madeleine. He wasn’t himself anymore, he lost his freedom. “ [..] someone who has fallen in love is really little different from one who has fallen physically ill.” (Edmonson reading, 2003). This was clearly shown as we see the protagonist in a mental institution. Scottie was sent to this place for having suffered from acute melancholia and a guilt complex after he finds out the death of Madeleine, because he was just so affected and obsessed by her, he was mourning for so long. Even after her death, he stills visits the museum where the portrait of Carlotta Valdes is displayed or how he stares at the flowers Madeleine would hold. His actions and his behavior were now orchestrated by his fixation on conserving the idea of Madeleine alive.

In the end of the movie, Scottie brings Judy back to the church where Madeleine has died. But right before that, in the car scene, we can undoubtedly see that Scottie was done being clouded by the past and wanted to become free. “One final thing i have to do and then i’ll be free of the past”, as the protagonists states. As he realized that he was just a simple pawn of a ruthless and heartless scheme, he sees it as an opportunity of letting go of the past and starting new. He mentions that if Judy is Madeleine one last time, “they’ll both be free” so he reenacts what has happened. And once Judy has fallen so abruptly, Scottie doesn’t scream or cry. Scottie simply looks down at the dead corpse with his arms slightly opened wide, showing how he now feels satisfied, that he is now able to not let all his past failures affect his present entirely anymore. Just like in the reading ON TRANSIENCE, it is mentioned: “Mourning, as we know, however painful it may be, comes to a spontaneous end.” He has mourned and mourned for the loss of Madeleine but that has finally finished, he is finally free. And death was the only way of ever satisfying that desire.

19/10/2018 02:56:30 pm

Great post, Kathleen. The end comes like a gut punch. ✔+

Isabella Martino

9/10/2018 01:09:42 am

TOPIC 1

It is evident that the character of Judy in VERTIGO embodies several aspects of Riviere and Grosz’ idea of ‘womanliness as masquerade’. Her perseverance and dedication to transform into Madeleine and please Scottie effectively illustrates just how much she “[desires] to be loved” (Grosz). Despite this, there are certain, perhaps more subtle elements in the film that showcase another side of Judy; one that contradicts the belief of the masquerade. As I previously mentioned, Judy can very easily be labeled as the narcissistic woman, as she is seen multiple times trying to be someone she is not purely for Scottie’s approval of her. As viewers, we interpret Judy’s “attempts to make her whole body take on the role” (Grosz) of Madeleine as a somewhat willing action when in reality she shows multiple signs of resentment. For example, when Scottie forces Judy to purchase a new dress – one that extremely resembles something Madeleine would wear – she distinctly tells says she “does not like it” (VERTIGO). Additionally, Judy tries multiple times to reason with Scottie, begging him to simply “like [her] just the way [she is]” (VERTIGO). These are just two of many examples embedded in the film that contradict Grosz’ idea of the narcissistic woman’s desire to “[strive] to affirm her position as desirable” (Grosz). These instances show us how Judy is not as coy as the stereotyped ideal of a woman is supposed to be. In fact, like Emily mentioned, Judy is initially portrayed as someone who is truly independent and self assured. Although it is true that Judy – like Riviere explains – uses such feminine qualities to attract Scottie when she was impersonating Madeleine, it was never her intention to do so when truly being herself. This being said, it is not necessarily correct to imply that Judy uses her womanliness as a masquerade since she in truth challenges this belief time and time again.

19/10/2018 03:02:33 pm

Solid work, Isabella. I appreciate the way you are both showing the way a theory seems to fit the film but also the way the film resists it. That said, in this case, it's important to note that especially for Riviere ambivalence about playing the feminine role is one of her core points. She underlines the way that woman will often consciously play the feminine role as a way to ward off attacks from men. It's also clear from her case study that her patient is quite resentful of having to engage in the masquerade for male colleagues that she looks down upon. Overall, solid work. ✔

Patricia Brassard

9/10/2018 12:42:11 pm

Answer to topic one:

Hitchcock’s VERTIGO is the perfect reenactment of Grosz’s A Feminist Introduction. The romantic relationship between Scotty and Madeleine and Scotty and Judy is well explained.
In Grosz’s A Feminist Introduction, Scotty’s love for Madeleine is evaluated as being the love of an idealization: ‘‘He desires to be in love, and to be active in his idealization.’’ Grosz also adds: ‘‘It is the loving attitude itself he desires.’’ It is not a real woman he yearns for, the woman is merely a canvas onto which he can project his desires. He doesn't love her, he loves the idea of her. This is well showed in VERTIGO, when Scotty obsesses over recreating his relationship with Madeleine using Judy. He recreates Madeleine, not in the hope of finding once again his lover, but in hope of recreating the feeling her presence created. In his quest of recreating Madeleine, he taunts Judy. In the clothing store, as he humiliatingly tries to dress her as Madeleine she begs him to stop, and he becomes violent and tells her ‘’it can’t matter to you’’, when obviously it can and it does. This is how topic one and topic two go hand in hand: as in « A Rose for Emily », when one dies they tend to carry a larger presence and influence and will also lose their faults in the eyes of their victim, Scotty is certainly a victim of Madeleine’s charm (beautiful women make for the best narcissist and narcissist make for the best manipulators) and when she dies, her perfection and the wonderful impression she made on Scotty increases. This loss is primordial, and he will try to recreate the feeling she instigated, however it’ll be impossible. He doesn’t care about being rough and mean to Judy because she isn’t Madeleine. Scotty wants Madeleine, and the way Madeleine made him feel was so intense that he does not care if he must hurt Judy feel that way once again. Grosz’s follows in A Feminist Introduction by explaining the man, Scotty, will tend to ‘’split is relations between two kinds of women’’ the virgin figure and the prostitute figure. Madeleine is obviously the Virgin as Judy is the Whore. He lets himself be so raw and abusive towards Judy because he feels he can treat her as if ‘’she were not a subject at all but a physical object’’, he would never act this way with Madeleine. Judy is only but a temporary pawn in his plan to bring back Madeleine. However, he needs one or the other because their ‘’position confirm his primacy’’, which is terribly fragile and dwindles at the flicker of incertitude. So even if he doesn’t want Judy, he needs her because he needs some kind of agent onto which project his narcissistic desires.

9/10/2018 12:44:41 pm

‘‘A Rose for Emily’’
I'm sorry I have a french keyboard :/

19/10/2018 03:07:21 pm

Excellent response, Patricia. Small point: make sure to capitalize the title of books and always include page numbers for quotations. I also think that one sentence explaining the reference to "A Rose for Emily" would also have made the connection stronger. Finally, a reference to Scotty's symbolic castrations would help explain his desire to play the "masculine" part. Still, this is a great response. I would love to read an extended version in your final essay. ✔+

Wendy Lopez Ponce

9/10/2018 08:23:47 pm

Topic #2

From the psychoanalytic perspective loss, desire and death are seen going back and forth in Hitchcock’s VERTIGO. Ever since the aftermath of Madeleine’s supposed suicide, we can notice how Scottie is on a constant phase of guilt and unstableness. Therefore, as soon as he encountered Judy he is driven by this need, better said, this desire to transform her into Madeleine to lose her again and be satisfied of the way he “lost” her in the first place.

In Freud’s text “On Transience”, he expresses that “If the objects are destroyed or if they are lost to us, our capacity for love (our libido) is once more liberated” (306). This state’s, in relation with vertigo, that for Scottie to free himself from this never-ending misery of guilt, he must get rid of all links to Madeleine, whether physical or emotional. Thus why when he reencounters this “lookalike” figure of Madeleine that is Judy, he feels this need to completely transform her into his late beloved to get the full accomplishment of loss. The full experience of loss that he is searching for will permit him to not only accept and make amends with the death of Madeleine but, more importantly, to create new desires for his liberated libido. By bringing Judy to the place of the “suicide” he has the actual confirmation that he was not to blame for her death, since this time he saw her fall from his own eyes. Only by witnessing the act himself, will he be able to let go of Madeleine, which was his “object” to which he was clinging on to as the libido. In VERTIGO, these events help us see clearly that to have desire there needs to be loss. Once again, in Freud’s reading “on transience”, he sates that “We only see that libido clings to its objects and will not renounce those that are lost even when a substitute lies to hand” (307). This shows that if we are unable to let go, the object itself becomes our destruction, it “haunts” us, which is what drove Scottie’s desire to lose Judy because only through facing the death of his “object” will he be able to desire another.

19/10/2018 03:12:22 pm

Very good response, Wendy. The point about loss is well taken. I do think you might expand just a little bit on Scotty's seeming obsession to have Madeleine again, but your point is well taken. It's interesting to note, for instance, that it's when the Madeleine costume finally becomes "complete" (with the necklace) that the spell on Scotty is finally broken. ✔

Marilena Mignacca

9/10/2018 09:03:14 pm

Topic #1

The movie VERTIGO captures a lot of the essence of womanliness as masquerade between Scottie and Judy. It’s clear that Scottie has suffered a tremendous, heart-aching loss with Madeleine, he is broken by her death and the only thing he wants his her back and it’s clear that Judy wants to be with Scottie that she goes as far as dressing like her and acting like her. She relies on her worth to be valued by how much Scottie loves her. Like it says in the text LACAN: A FEMINIST INTRODUCTION; “The narcissistic woman is described as vain, shallow, skilled in artifice, but above all, she is bound up with the desire to be loved… The strength or degree of the other’s love for her is the measure of her own value and worth.” However, no matter how much she would change her appearance and personality to match Madeleine she would still never become the exact spitting image of her because Scottie knows that the real Madeleine is dead. Judy is always trying to please Scottie but is also excessively competing with Madeleine, fighting for his pure love. As it is also mentioned in the text “What threatens her most (Judy) is the loss of love”.
Judy only stays with Scottie so she can feel a sense of worth, and as long as his desire for love is strong, so will her self esteem, but Scottie is not in love with Judy, he’s just simply in love with the idea of being in love. When he had Madeleine he loved her and he was obsessed with the idea of loving her but then she died and his desire became greater because he lost it. Thus projecting this emotion onto Judy, not his love for her but his desire to be in love with her. However because his love towards Judy was not real, he just viewed her as his object of desire which means she is nothing to him and has no power over him.

19/10/2018 03:17:35 pm

There are some good points here, Marilena. I do think that this post would be even more effective with a little engagement with some of your peer's upthread. I also think you could say a little bit more about Judy: if Scotty didn't love "her" why does she stay? I think Judy's "competition" with Madeleine (who after all, is a version of herself) would also be worth further unpacking. ✔

Lyna Ikram Bayou

9/10/2018 09:36:14 pm

As some have mentioned before, Scottie’s desire toward Judy seems to be sustained by his wish to fulfill the void left by the loss of Madeline. Scottie and Judy’s relationship perfectly illustrates the relation between loss, desire and death in the movie VERTIGO. Scottie is devastated by the loss of Madeline. For a second time, his fear of heights had led him to failure and to the loss of someone close—first with his colleague falling from the roof, and then with Madeline jumping (being pushed) from the tower. Considering he never makes it past the first stages of the “7 stages of grief”, he hasn’t been able to properly mourn the death of his lover. That is why, although death is supposed to be the ultimate loss, when Scottie found Judy, he took it as an opportunity to keep his Madeline alive; to bring her back to life. He never really got closure nor accepted her death, and so he repeats his past by recreating the life he had before, with Madeline. In this new narrative, he, who had failed his friend and his lover in the past, is giving himself the active role Just like the child described in Freud’s “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”. Scottie was “in a passive situation—he was overpowered by the experience; but, by repeating it…, he took on an active part” (Freud 16). Also, our protagonist, throughout Judy’s make-over, seemed to always think something was missing. Because “desire is always the desire for something that is missing and thus involves a constant search for the missing object” (Homer 85), Scottie tried to bring Madeline “back to life” in the most accurate way; he considered every small detail and kept looking for what was missing to create the perfect “mise-en-scène”. He would even go as far as to buy the exact same clothes Madeline use to wear to ensure the perfect recreation of her through Judy, until he was satisfied. However, Scottie is not the only one with strong desire and a repeating habit. Judy has it too. She wanted to be loved by Gavin and accepted to lose herself by impersonating someone else to fulfill that desire. We would’ve thought she would learn from her mistakes, but she did not. In fact, she accepts once again to abandon herself, her identity, to become the object of Scottie’s love. She gives in and lets him transform her into whatever he wants, as long as he promises to love her back. She too is stuck in the impulse to repeat the past instead of moving on. Therefore, both through their relationship and individually, Scottie and Judy manage to illustrate and put in action the correlation between loss, desire and death in the movie VERTIGO.

11/10/2018 07:25:36 pm

This is a response for question 2.

19/10/2018 03:22:10 pm

Great post, Lyna. I love how you connect Judy's repetition compulsion with Scotty's. You might even underline this point by noting instead of following Elster in playing the role, seemingly, she is now "herself" actively choosing to deceive Scotty (even as it seems as though she is totally his pawn). To make your response more effective, try to end your posts with more of an "open conclusion." There's zero need to circle back to the exact same point you've already made in the introduction. This closes off the much more open conclusion your analysis seemed to be building towards. Overall, great job. This would be worth continuing to explore in your final essay. ✔+

Isabeli Pizzani

9/10/2018 10:15:18 pm

We can also observe the relationship between loss, desire and death presented in VERTIGO in Ferguson attraction for Madeleine. John is an acrophobic man, in altitude he is filled with vertigo, this desire to jump, but held by the fear of death. When he meets Madeline, he falls in love with her. She is not only mysterious and distant, but she is also married, unavailable. As Homer said, “[The Thing] is the desire to fill the emptiness or void at the core of subjectivity and the symbolic that creates the Thing, as opposed to the loss of some original Thing creating the desire to find it.” In other words, we can’t desire something if we already have it. So, Scottie desires Madeleine because he knows he would never “own” her, and he will always be seeking her, as Phillips said: “The wish to own someone - or the belief that one does - is an acknowledgement of its impossibility”. She is a representation of his objet a, “the object-cause of [his] desire” that is also unattainable (Homer, 2005).
Also, Madeleine is suicidal, driven to death, close to the ultimate loss. She is the closest he could be to death, she was able to let her death drive take over, something his fears stop him to do. John is afraid of death and Madeleine represents the overcoming of this fear. By getting in this relationship with Madeleine, Scottie is able to abandon himself, his wish to fall into the void is fulfilled.
Madeline is an inevitable loss, for this reason, she is his object of desire, she represents his objet a. She is for him “the void” he is lonely and wishes to overcome his fear, “the gap” he wishes to have Madeleine and to jump in altitude, also “what- ever object momentarily comes to fill that gap”, she spends time with him, she tries to kill herself, but he saves her, he falls in love with her (Homer, 2005).

9/10/2018 10:19:26 pm

Answer to question 2

19/10/2018 03:27:12 pm

Insightful response, Isabeli. I like your point about Madeleine embodying Scotty's fear and fascination with death, which is also reflected in his vertigo. While I think the organization of this response could be a little stronger and more examples from the film could be provided, overall very good work. ✔

Chris Morgan Arseneau

9/10/2018 11:00:14 pm

(Topic 1)

Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO illustrates very important aspects of Riviere and Grosz’ arguments about femininity, masculinity, and desire.

Grosz states that heterosexual “masculine” desire is narcissistic, “The lover transfers narcissistic self-regard onto the love object and is thus able to love himself, as it were, in loving the other.” (Page 127). In VERTIGO, Scottie projects his own narcissism onto Madeleine, but he doesn’t love her as much as he loves the idea of her. Essentially, the stereotypical heterosexual man loves how loving his object of desire makes him feel. The object of his desire could be literally anyone else and he would still love them because what he truly loves is a narcissistic extension of himself and not the object of his desire. Grosz notes that the heterosexual man’s object of desire is interchangeable. This concept is demonstrated in VERTIGO when Scottie is quick to replace Madeleine for Judy.

According to Joan Riviere, “Womanliness therefore could be assumed and worn as a mask, both to hide the possession of masculinity and to avert the reprisals expected if she was found to possess it.” (Page 3). In VERTIGO, Judy not only wears her femininity in the form of a mask to protect herself from Scottie, as Julia Prud’Homme mentions, but she also seems to utilize her femininity in order to lure in the patriarchal male gaze. Initially, Judy appears to be more “masculine” than “feminine.” She comes off as rather independent and doesn’t seem to need to be rescued/saved by a knight in shining armor, which makes her less desirable to Scottie. As the plot unfolds, Judy quickly becomes dependent on Scottie’s desire for her own self-esteem. She therefore changes herself, or rather lets Scottie mold her into someone she’s not. As she begins to exhibit more qualities stereotypically associated with femininity such as passivity, she takes on a relatively powerless role and embodies the object of desire which Scottie yearns for. He places her on a pedestal and takes on the role of her knight in shining armor while Judy’s self-esteem builds on his approval of and desire for her. In the film, Judy puts on a mask of femininity and manages to capture and deceive the patriarchal male gaze. Rather than just unconsciously or subconsciously forcing the audience to view the film through the patriarchal male gaze, Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO openly discusses the male gaze and other important concepts surrounding gender and desire.

19/10/2018 05:43:51 pm

Good work, Chris. ✔+

Vanessa Amar

10/10/2018 12:37:52 am

Topic 2

As many of my classmates have mentioned above, John feels the need to relive his experience with Madeleine. This is the reason he turns Judy into Madeleine by changing her hair and clothes. However, I do not believe he wishes to recreate his relationship with her, but rather her death; he does not want love, he wants control. This response to a traumatic experience such as death is similar to what Freud observes in his grandson who repeats an “overpowering experience so as to make oneself master of it.” [Beyond the Pleasure Principal, p 16] John needed to take a situation which he did not control and be the commander of it. Originally, when Madeleine dies, he tries to stop her from going into the tower, but fails to save her. However with Judy, he is the one to force her into the tower, she does not die despite of him, but rather because of him, rendering him in control of the situation.

This need for the reenactment of the loss John suffered stems from his lack of successful mourning. When speaking of his search for the repetition of his past trauma, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh says his reenactment was because he “was in a sustained repudiation of [his] past.” Had he come to terms with the death of Madeleine, John would not need to reenact and control it.

19/10/2018 05:46:37 pm

Solid response, Vanessa, but note this angle has also been discussed in some depth upthread (notably in Taina and Lyna's response). I think you could push the analysis even further. ✔-

Doha Ani

10/10/2018 07:42:00 pm

Question # 2
I think that the concepts of loss, desire and death are important because these concepts relate to the relationships present in vertigo. The dynamic between the “couples” really represents the relationship between these three concepts. In vertigo, when Scott is following Madeleine, he begins to feel a desire toward her, but his desire is not directed toward Madeleine as a human being or as a woman but toward the image he has created of her. He saw her as his personal damsel in destress, at a time where he need to feel accomplished by saving someone or something, but as time went on he understood that he could never have her, but he was still strongly attached to her because like Freud says we always long for thing we can never have. So, when she dies he can finally have her in a way because now that she isn’t here anymore she can’t oppose any type of resistance against him, so he can consider her the way he wants, and he can fantasize about her. Ultimately his fantasies will become real, at least to him, because he can imagine the story the way he wants it compared to when she was alive, so it almost feels like her death created even more desires, passion and love because it left the door open for his fantasies. Which makes think that he only fell the loss of Madeleine when he met Judy because he then realised that he didn’t have her completely in the sense that he sees everything related to Madeleine as his. So, she was like the walking body of Madeleine so if he had the “mind” he also needs the body but when pursuing Judy, he is put in front of the reality that Madeleine is dead and that she was not his, so he tries to turn Judy into Madeleine. And, like Ameera says I also thinks that Scotty will always be deceived by the version of Madeleine that he created through Judy because she could never be as good as the first one. And I think that the quote of Edmundson “even the best-made reality, is too poor for our hopes”, applies really well in this context in the sense that at this point even the “real” Madeleine wouldn’t satisfy Scotty because he created a version of Madeleine that fits his need of finding a purpose to his life, in other words someone to save, in order for him to make his ego feel better after he was unable to save two people due to his lack of competencies.

19/10/2018 05:50:08 pm

Solid work, Doha. Make sure to write titles in caps lock and include both quotations. With a little more organization and a stronger thesis, this would be an excellent post. ✔

Larissa Szaniszlo-Luty

10/10/2018 08:23:43 pm

Topic #2
The uncanny relationships between loss and desire in VERTIGO become obvious to the audience through Scottie and Judy’s romantic bond. In Hitchcock’s movie, as Vanessa stated, Scottie does not search for love but rather for control – he’s in pursuit of an instance in which he will prove to himself that he is capable and not nearly as weak as he thinks himself to be. This instance becomes apparent once Madeline dies and he replaces her with Judy; he is not searching for love in Judy but rather a way to make up for the guilt he experiences when he thinks of Madeline and his partner from the police force who both died on his account. Scottie experienced loss with both of these people falling to their deaths and he condemns himself as the offender to the crime because of his acrophobia. This loss fuels his desire in the sense that he now wants to prove his capabilities and “save” Judy thus “[making himself the] master of the situation” and in order to do so, he recreates Madeline in Judy by dressing her up in a certain manner and having her act more ‘feminine’ (Freud Beyond the Pleasure Principle 17). He thinks himself to be her knight in shining armour – the prince charming who will save her from the bell tower when in reality it is his obsession with mastery that leads to her demise at the end of the film. His obsession or rather his “self-destructiveness [was] as equally powerful as the sexual drive in shaping [his life]” meaning that his harmful personality lead him to act irrationally and instead of taking advantage of his second chance at love, he took advantage of his power and was, in turn, the reason Judy ultimately fell to her death (Freud on Sexuality, Neuroses, and Art 3).

19/10/2018 05:52:21 pm

This is a compelling response, Larissa. I would like you to spend just a little more time unpacking your very apt choice of quotes. This could be fruitfully expanded into your final essay. Nice work. ✔+

Jade Karakaly

10/10/2018 08:53:11 pm

Topic 2:
Loss, desire and death are well shaped in Vertigo if we psychoanalytically analyze Scottie, the main character. In the beginning, as mentioned by many, such as Julia and Sophie, Scottie does indeed lose his masculinity following the death of his colleague because of his fear of height. This “loss” is the first step of his castration complex because of his guilt which challenges his masculinity. Desire comes into play when Scottie falls in love with Madeleine, he feels like he has a mission, the mission of saving her which could allow him to gain back his masculinity. One of the step of the mission was when he tailed Madeleine to the Golden Gate Bridge and she tried to kill herself. Scottie then saves her, and this was a partial fulfillment of his desire which is to gain back his masculinity. In the Edmundson reading, a few weeks ago, Freud explains that “when we fall in love, all of the infantile fantasies about power and pleasure are reactivated.” (XII). In Scottie’s case, the fantasy is to beat his fear of heights and to gain back his masculinity. Now that his desire is partially fulfilled, in psychoanalysis, we know that death is known as the ultimate loss but also the ultimate fulfillment of desire. After Madeleine’s death, Scottie’s desire is not fully fulfilled, he still must confront his vertigo which at this point caused his colleague’s death but also his beloved Madeleine’s death as many of my classmates mentioned. When Scottie meets Judy, this is where the ultimate fulfillment of his desire is possible. At the end of the movie, Scottie fulfills his desire of confronting his fear of heights when he walks up the bell tower, the same one as the one in Madeleine’s death. Obviously, after she acknowledges that she replaced Madeleine and after her begging of forgiveness, Scottie doesn’t kill Judy but a certain force driven by the nun causes the death of Judy as we assume that she falls. Death is clearly representative of the ultimate fulfillment as Scottie beats his vertigo through Judy’s death, which is simultaneously the ultimate loss. In the Real from Homer, the fantasy is the setting of the desire and this is present in the movie as Scottie literally sets up the final scene in the same bell tower where Madeleine died to prove to himself that he is now able to go up these stairs without being feared of heights.

19/10/2018 05:55:27 pm

This is a very strong response, Jade. I like your extensive use of evidence from the film. To take this to the next level, you might have included just a line or two about Scotty's response to Madeleine's death and his obsession with reshaping Judy and how this connects with the intermingling of death and desire. Overall, nice job. This could be a very good starting point for your final essay. ✔

Cato Usher

10/10/2018 08:53:34 pm

TOPIC 2
Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO is a story of romance and grief, so it naturally deals with concepts like loss, death, and desire. Throughout the film, Scotty grows more and more obsessed with Madeleine, especially after her “death”. As is the case for many people, Scotty finds himself wanting her even more once he’s lost her. He starts idealizing her even more than he did before, making him want the absent, practically non-existent Madeleine to a very unhealthy extent. Once he meets Judy, Scotty, as Edmondson explains it, acts on his fantasy openly, imposing it on her. His behaviour is an accurate representation of someone completely controlled by Lacan’s concept of “the real”. Lacan describes it as an everlasting need for an ambiguous satisfaction, stating that it, “like spat-out chewing gum in the street, remains glued to one’s heel”. In VERTIGO, Madeleine is the embodiment of “the real” in Scotty’s psyche, always desired but never attainable. However, this is precisely what Scotty wants, unconsciously. He prefers the mysterious, absent Madeleine to more present alternatives like Judy and, to a greater extent, Midge, who he sees as boring or uninteresting. This idea of a mysterious woman who essentially doesn’t care about him intrigues him to no end, bringing him to act incredibly irrationally towards those who do care. This irrational behaviour is precisely what makes him lose Midge, his greatest confidant, as well as Judy, with her falling off the tower to her untimely death. In the second half of VERTIGO, Judy acts as Scotty’s "objet petit a", a constant reminder that he lacks "the real", personified as Madeleine. Perhaps if he had not known Judy, his obsession and yearning for Madeleine would have died off eventually, but her presence did nothing but fuel his desire. The film treats this desire, along with loss and death, as parts of a sum that constantly intertwine and are never separate, especially within Scotty’s own mind.

19/10/2018 06:00:57 pm

This is an excellent response, Cato. You do a great job opening up the film with the concepts of the real and objet petit a. To take this post to the next level, you would want to include a quotation from Edmondson (the instructions ask for two and the point you are citing from him isn't really clear here). One point to consider : is "Judy" the objet petit a or "something about Judy," something that he can't quite put his finger on? Overall, great job. ✔

Hannah Di Francesco

10/10/2018 09:19:15 pm

Q.1
As many have mentioned above, the idea of the mask is very present in VERTIGO, especially during the second part. Judy changes everything about her appearance to please and become what Scottie wanted. She becomes Madeleine, at least in appearance. This goes exactly with what Riviere said, that womanliness is a mask to please the patriarchal part of society. Judy just wants Scottie to love her back and hew esteem of herself depends on this. She turns herself into what he loves so she can at least get recognition, she realizes that he will not accept her as herself and tries to become someone else in order to please him. Pleasing him is her main concern even though she is hurting herself while doing it. As it is indicated in Lacan: A Feminist Introduction “she is bound up with the desire to be loved.” (Grosz, 128) This complicates Riviere’s theory because it shows that maybe the desire is not all a woman need. She needs this desire to be towards her own person because she will never be truly happy if the man only desires her for the mask she put on. The mask will then also extend to her happiness and she will never truly feel it. This can be noticed in the movie when Judy cries and wants Scottie to love her for who she is even though she puts on the whole mask in order to please him and does receive his desire, she is basically in a cloud of desire when she exits the room fully transformed into Madeleine.
Scottie also illustrates some of Riviere principles by wanting to be the knight in shining armor. He wants to regain the pride he lost when both his colleague and Madeleine died and he could not save them due to his vertigo. He wants to redeem himself with Judy and this is why he forces her up the tower and, in the end, says that he is free since he made it to the top. Once he makes it to the top he can once again correspond to the stereotype dictated by society, he gets himself out of the passive and typically female role and goes into the active male role. He also puts the idea of Madeleine he created on a pedestal and forms Judy into this person, this is where Riviere’s idea is challenged again, since he does not just focus on the physical. This is his first concern, but once she looks the same as Madeleine used to he is still not pleased, he needs her to act that way to. He really wants Judy to become the Madeleine he created in his mind off of the role she played earlier. Her appearance being right, but the rest not being exactly right is also what makes him so angry, he can’t really tell what is wrong and how he can change Judy more and gets frustrated with her not being perfect. This shows that it is not only the physical that is concerned by this ideal figure, the personality also plays a big role in it.

19/10/2018 06:07:05 pm

Solid work, Hannah. I would just make sure to distinguish between Grosz (who does discuss masculinity) and Riviere (who says very little about it in the text we read). Moreover, note that for Riviere ambivalence is everywhere in femininity. There is certainly no "natural" accepting of this role and there is much frustration, often expressed unconsciously, for the role woman are forced to play. All that said, I do like the way that you are working to complicate the theories by reading the film back against them. Nice job.

19/10/2018 06:07:31 pm

✔

Julia Bifulco

10/10/2018 09:24:36 pm

[Question Two]

Just as Freud points out, “every object-finding is really a re-finding”; this is a perfect description of Scotty and Madeleine’s relationship. He falls head over heels in love with her and is ready to spend the rest of his life with her, until she dies. This forces him to see her in a new light—after she dies, Madeleine only exists in Scotty’s mind, and that is where she will forever live. There is no longer a possibility of having his ideal image of her be altered, and the only reason her perfection exists is because she’s dead. No matter how much or how little Scotty loved Madeleine when she was alive (and real), those feelings skyrocketed, because he clings to, and falls in love with, the idea of her. The detachment of Scotty’s libido from the real Madeleine only occurs when he remarks Judy’s resemblance to his late lover, and he then becomes fully obsessed with his idea of Madeleine. From his perspective, it seems as though he’s finally removing himself from his memories of Madeleine, but in actuality, his obsession is getting worse. He is seemingly letting himself fall for Judy and forget about Madeleine, but he’s only trying to revive Madeleine and bring her memory back in the form of Judy. That being said, it isn’t Madeleine herself that Scotty misses; it is simply the idea of her, the one that he invented in a time of grief, that he longs for. Although his version of Madeleine is not real, his attachment to her very much is.

19/10/2018 06:09:50 pm

Solid work, Julia. I would just add that so far down the thread you would want to engage similar posts by your peers. Also note the instructions calls for two quotes. Finally, I think you could push your analysis even further by discussing the fact that the original Madeleine was always already a "fake." That is, not only does she become stronger as a memory, she never existed a real object in the first place. ✔-

Jenna Howor

10/10/2018 09:37:30 pm

TOPIC 2

VERTIGO perfectly demonstrates the relationship between loss, death, and desire. When Madeleine, Scottie’s new found lover and obsession, dies, among his overwhelming feeling of guilt he seems to be constantly searching for her. He finds Judy who is a seemingly splitting image of Madeleine and projects his lasting image and fantasies of Madeleine onto her. Edmondson says that “If we lose such a position, we will strive to restore it in dreams… with every semblance of probity…” (Edmondson pg.xi) when talking about the libidinal position. It can be observed how perhaps with Madeleine, Scottie had successfully “satisfied his libidinal position” (Edmondson pg.xi) and when she died, he lost it sending him on a search to restore his previous state. Scottie was showing “melancholic” symptoms when trying to recreate Madeleine with Judy. He couldn’t get Judy to be quite perfect, or exactly like Madeleine. A possible explanation for why he couldn’t quite get Judy to be aa perfect representation of Madeleine is because “Memory is always misleading… it is distorted… desires interfere” (Bion: Notes on memory and desire). As Vanessa said, Scottie desperately wanted to recreate what he had with madeleine and be her savior, he’s searching for repetition of his past trauma however this time he wants to come out victorious and the hero of the situation. Scottie seems to be stuck in the past and unable to move on in his relationship with Judy. This sense of not being able to let go of his loss (the death of Madeleine) has, as Kelly mentioned, driven his desire to replace the original object with Judy.

19/10/2018 06:16:36 pm

Solid work, Jenna. There are many nice insights here but the post moves from point to point too quickly to have a strong overarching argument. Looking forward to seeing your ideas develop further in future work. ✔-

Maria Fatima Agustin

10/10/2018 10:38:57 pm

Topic 2

Like many of my classmates have mentioned, the relationship between loss, death, and desire in the movie Vertigo is very well portrayed by Scotty’s possessive relationship with Madeleine/Judy. However, I believe that Scotty wasn’t the only one who went through the creeping melancholia, but Judy as well.

In the movie, she stated that she moved to California from Kansas because she didn’t like the new man her mother married after her father’s death. Like it was suggested in class, Judy seemed to have “Daddy Issues”. Moreover, we discussed about how she seemed to be attracted to wealthy and stable men, like Gavin Elster and Scotty, for they were probably similar to the father-figures she had in her life. “The narcissistic woman is described as vain, shallow, skilled in artifice, but above all, she is bound up with the desire to be loved. […] The strength or degree of other’s love for her is the measure of her own value and worth. Her aim is thus to catch, and keep, one or many lovers as a testimony of her value.” (Lacan, 128) That excerpt of text can possibly explain Judy’s situation. The passing of her father lead her to seek love from her step-father who probably didn’t offer that to her. Consequently, not only did she go to California to see how it is there, but to also look for a man’s love. I personally feel like she was so desperate to receive someone’s affection to the point where she was willing to do extreme actions for him. For instance, she pretended to be Madeleine for Elster, which was a death-dealing crime. Well, not only did she lose Elster in the process, but Scotty as well with whom she fell deeply in love with. The constant loss of what made her feel significant gave her the desire to look for a permanent man. It was obvious, though, that playing the role of Madeleine enabled her to feel valuable and worthy mainly because of Scotty’s obsession with “her”. That is why after losing him at the end of the act, she desired to be with him. She wanted him again, even if it meant to subject herself to his commands, such as re-transforming herself into Madeleine. However, it was clear that Scotty was not interested in Judy herself, but in Madeleine. “... man is a naturally faithful creature: the most inconstant sexual athlete is in motivation still a toddler, searching for the original maternal object.” (Edmunson, xiii) That explains how Scotty felt: he was in search of the original woman he became obsessed with in Judy, but never truly found her. Because it was evident that the former policeman’s mind was completely locked to the idea of Madeleine only, Judy’s desire would never be satisfied, which was why death, the ultimate loss, awaited her.

19/10/2018 06:19:10 pm

Great work, Maria! I really like how you shifted the conversation to Judy's subjectivity here. There are minor issues in the writing (remember to use caps locks in the forum when using film titles; make sure to include the correct author's name in parentheses), but the overall thrust of your argument--and the evidence you provide--is eye-opening. Please keep up the good work. ✔+

David Boghen

10/10/2018 10:43:09 pm

Topic 2:

As Isabeli alluded to, Scottie’s acrophobia represents all at once loss, death and desire for him. The phobia itself results in vertigo, which is the combined sensation of fearing death—or the fall that would usually lead to it—and also desiring it. When his friend falls off the roof trying to save him, this is the first instance in a series of losses that torment Scottie and lead to his desire to save Madeleine, as Victoria wrote. His love for Madeleine is therefore driven by his desire to save her, which he fails to do the first time around. Madeleine’s death only makes Scottie’s desire for her stronger, as he strives to recreate their relationship and accomplish his desire with Judy. However, as Sean Homer wrote, “Desire is always the desire for something that is missing and thus involves a constant search for the missing object” (Homer). Therefore, Scottie’s desire to be with Madeleine is unattainable, because even if he finds her, she will no longer be missing and he will no longer desire her. However, when he finds Judy and spends a good amount of time with her, she becomes a mirror image of Madeleine without actually being Madeleine, which is as close to attaining his desire as possible, and he seems to be happy again. Then, when he notices the necklace that was the exact one that Carlotta wore in the painting, he realizes that he has achieved what he was searching for, which eliminates his desire. Once he comes to terms with the truth, that Judy was pretending to be Madeleine so that Gavin could kill his real wife, Scottie decides to take another course of action in search of a new desire. Because he was passive during Madeleine’s death, he decides that he must be active in her second death in order to take control of the situation. This process is similar to what Freud refers to when he talks about the game that the young child plays in order to become a master of his own loss. As Freud writes in BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, “At the outset he was in a passive situation—he was overpowered by the experience; but, by repeating it, unpleasurable though it was, as a game, he took on an active part” (Freud). He comes ever so close to succeeding, but she jumps off without his help and thus he fails again to achieve his desire, because he was not in control of his loss.

19/10/2018 06:24:31 pm

Very good post, David. Your focus on the desire and loss is great. I would only add two minor points: is Scotty really "happy again" when he is with Judy? In the scenes where he attempts to make her over into Madeleine he seems disturbingly obsessed. There's also the question of whether Scotty consciously wanted to push Madeleine over the edge and was somehow disappointed that he couldn't. We just don't have enough evidence for this from the film to say this with certainty. That said, I do think it's plausible to suggest that he wanted to murder the *idea* of Madeleine by exposing Judy to the site of the real Madeleine's murder. Overall, though, this is a very thoughtful post with nice application of challenging Lacanian concepts. ✔

Ben Carson

10/10/2018 10:57:38 pm

2-
In Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO, the relationships between the themes of loss, death, and desire are intricately intertwined. We can see that from a psychoanalytic perspective, desire is a fire fuelled by loss. Desire can only truly be satisfied by death. The only way to achieve a state of no longer desiring anything would be to be dead. Freud talks about a concept he calls the death drive in his text Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The death drive is a concept that describes a person’s need, unconsciously, to repeat failures and how we are “pulled towards the lifelessness of an archaic past.” Psychoanalysis has a very important focus on the past. Scottie is a man who is completely bounded by his past. When he witnesses his partner fall to his death, he becomes acrophobic. This new phobia eventually stops Scottie from being able to save Madeleine, the woman he loves, from dying. This loss experienced by Scottie really messes him up. Scottie never really reaches the acceptance stage of grief. Freud believes that to truly be able to get over the loss of something, we must completely detach our libido from this person to be able to love another. Scottie is clearly incapable of doing this, because when he meets Judy, who reminds him very much of Madeleine, he tries to recreate her by forcing Judy into styling herself a different way. Many people realize to what extent they loved something or someone only when they can't have it anymore, which makes them desire the thing or person much more. Scottie's desire for Madeleine pushes him to make decisions he wouldn’t have made before. Scottie changes for the worse. When Judy’s transformation into Madeleine is complete, Scotties no longer desires to love Madeleine, but as Vanessa said, “he wants control [over her],” he wants her to die. I really find it interesting how Vanessa linked this to Freud’s grandson, who “repeats an overpowering experience so as to make oneself master of it.” Scottie’s very traumatic past controls him, therefore he wants to try and regain control by altering the past in a sense.

19/10/2018 06:30:39 pm

Solid work,Ben. In the future, please make sure that all quotes come from the actual texts rather than the mio summaries as the first one is here (though I like being quoted!). Also note that Scotty doesn't develop vertigo but that the condition is partly what made it impossible for him to save his fellow officer. Finally, the point about desiring Judy's death is interesting, but would need to be a little more elaborated. All that said, you do make some good points about loss and desire in the film. ✔-

Bridget Griffin

10/10/2018 11:51:41 pm

2) Something that complicates the relationship between loss, death, and desire in Hitchcock’s VERTIGO is the fact that both Scottie and the audience are tricked into believing such terrible falsehoods that, when the truth is revealed, it is completely gut-wrenching. We’re lead to believe that Madeleine killed herself, propelling Scottie into a state of utter melancholia. In his deep sadness, he finds it impossible to come to terms with her death, searching for her everywhere. As Freud puts it in “On Transience”, Scottie cannot move on, “even when a substitute lies ready to hand” (307). Midge’s presence in the movie puts further emphasis on this point. Clearly there was a time when Scottie felt as though he could be attracted to her; they used to be engaged. He cannot now attach any amount of libido to her being, however, for she is not Madeleine.
The fact that Scottie then decides to attempt to recreate Madeleine within Judy has been discussed at length, so I will instead comment on the fact that it is not Madeleine’s death that is truly the ultimate loss in this film; it is the fact that she never existed in the first place. While Loewald pointed out the fact that “any historical truth [...] is a reconstruction”, what about the current truth (146)? In Judy’s flashback, it is revealed that, not only is Scottie’s misremembering a historical truth; he misunderstood it at the time of its occurrence. This is significant because, while loss promotes desire, what does one do with a lack thereof? Madeleine’s death puts Scottie’s internal timeline on pause; her inexistence should shatter all that he’s ever worked for. Yet still, in the face of new loss, some part of Scottie still believes that Judy can be Madeleine. He says what she said the day she supposedly killed herself: “It’s too late”, and kisses her passionately, still trying to recreate the moment. Even then, in the face of true death, there is still no acceptance. Madeleine has died twice but it renews his passion twofold. And a few seconds later, she falls to her death once again, dying for a third, hopefully final, time.

19/10/2018 06:38:17 pm

Very good post, Bridget. There are some excellent observations, here. If you consider developing this further into an essay, which I encourage, you could further explore the crucial point of Madeleine never really existing. This is one of the most radical facets of the film. Isn't it possible that this reveals a core truth about the nature of desire? That it's always centered around a lack rather than the illusory presence? Midge's overbearing presence in Scotty's psychic economy also affirms this fact. I also appreciated that you cited Loewald's observation about the personal myth. I do think that this post might have included a bit more evidence from the film and it also ends rather abruptly (and unintentionally sounds like you wanted Judy dead), but there are many great ideas here. This could be a great starting point for your final essay. Nice job. ✔+

Avraham Cymbalist

11/10/2018 07:20:24 am

Q2

In the beginning of Hitchcock’s VERTIGO, Scottie loses everything that is valuable to him. He loses a fellow policeman, his position on the force and most of all his dignity and manhood. Scottie’s immense desire to regain all that he has lost makes him very emotionally unstable and it causes him to desperately scramble for anything that is even loosely related to his former life. He has a reputation that he built for himself where he leads a very typical masculine lifestyle and now that it’s all gone he doesn’t know what to do. It is impossible for Scottie to get any of his old life back so he decides to help someone else who has also changed so drastically. Scottie thinks that maybe if he helps solve a paranormal mystery, that can somehow help him solve his phobia which can also be seen as a paranormal mystery. We can relate this situation to a passage where Edmundson says that “We continue time and again trying to regain an illusory former happiness.” (13). This quote completely explains what Scottie is doing throughout the movie. He is so obsessed with the damsel in distress because he is one himself and also he wants to act as if he is what he used to be before his vertigo episode. Throughout the film, Scottie references Madeleine’s natural beauty many times. However, Scottie isn’t in love with Madeleine because of her beauty, it is about the emotional importance of being a more superior figure in a relationship. We can prove this with a passage from Freud’s “On Transience” which states that “the value of all this beauty and perfection is determined only by its significance for our own emotional lives” (306). Even though Freud is talking about the beauty of the world surrounding us, we can still see the point that the value lies in our personal emotional significance. This takes away the need for beauty because it is the emotional significance that holds any importance. In VERTIGO, Scottie’s immense desire to regain all that he has lost makes him very emotionally unstable and it causes him to desperately scramble for anything that is even loosely related to his former life.

19/10/2018 06:45:38 pm

There are some really nice and unexpected observations here, Avraham. I do think the final passage on Scotty's need for dominance in the relationship would probably connect better with Grosz but your application of Freud is intriguing, though it could be expanded upon. Nice job. ✔+

Humanities

Leave a Reply.

INSTRUCTIONS