Masculinity in “Rear Window”

            Perhaps the most interesting scene in Rear Window is the one in which the Jefferies tells Lisa that he is no longer interested in marrying her because he is uncapable of providing the standard of living which she is used to. In watching this scene, it became apparent that in this moment, and in the film more broadly, Lisa and Jefferies have switched gender roles in the traditional sense. While they are sharing a dinner that she arranged and paid for he listens to her adventures, and day of business dealings while he was stuck at home. This is an example of the true central conflict of the movie, Jefferies is physically unable of caring for himself, and thus loses a significant aspect of what it means to be a man in the traditional sense. He is unable to work or move about freely, and thus struggles greatly with this loss of independence. It is the reason that he wants to break up with Lisa even though she is perfect. His subservience to her, or rather, the nature of this dynamic between them shifts in the climax of the film, when he is stuck watching Lisa fight and perform the physical acts required to bring the killer to justice. He is unable to assist her physically, and is instead stuck watching, in the position that would typically be reserved for the female love interest. In the end, though, Hitchcock allows Jefferies the small victory of saving her by calling the police, and further, surviving a physical confrontation with Lars Thorwald. Thus, in the end of the story, while Jefferies is still physically unable to move, he has reasserted his masculinity by saving his fiancé and defeating the villain in a David versus Goliath style victory. One which necessitates his outsmarting a physically more capable opponent.