While watching Rear Window one pattern I noticed was that of women serving as the caretakers of the men in their lives. Take Stella for instance; the first time we see her, Stella is there to take care of Jefferies in his injured state. Even when Stella isn’t acting as Jefferies’ nurse while they spy on Mr. Thorwald towards the end of the film, she is still taking care of Jefferies. Stella does this by checking for evidence in Mr. Thorwald’s garden for Jefferies and going to bail Lisa out of jail since Jefferies is unable to do so himself.
We see this pattern continue in Lisa’s interactions with Jefferies throughout the film. Like Stella, in the sequence where we’re introduced to Lisa, she is taking care of Jefferies by turning on the lights, setting the table and getting dinner together for him. She also tries to cheer him up from his bored and miserable state by chatting and trying to get him to look on the bright side by toasting to the start of his last week in a cast. As the film continues, Lisa continues to visit Jefferies and keep him company while he sits in his apartment. At the climax of the film, Lisa even helps Jefferies with his “investigation” of Mr. Thorwald by checking both his garden and apartment for evidence. As the film ends, Lisa is shown reading a book about the Himalayas in Jefferies’ apartment in jeans and a plain button-up shirt, her most casual outfit in the whole film. As she notices that Jefferies is asleep, she switches from her book to a fashion magazine. This scene shows how Lisa changed her lifestyle to fit into Jefferies’ life by giving up her fancy clothes and suppressing her interest in the fashion industry. While some of these acts just seem like her helping Jefferies, they still put Lisa in the role of caretaker because she does these things to make Jefferies happy.
This being said, there is one important break from this pattern: the Thorwalds. In this relationship, the roles are reversed since Mrs. Thorwald is sick and Mr. Thorwald must take care of her. However, this relationship is shown to be an “unsuccessful” one when Mr. Thorwald murders his wife in the middle of the night. In the cases with women as the caretakers, both Stella and Lisa appear to get happy endings by the film’s end, unlike the Thorwalds. By presenting a pattern like this and depicting violence when the pattern is reversed, it’s difficult to ignore how the film seems to push certain gender roles. By providing the female caretakers with happy endings while punishing the male caretaker and the woman receiving care, the film seems to caution women to be the caretakers in their relationships.
This is such a great analysis – I particularly enjoyed your suggestion that it is because the man is the caretaker in the Thorwald household that something goes wrong. If female characters in Rear Window are meant to fit into stereotypical gendered roles, what does it mean when Lisa and Stella step from domestic caretaking to investigative work? They step into the role that Jeff has to vacate because of his injury – does that mean they’re stepping into a ‘masculine’ caretaking role? Does that work for them, or are they thrust back into their spheres because they are caught? Does Hitchcock provide two examples of each gender stepping into the ‘wrong’ caretaking role to provide a warning or analysis?
This is a very interesting analysis! drewstarsaroundmyscars mentioned the detail about the Thorwalds being particularly striking as a cautionary tale, and I agree. Going further into comparing Jeffries and Lisa with the Thorwalds, I wonder if we can slightly complicate the gender roles of the film, and see how far we can push them. I definitely agree that it is illuminating that when Mr. Thorwald was forced to step into the role of a caretaker, he was unable to do so. But I think another interpretation of that besides being a bad omen also speaks to the toxicity of him beyond, but related to, his masculinity. Masculinity is so often linked with independence, as well, as seen through Jeffries, that I wonder if we can additionally frame the murder as Mr. Thorwald reclaiming independence and freedom (in a very messed up and unjustifiable way). Whereas Jeffries, another very masculine-man, is put in a unique position for character development, being trapped and forced to depend upon others, particularly women (Stella and Lisa). Despite them being his caretakers, he is also forced to learn a lesson about interdependence and relationships, suggesting that his relationship with Lisa by the end of the film is still complicated, but perhaps not doomed as the Thorwalds are.
These are such a good points!! This kind of frames Rear Window as a prime example of male monstrosity as something that is kind of framed as inevitable or likely (when men are forced to be caretakers), wheras with women, its as if something has gone completetly wrong because they aren’t “meant” to react as so. Thorwald was tired of caretaking and turned to immoral/monstrous acts. However, if it was stella or Lisa, there would be an added layer of taboo that would completely shift the whole narrative. It wouldn’t even be social commentary on privacy anymore. I also liked that you talked about how the characters who did follow gender roles got “rewarded” with a happy ending. I think it really just shows how some older films really are as outdated as we imagine them to be.