We know how it feels to be in love, but what does that really mean? If your partner asks you why you love him, what would you answer him? Today, despite countless researchs and studies, there are disagreements and divided opinions about what love implies in its entirety and whether it is possible to establish a true love relationship with another being without any religious premises in it. Various psychologists dealt with interpersonal relationships and went into the deepest and darkest parts of intimate relationships while Karl Gustav Jung came to the deepest and darkest parts of his own unconscious.
Alfred Hitchcock, one of the most influential directors of the 20th century, also worked in his films with suppressed and unconscious content. It was not a secret that Hitchcock was a fan of Freud's psychoanalysis, but Vertigo's film gets a clearer picture seen through Jung Psychology.
Before we engage in film analysis, we need to make a difference between love and infatuation (falling in love). For many, these two terms have the same meaning. Most will say that infatuation is the emotions that occur at the beginning of the relationship and love is what follows, when we get to know the person a little better and we still feel something towards her. Love is a person's feelings toward another person, which he perceives as valuable and regarded as an integral part of his intimate world. It arises as a result of emotional attachment, and there are several kinds of love: a feeling of love, being loved, self-loving, conditional and unconditional love, etc. Love requires knowing the reality of another person and accepting it fully. On the other hand, falling in love is a more affective state that has arisen from the unconscious projection of the idealized idea of a woman or a man. It should be emphasized that the person in love is not obsessed with others, but his own psychic content that Jung calls Anima (Anima, in Jung's analytical psychology, is the archetype of social life and femininity in the unconscious of a man, acquired through the historical experience of the relationship between men and women, but also as individual content, developed through the process of individuation. Women's principle - anima is found in every man) or Animus (Animus is an archetype of the male figure in the unconscious part of the personality of women, acquired through the historical experience of women in relations with men, but also through the process of individualizing a particular personality. In Psychodynamic Theory K. Jung is a male aspect of a female personality that arises from the accumulated experience of women in relationships with men) - more about these terms in the text.
Gavin Elster engages his old friend Scottie (who is a retired policeman and has a pathological fear of height- acrophobia) to find out what's wrong with his wife Madeleine. Her strange behavior leads him to the thought that she is possessed by the spirit of her deceased relative, Carletta, who committed suicide at the age of 26, as Medellin has now.
Scottie first saw Madeleine in the restaurant where she had dinner with her husband. More than the obvious contrast between Madeleine and the interior of the restaurant tells us about its uniqueness that it represents for Scottie. She is shown to him like a vision, her glitter fascinates Scottie, but he has no courageto look directly at her, and only when she turned her back, he has the courage to see her fully. He sees only one part of Madeleine. At this moment we are witnessing a fall in love at first glance and the beginning of Scottie projection of Anima, the female aspect of the male psyche and the symbol of all female psychological tendencies in psychology of a man. Backed, symbolically, she tells him to follow her.
Already at the very beginning of the investigation, Hitchcock shows us the way Scottie experiences his Anima. Following her to the flower shop, but it is interesting that the entrance to the flower does not lead through the main door (consciously) but through the door of the basement. Interpreted in the context of the film, the basement presents Scottie unconscious, "home" Anima, a place where all the expectations and fantasies associated with the partner are stored, in this case Madeleine. He sheds through the open door of his own unconscious and grabs his paradise. This scene not only depicts Scottish idealization of Madeleine, but also the entire projection of Anima.
Erotic tension between Madeleine and Scotite is growing. They go into the forest and talk about a common future. They are located in front of a huge tree called "Sequoia sempervirens - always green, ever living. You will notice that the tree is gigantic compared to the other. We do not see the whole forest because of this tree. Exactly that role has Madeleine in his life. She is great for him, only and always green and alive. Madeleine is aware that this is just a fantasy, but nevertheless, she is in love but also sad because she knows that this has to be done. She admits he loves him, but as she says - it did not have to happen this way, thinking that she did not have to fall in love with him, later we will find out why. the Scottie asked her if she loves him, she replied that she loves him, but that she knew she would die. In the context of the film, the answer can be interpreted in two ways.
In the love scene in the barn, Madeleine says that "something has to be done," he escaped from Scottie and ran to the top of the church. He realizes that she wants to kill herself and move after her, but his fear of height prevents him from climbing to the top. Madeleine jumps and Scott realizes it's over. Her loss caused not only sadness and regret for lost love, but also a sense of guilt for her fate. The guilty verdict, because he believes that he could save her without fear of height.
The nightmare dream that Scottie has is extremely important because it tells us the most honest and most exacting thoughts and feelings towards the Madeleine. Dreams (unconscious) know better and more than consciousness and should pay special attention to them. How much Hitchcock was ahead of his time tells us the content and concept of this dream. He has a clear message and says that although Madeleine is dead, she still exists in Scottie. The ideal that she represents continues to live (remember only the names of the tree). In the first part of the dream, Skottie appears symbols and signs that associate him with Madeleine (flowers, necklace, tomb of Carletta, etc.). Often it happens that in dreams, when we dream of unpleasant content related to a close person (death of Madeleine), we make the transfer of these unpleasant content to another person (Carletta). He does not recognize her death even at the unconscious level, but he dreams of everything that associates him with her. In the second part of the dream, Scottie come to the tomb of Carletta, which is empty. The scene is depicted from Scottie's perspective and clearly we see that it enters the grave, he sinks deeper, where suddenly his shadow falls on the roof of the church from which Madeleine jumped. His falling silhouette symbolizes his death as Madeleine is dead. For the most accurate interpretation of the dream, we need something that we can not get, and that is a little Scottie's time to tell us our emotions, associations and all that is needed to do a good analysis, but Hitchcock gave us enough information so we can we conclude the essence - the fantasy of Madeleine continues to live.
Scottie can’t withstand psychological pressure and fall into depression. In the hospital, his friend Midge, who is platonic in love with him, visits him. Throughout the film, we note that Scotty is "reserved" to her, bearing in mind that they had been together before. He refuses to notice that there may be something between them. Midge presents what famous Jung's analyst Robert Johnson real love, and is essentially diametrically opposed to what Scottie feels about Madeleine. Rejection of real love is a very common reaction (if not the rule) in Anima / Animus obesity situations. Love involves directing your love to a deadly human being, rather than a projected idealized performance such as Madeleine. He has to be in relation to a particular human being, to empathize with her and to confirm her value as she really is in her entirety. To be in love is something completely different: it is not directed at the woman, but towards Anima, on the man's ideal: his dream, his fantasy and expectation. However, Scottie continues to search for his Anima, and his green eyes tell us clearly about who she is.
After Scottie exit from the hospital on the street, he sees a girl in a green dress that resembles Madeleine . He goes to the hotel where she lives and begs her to talk to him about what she is up to. She presents himself as Judy Barton and learns from Scottie what happened to him. He calls her for a dinner. After dinner, Scottie follows Judy to her apartment, goes in and suggests that they should see each other more often. This scene is probably one of the most important in the whole film, because from Scottie's perspective we see only the silhouette of Judy giving the impression of shadow. She descends on the armchair and her face is divided, one part is lit with green light while the other is in the dark. Why? Because Scottie does not see the person in its entirety. Lit side presents Madeleine, but the dark part symbolizes Judy. Judy realizes that he wants her company because she reminds him of her.
Scottie rejects reality and tries to make Madeleine from Judy. He buys her clothes she wears, forces her to paint hair, etc. Also, it's interesting that we can not see a kiss between Scottie and Judy. Every time they find themselves in a position to be intimate, Scottie would turn his head or kiss her face. He is still faithful to his Anima - Madeleine, and he doesn’t want to deceive her. We see the first kiss only after her exit from the toilet, when as in fantasy and dressed as Madeleine, she approaches Scottie where she falls into his arms. He remembers their last kiss, and captivated with the whole experience, he is not intimate with Judy at that particular moment, but with his Anima.
In the end it is revealed that the Judy is Madeleine. She admits to him that all this was the work of Gavin's plan to kill his wife, that she chose her because she looked like her, that he knew that because of illness he would not be able to climb to the top of the church and that she should not fall in love with him because it was not part of the plan. Judy jumps out of the church and dies. Why such a tragic end? Why does Scottie go through the death of a dear person twice? Judy dies at the end of the film because it is fantasy, performance and Scottie projection. Scottie would never have experience Judy apart from his idealization of Medellin; therefore, Hitchcock gave her this end. He realized that Judy was not Madeleine and that it could never be, and thus the idealization of Madeleine died. On the other hand, Judy is sentenced to death because she is the bearer of Anime and can survive in her life only if she is strong enough to wear it all the time and to do so successfully. The film tells us clearly that she can not do it.
Thank you for reading!