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Vertigo is a tale of male aggression and visual control, a map of the “female Oedipal trajectory, a deconstruction of the male construction of femininity and of masculinity”. The film has been criticized because it was made from a primarily ‘male cinema’ standpoint, but Hitchcock’s attempt at deconstructing the male spectatorship as much as he constructs it reveals a fascination with femininity that throws masculine identity into question and crises.

The subjective camera is predominant from the start of the film causing a spectator position/identification split between the male and female gaze. Although this divided viewpoint is quickly diminished through the narrative as Scottie begins to present a stronger female stance. His identity is thus feminized, causing the formation, alteration, and eradication of male identity/masculinity as a result of obsessive love, ultimately leading to destructive love and death.

Psychologist, John D. Moore describes obsessive love as one of the four leading stages in the “Obsessive Love Wheel”, a hypothetical circle that categorizes the theory of “Obsessive Relational Progression” (ORP) into divisions of attraction, anxiety, obsession, and destruction. According to Moore’s theory, obsession in the context of love is defined as an extreme form of emotional attachment between individuals in a relationship “who are afflicted with relational dependency”, often leading to dangerous consequences such as murder among other things.

The film starts with police detective Scottie Ferguson who is asked by an old college friend, Gavin Elster, if he would have a look into his wife Madeleine’s odd behavior. Madeline believes that she is the possessed by a woman who died many years ago and Elster is concerned about her sanity. Scottie follows her and rescues her from an apparent suicide attempt when she jumps into the San Francisco bay. In following events, he gets to know her and eventually falls in love with her.

As Madeline starts to go mad, owing to his vertigo, Scottie is unable to stop her when commits suicide by jumping to her death from the top of the bell tower. Humiliated and haunted by what has happened, he leaves the police force. Several months later, he meets Judy Barton, a woman who is the spitting image of Madeleine. He can’t explain it, but she is identical to the woman who died. He tries to re-make her into Madeleine’s image by getting her to dye her hair and wear the same type of clothes. He soon begins to realize however that he was deceived and a part of a complex piece of theater that was meant to end in tragedy.

Vertigo suggests that “femininity” in our culture is largely a male construct. It is a label created from a matter of external trappings, of roles and masquerade without essence. So if the co-existence of a female is what assures males of their truth, their identity, then they are faced with the possibility of a diminished existence, “his own nothingness”. The theme of romantic love in Vertigo is therefore deceitful for it is really a cover for the “hatred nourished by the fear of woman, a symbol of death, of nothingness for a man.”

Love is projected to be a complex and multi faceted theory/emotion in our society, but Vertigo proves otherwise in that it is merely a construct defined by obsessive lust. In the churn of life, this obsession almost always leads to destruction since the co-existence of woman will always present a threat of inferiority, or rather a symbol of death for man, and he will avoid the void of nothingness, the eradication of his identity, his masculinity, pride, and ego at all costs.

“Vertigo” is a classic by any standard. It’s a must-see that remains just as impressive with each viewing.