1. THEMES MOTIFS SYMBOLS
Death Spirals Towers
•Presented as attractive and •eyes / hairstyles / stairs / trees •Phallic symbols and connected to themes
frightening through ideas about fear •reinforces ideas surrounding vertigo around Scottie’s impotence and power
of vertigo (Scottie) and potential and closely linked to themes around struggles in the film
suicide (Madeline) life and death
•Scottie seems obsessed with
paradox of being attracted by death
but terrified of it.
The Supernatural Flowers Sequoia Trees
•ideas about dying and coming •idealised notions of beauty and •considered to by symbolic of life and death
back from the dead femininity as fragile – the years we live and generations of time
•represents Scottie’s idealisation of
Madeline as his ideal woman
The power of Psychological Colours Red & Green
obsession Red - considered to signify danger
•the rational v irrational romantic Green – considered to represent
delusion Scottie has with Madeline • nature & life
•The idea that we’re all prisoners of • life after death /
our own psyche supernatural / ghosts
Physical appearances & beauty: Tunnels & Corridors
1)physical manifestations in people •represented as passages to (and
2) ideals of beauty but with a price from) death
to pay
Crisis of Masculinity Religious Icons
•Role of men and women in 1950s •relates to themes to do with life,
society death and the supernatural