In the opening scene of the movie, Rear Window, the camera pans from right to left showing the audience an apartment complex and its inhabitants before ending at the inside of Jeffries’ apartment. As the camera then proceeds to pan around Jeffries’ apartment, the audience learns that Jeffries leads an adventurous and dangerous lifestyle explaining the cast on his currently broken leg. This adventurous and dangerous lifestyle that Jeffries leads becomes somewhat ironic as we find out that Jeffries has fears and reservations about something as simple as getting married and settling down. Never in the movie is it explicitly stated that Jeffries is intimidated by the idea of marriage. Instead, a look into the lives of each of Jeffries’ neighbors showcases all the different reasons behind his hesitations to get serious with his love interest, Lisa.
One of the apartments across the way from Jeffries is that of a young woman’s referred to as “Ms. Torso”. Ms. Torso is a beautiful young woman that all the men seem to be after. Despite the fact that Ms. Torso appears to lead a happy life filled with excitement, fun, and gentlemen callers, something bothers her beyond what we see of the superficial layering of parties and dancing. While she keeps the company of men, she turns down any man that shows too much interest in her. Jeffries and the audience both probably assume that this is because she is waiting on somebody better, richer, or more debonair. Just as the audience and Jeffries concludes that none of the men that have attempted to win her over throughout the movie could possibly be good enough for her, her reason for remaining untouched appears. Her boyfriend, fiancé, or husband, Stanley, comes home from the army. He is nothing like the image of the rich and charming man the audience or Jeffries would have expected Ms. Torso to end up with. Instead, he is short, homely, and leads a less than glamorous life in the army. Lisa relates well to Ms. Torso in that while she is a beautiful young woman leading a life of glamour and fashion and she has many men showing interest in her that would adapt well to her lifestyle, she wants no part of any of them and is intent on having Jeffries in her life instead. When Jeffries and Lisa see Ms. Torso across the way with all the men in her apartment, Lisa tells Jeffries that she understands Ms. Torso and knows that Ms. Torso doesn’t actually love any of those men. Jeffries is like Ms. Torso’s Stanley. He leads a life of adventure and is not exactly the kind of man that others would expect Lisa to fall for, and yet she does.
Jeffries’ newlywed neighbors are the perfect of example of everything Jeffries detests about marriage. When the couple enters their apartment for the first time, they are elated to be there together and the man carries his wife over the threshold. Their love is new and exciting. As the movie progresses, the audience and Jeffries only catches glimpses of the husband as he tries to catch a breath of fresh air. Every time he attempts to do this, his turned nagging wife manages to drag him back in. Jeffries sort of smirks every time he sees this happen because he views this man as a fool for having gotten married in the first place and because he feels that he has dodged a bullet by not putting himself in any similar situations. To Jeffries, marriage is a trap with no escape, which the newlyweds seem to illustrate perfectly.
Next is Ms. Lonelyhearts. Ms. Lonelyhearts is a middle-aged woman leading a lonely life. She is depressed and suicidal. In an attempt to ease the pain of her own loneliness she has an imaginary lover that accompanies her in a romantic dinner the first time the audience and Jeffries sees her. As we see more of her, we realize that Ms. Lonelyhearts is lonely because she is afraid to let anyone into her life. When she goes out of the apartment she has to have some drinks first to loosen her up. Then, when she does have a date come to her apartment, he tries to smother and attack her. Ms. Lonelyhearts is a representation of what Jeffries may eventually turn into if he does not get over his fear of commitment. I think he realizes this too. Jeffries sympathizes with her and toasts her from across the apartment complex as she toasts her imaginary date.
The composer, who is composing the majority of the music throughout the play, seems to be composing a song that is representative of the relationship between Lisa and Jeffries. The song is complicated. It takes a lot of work and at times the composer isn’t sure that continuing this piece of work is worth it at all. Then, when Lisa is in Mr. Thorwald’s apartment and Jeffries falls completely in love with her, the song seems to fully come together in a complex yet beautiful piece of art that we then find out is entitled, “Lisa”.
Last is the Thorwald’s apartment. In the beginning Jeffries seems to sympathize with Mr. Thorwald as he watches him come home everyday to a nagging wife. He even makes a comment at one point that he could not imagine himself coming home everyday to a nagging wife such as Ms. Thorwald. Ms. Thorwald also seems to represent an oppression of her husband’s manhood as she attempts to keep him in check, does not allow him to lead the life he wants, and prevents him from seeing other women freely. She has become an anchor weighing her husband down that Mr. Thorwald eventually decides must be eliminated. While Jeffries looks on in horror as he realizes what has happened, he is looking into another man’s situation that he has feared for himself the most.