Rear Window

The title of the story refers to the rear window of the protagonist’s apartment, through which he views the lives of his neighbors. It also directs readers toward the neighbors’ rear windows, which allow Hal Jeffries visual access to their homes. It’s a heavily loaded symbol that represents isolation, vulnerability, and transgression.

The window is the literal barrier between the protagonist and the people he watches, but it’s also his point of access to their lives. Jeff understands that the people he watches are vulnerable. He even takes measures to prevent others from seeing him in his apartment, retreating into the shadows when Lars Thorwald gazes toward him. When he sends Sam to break into the other man’s apartment, he turns the window into a site of physical transgression, the means of illegal entry.

The object’s position as a “rear window” also matters. People have an expectation of privacy and security from this direction, which Jeff exploits. He continually directs Thorwald to pay attention to his door rather than his window, and when Sam breaks in, Jeff tells him to latch the window behind him and return out the front: “I didn’t want him to connect danger with the back of his place, but with the front—I wanted to keep my own window out of it” (41).