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The lure of the ideal [of whiteness] is also imperceptibly, haunted by
misgiving, even anxiety. […] To relinquish […] corporeality […] is also to be
haunted by [its] return’ (Dyer, White, p.81). Discuss Richard Dyer’s claim in
relation to the visual construction of Madeleine in Vertigo (1958).

Dyer’s theory is palpably demonstrated in Hitchcock’s 1958 film Vertigo1 through the

way Madeleine’s whiteness constructs her as a ghostly, un-corporeal enigma, and the use of

the theme of haunting, which pervades the film both in the literal sense and in the theoretical

sense: Dyer’s suggestion that the ‘return’ of ‘corporeality’, or other concepts oppositional to

common connotations of whiteness, is haunting and anxiety-provoking is visible in Vertigo

through the literal haunting that is experienced by ‘Madeleine’, Judy and Scottie, and also

theoretically through the figure of Carlotta, a Spanish ancestor whose presence overshadows

the whole narrative and represents the threatening opposition to whiteness. Though Dyer’s

claim is generally applicable to the visual construction of Madeleine in Vertigo, I will argue

that her alluring idealisation also has a haunting effect of its own, and that Scottie is haunted

by an ideal white corporealization that he ultimately finds is impossible to create.

Figure 1

Madeleine is presented as the impossible white ideal through her visual construction

as both desirable yet ghostly and impenetrable. Madeleine is initially introduced through a

1
Vertigo, dir. By Alfred Hitchcock (Paramount, 1958).
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highly sexualised perspective: in Figure 1, the blurred red background connotes romance

while also providing a darker background for her high-definition whiteness to shine against.

Dyer notes that in media, ‘idealized white women are bathed in . . . light’ and that they appear

to ‘glow’.2 Indeed, the light reflecting on her platinum-blonde hair is suggestive of a halo and

makes her appear almost angelic, while the three blurred lights to the right could be

proleptically suggestive of the three identities that are imposed on her white bodily canvas:

Madeleine, Carlotta, and Judy. Madeleine is presented as the white ideal not just through her

sexual allure (and notable silence in this scene), but also through the ghostliness that develops

over the course of the film. Given that whiteness is commonly linked to non-corporeal

concepts such as the mind and the soul or spirit, Madeleine’s ghostliness serves to make her

appear more ‘white’, both visually and conceptually. In the early scenes of Scottie tailing

Madeleine, she is photographed in soft lighting and through diffusion filters3, which makes

her appear like a sort of apparition rather than a corporeal being. Indeed, when Midge sees

her leaving Scottie’s house, she asks ‘was it a ghost?’, arguably articulating what Scottie is

thinking, especially as this is the second time that she has impossibly disappeared without

trace. The significance of these disappearances is that they suggest that she is so non-

corporeal (and by extension, so ‘white’) that her body can disappear in a matter of seconds, or

simply choose to not be seen, as is implied when she apparently goes up to her hotel room

unnoticed. Furthermore, they contributes to her portrayal as an enigma: Madeleine’s

emotional impenetrability makes her more (conceptually) white, as does the effect that her

mystery has on Scottie’s experience of his own masculinity. Having been emasculated

already by his crippling vertigo and the ‘corset’ he wears in his first speaking scene, he relies

on both his understanding of Madeleine as a victim (of possession or haunting), and the

challenge of seducing her, to reinstate his masculinity. Due to the prevalence of POV shots

2
Richard Dyer, White (New York: Routledge, 2013), p.122.
3
Tania Modleski, The Women Who Knew Too Much (New York: Routledge, 2016), p.94.
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from Scottie and the overall focus on his experience, the audience is encouraged to see

Madeleine as he does, thereby emphasising her closeness to the white feminine ideal through

the implicit reference to the archetype of the white female victim. Thus Madeleine is

presented as the white feminine ideal through her paradoxical simultaneous sexual allure and

lack of corporeality.

Figure 2

Though Madeleine is depicted as the pinnacle of white femininity, Dyer suggests that

this is not possible without the audience being ‘haunted’ by the return of corporeality, and

this is certainly visible in how Carlotta is presented. There are several types of haunting at

work in Vertigo, such that it functions as a motif: Carlotta is apparently haunting Madeleine;

Madeleine haunts Scottie’s mind after her death; Scottie is also haunted by his vertigo; and

Scottie himself haunts the places where Madeleine used to visit. A further suggestion is that

Madeleine, the construct, is haunted by Judy, whose real identity could be revealed at any

point. Carlotta’s haunting of Madeleine is the most self-evident of these, demonstrated by

motifs such as the flowers, necklace and spiral hairstyle. Note that in Judy’s room (Figure 2),

accompanying her newly-spiralled hair and imminent necklace, there is a painting containing

a bouquet similar to Carlotta’s, and likewise there are flowers on the bedspread, exemplifying
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the lingering of Carlotta’s character on Judy. The whiteness of Madeleine relies on the

threatening presence of non-whiteness, and Carlotta Valdés is the least ‘white’ character in

the film, as she has a name that is explicitly identified as ‘Spanish . . . Foreign, but sweet’.

Notably, the surname is pronounced incorrectly in the film, with the accent on the first

syllable – this is suggestive of racial erasure, and supports David Grevan’s theory that Judy’s

transformation into Madeleine ‘allegorizes black strategies and narratives of passing’. 4 Thus

as Judy becomes Madeleine (what Grevan sees as a ‘successful [white] passing

performance’5), she must be haunted by her non-white ancestor, who possesses her in such a

manner that Scottie is ‘anxi[ous]’ to cure her and restore her to white feminine perfection.

Figure 3

Thus haunting is present in this way, however I would also argue that the white ideal

itself has a haunting effect on Scottie. Even before Madeleine’s death, his love is so obsessive

that he begins to identify with her, such that one might say he is ‘possessed’ by her in the

same way that she is fictitiously possessed by Carlotta. Madeleine’s green clothing and car,

though initially contrasted with Scottie’s white car (a blank slate for her to impress upon), is

soon reflected in Scottie’s green clothing and cushions (Figure 3), which (not insignificantly)

appear just as they properly meet each other, and their identities begin to merge. This colour
4
David Grevin,’The Dark Side of Blondeness: Vertigo and Race’, Screen, 59 (2018), pp.59-79 (p.71).
5
Ibid., p73.
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symbolism continues into the scene of Madeleine’s reincarnation, where the green light from

the sign outside Judy’s hotel not only gives Madeleine’s appearance a ‘subtle, ghostlike

quality’ as Hitchcock intended6, but also is symbolic of possessive jealousy, and shines onto

Scottie’s face as he waits for her to emerge – perhaps even suggesting that he is waiting for a

part of himself to re-appear. Madeleine’s whiteness is central to her non-non-corporeality,

and thus when Scottie becomes the blank canvas who is possessed by love for a non-existent

ideal, he loses part of his own identity when he loses her, and thus is anxious that he may be

unable to fully rebuild her. This continues into the final scene as he explains ‘I want to stop

being haunted. You’re my second chance.’ – i.e. a chance to rebuild himself. Tania Modleski

explains that ‘Scottie not only identifies with Madeleine in his dream, but becomes caught up

in the very madness he had feared in her’7, and that ‘it is crucial for Scottie that he convince

Madeleine of her sanity so that he can be assured of his own’8. This linking of their minds

together is consolidated also by the final lines, in which Scottie reprimands her: ‘you

shouldn’t keep souvenirs of a killing . . . you shouldn’t have been that sentimental’ – yet one

gets the sense that he is really talking to himself. His rebuilt Madeleine is his ‘souvenir’, and

it is his obsessive love for her that ultimately causes her death and his loss. Scottie’s

identification with Madeleine thereby extends the motif of haunting to emphasise the non-

corporeality of the white ideal, and the potential consequences of attempting to embody it.

Ultimately, then, Dyer’s claim has great relevance to the visual construction of

Madeleine in Vertigo. Her links to death, through her ghostly appearance, her haunting of

Scottie, and the fact that she is a construct used to orchestrate a murder, all serve to

emphasise her non-existence, and by extension, her whiteness. Her enigmatic presentation

reinforces the idea that she is more of a concept than a real person, and thus her corporeality
6
Ibid., p.73.
7
Modleski, p.97.
8
Ibid., p.96
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is transient and unreliable, as supported by her mysterious disappearances and the way that

Hitchcock utilises light and distance to emphasise her whiteness both visually and

conceptually. Indeed, her femininity intersects with her whiteness to portray her as a typical

victim, thereby enhancing Scottie’s experience of victimhood when he finds out that he has

been duped, especially given his emasculating over-identification with her. Scottie’s and the

audience’s joint racial paranoia is also increased by the looming presence of the dead

Carlotta, who, though non-corporeal, functions as the anxiety-provoking racialised threat

through the way she frames the haunting motif.

[1496 words]

Bibliography

Dyer, Richard, White (New York: Routledge, 2013)

Grevin, David, ‘The Dark Side of Blondeness: Vertigo and Race’, Screen, 59 (2018), 59-79

Modleski, Tania, The Women Who Knew Too Much (New York: Routledge, 2016)

Vertigo, dir. by Alfred Hitchcock (Paramount, 1958)

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