Rear Window

Lars Thorwald plays the role of the antagonist, the man who murders his wife and tries to stop Jeff’s investigation. He is a full but mysterious character, and Woolrich uses him to illuminate aspects of Jeff’s character that would otherwise remain hidden. As Jeff spies on Thorwald, their relationship becomes increasingly intimate. Yet, Jeff never directly communicates with Thorwald until the end. He lacks access to Thorwald’s feelings and personality. The man’s relationship with his wife who has a chronic illness and his tough financial situation provides a possible but never-confirmed explanation for his behavior. The author’s ambiguous portrayal of his actions and motivations keeps the story uncertain and unpredictable to the end.

As the story continues, the distance between Thorwald and Jeff shrinks. The murderer physically breaks into Jeff’s apartment to kill him at the story’s climax, but the psychological and moral distance decreases well before that. Jeff repeatedly portrays Thorwald as his inverse: “Two minds with but one thought, turned inside-out in my case. How to keep it hidden, how to see that it wasn’t kept hidden” (38). However, Woolrich undermines this easy distinction. Jeff’s transgressions multiply as he pursues the truth, and the story frequently lingers over the ethics of his voyeurism. This ambiguity allows Thorwald to stand as a foil for Jeff, highlighting his ethical “blind spots.”

Thorwald may not escape justice, but he does escape the gaze of both Jeff and the reader. He dies, ultimately unknowable, and he takes any explanations with him. Guesswork replaces closure at the end of the story.

Anna Thorwald is the victim in the story, the wife which a chronic illness murdered by Lars Thorwald. Her role in the story is instrumental, as her death incites the narrative. However, her portrayal unsettles the reader both in the fact that she is wholly characterized by her illness and that she disappears for most of the story.

Spying into the Thorwalds’ apartment, Jeff initially expresses his pity for the couple’, defining it by the woman’s illness and the upheaval of the renovations overhead. As the tale progresses, it centers on Mrs. Thorwald’s absence. Her missing body is the object of Jeff’s search, and the fact that no one on the police force knows her by sight delays the discovery of the substitution. Nor is the fake Mrs. Thorwald physically present. Readers hear a report of her existence third-hand and learn nothing about her except through Jeff’s speculation. Even her position as Lars Thorwald’s mistress is unverified.

The missing and interchangeable Mrs. Thorwalds highlight Jeff’s tight focus on Lars Thorwald, but at the beginning of the story, his situation better resembles that of the wife. Like Mrs. Thorwald, Jeff’s disability (in his case, temporary) defines his situation and limits his movement. He also has one primary caretaker, the housekeeper Sam. Yet, Jeff identifies more with Thorwald, who does not have a disability. He credits Lars Thorwald’s fatigue in attending to his wife as part of his motivation for murder. The story ends with the doctor removing Jeff’s cast, ending his disability. No such cure is available to Anna Thorwald.

Sam is Jeff’s housekeeper and only companion during his convalescence. He feeds Jeff, takes care of the apartment, and brings him the newspaper. He becomes more important to the story as Jeff takes a more active role in the investigation. Sam functions as Jeff’s proxy or agent, performing the physical tasks associated with the investigation such as slipping a note under Thorwald’s door and making it appear as though someone has searched the apartment. While Jeff values Sam and regrets the danger into which he sends him, the relationship is unequal and not solely due to the dynamic between employer and employee.

Woolrich’s dialect choices suggest that Sam is Black, and the author draws on problematic stereotypes relating to stock Black characters. For example, Sam cites his “mammy” who taught him that crickets are a “sign of death” (22). The white narrator dismisses the superstition with a wave of his hand, though the idea haunts him. The fact that the story ultimately validates the connection, linking the crickets’ sound with the two Thorwald deaths, doesn’t redeem the choice. It speaks to a long literary history in which Black people have been alternately depicted as superstitious or possessing spiritual wisdom at the expense of education or reason.