In the essay "On `Sleeping Beauty'," Francine Prose argues that the movie Vertigo is about "a sort of modified necrophilia: not exactly sex with a corpse - literal graveyard amour - but rather sex with a woman who only appears to have left the world of living" (223). This statement certainly has many ties to the movie. Vertigo, Hitchcock's masterpiece, secretly reveals men's sexual desire and obsession towards women, especially for those who appear to have lost touch with the real world. One may recognize the central character, Scottie, as a person who is surrounded by all kinds of emotional faintness due to his great loss of love. However, the action that Scottie has taken after the suffering tells the audience the whole different story; Scottie has committed "modified necrophilia" (223) as the movie progresses.

The movie Vertigo tells the story of John "Scottie" Ferguson, a hapless detective who becomes...