MovieChat Forums > Vertigo (1958) Discussion > What is the purpose of the Midge charact...

What is the purpose of the Midge character??q


So unbelievably sexist to have the frumpy desexualized sidekick opposing the femme fatale that gets punished with murder for her transgressions at the end.

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I like Midge. And yes, she sort of is the anti-Madeleine/Judy female. She broke off her 3-week engagement to Scotty and there have been no other men in her life. (Hitchcock implies she may be gay). What's wrong with her? She doesn't meet your requirements for a sexy woman? Not every woman looks like Kim Novak. She seems smart and educated and she WORKS. She's a true friend to Scottie. And he doesn't seem to be overflowing with good friends.

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I don't mind that she is not sexy, the actress is pretty, looks like Grace Kelly, I just find the character sexist, I don't see the point.

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Purpose of Midge:

It gives Scotty a friend, a character to enable the viewer to:

Learn more of Scotty's backstory

Enable him to discuss his struggle with Vertigo

Help viewers understand the extent of his breakdown

Show that Scotty is capable of having some kind of relationship with a normal woman outside his nutty fixation with Madeleine.

The portrayal of the Madeleine/Judy characters is sexist, not Midge. In what world is it not "sexist" for a man to be so obsessed with how one woman looked that he feels the need to destroy another woman to create......his version of a living, breathing Greek statue. Women are more than the sum total of HOW THEY LOOK.

(I sure do like this movie.)

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How is Midge sexist?

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I'm curious, when did Hitchcock imply that the character, Midge, might be 'gay'?

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Also, whats most important about Midge is she TRULY cares, and secretly LOVES Scotty. She's the opposite to the illusion that is Judy/Madeline.




You, a salty water ocean wave.
Knock, me down and kiss my face.

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Midge might be gay?!? In what way does Hitchcock imply this? I'm very curious

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Exposition. Gives us valuable background on Scotty such as his lack of sexual interest, the severity of his vertigo and mental trauma making him quit the police.

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Good original question LTEC and good responses everyone. She quietly establishes the fact that Scotty is a strange, lonely man and that they have had a unusual relationship going back quite a while. The questions never answered are: why did she break off their engagement after just three weeks, and why are they even still friends, and why haven't they moved on instead of lingering unhappily with half-hearted overtures ? We never get the answer to those questions, but remember what "Madeleine" says to him after she is rescued: "...and you live here alone ? ...One shouldn't live alone...it's wrong..". I believe that is the moral of the story, and I still like the optional ending better, even if we got to finally see it 40 years later.

RSGRE

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I like the idea that Midge serves as a lack of sexual interest for Scottie, which suggests a lack which a fantasy ghost fulfills for him.

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How is Midge shown desexualized?

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the glasses, the plain clothes, etc.

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The issues of obsession and idolization, as they pertain to sexism, are obvious themes of the story and although Scottie has 'desexualized' his former fiance, aside from her glasses, Midge isn't really the personification of 'frumpy'. There's that unfortunate old expression, "guys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses". Although Midge wasn't the least bit ordinary, she represented the regular, everyday, normal girl-next-door--the bird-n-hand which Scottie once held.

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Still, what is the point of that character=?? it was so boring and embarrassing.

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I find it perplexing that one could describe that character as 'boring and embarrassing', but to each his own.

At it's very obvious, don't you suppose that the 'point' is to show how people (in this case both Midge and Scottie--but more so him than her) want things they can't necessarily have?

However back then especially, a woman needed a male escort if she were to want to go to dinner, a movie, or the theater. The accompaniment of another female wouldn't have afforded the proper amount of protection from social pressures nor from the anti-social ones too. Their "arrangement" was of advantage to both of them--even if painfully platonic at times.

You might have overlooked the fact that although Midge may have entertained more "traditional" values in a fashion which might have appeared foolish, she was very much a modern woman for her time. Talented and independent, career-minded and ambiguous, single and living alone in an apartment within a nice part of town, and not without a life beyond whatever hopeful patience she had for Scottie.

It might also be important to remember it was she who called off her engagement with Scottie. It's neither 'boring' nor 'embarrassing' of her to have been smart enough to make that call. She also felt confident enough to have turned down his offer of an impromptu date whenever he showed up unexpectedly at her door. Admittedly, it's clear she still had romantic thoughts of Scottie, but she also genuinely cared for him as a friend.



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Interesting comments everyone. Midge is a sort of an enigmatic character in this film, which seems to be an enigma in itself.

RSGRE

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Aside from the cop-on-the-beat who falls to his death while extending a helping hand to Scottie in the beginning of the film, Midge is the least enigmatic character of the film. In fact, there's nothing whatsoever enigmatic about her. That's possibly the very purpose of her character.

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You know how in romantic comedy there's always that Male or Female friend of the main character that should be with instead of chasing some goal? I think that was suppose to be Midge

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yes, that is why it is sexist.

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You've seemed to answer your own question. One of the purposes of the character, Midge, was to point this out--the inherent sexism.
Although as I've stated earlier in this thread that I have a disagreement with the description of 'frumpy' for Midge, it's obvious she was meant to be less alluring than Madeleine.

The dynamics of Midge and Scottie's relationship was in part an exploration into man's growing anxiety concerning the shifting of society's traditional gender roles. Midge is introduced to us as a career-minded, independent, thoroughly modern woman. We're also told early on that it was Midge who called off their engagement. Although still partially hopeful, her insight told her Scottie was an unsettled personality. Perhaps she'd already gotten a hint of his obsessive need to control.

Thus shortly after he's presented to us with a traumatizing disability and as her rejected fiance, we find him lusting after and thereafter pining away for an ethereal mirage, the vulnerable and unattainable Madeleine. Keyword being "vulnerable". In other words, controllable--certain men's ideal female.

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