The Pathologization of Marnie

by Derek P. Rucas

Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie (1964) combines ideological messages with Freudian psychoanalytic theory to emphasize gender relations within the social context relevant to the time of its release.  There are defined gender roles that are apparent in this film.  Marnie reveals specific character traits about herself that are genuine to the notion of lack of proper Freudian development, thus presenting ideological paradoxes.  Marnie’s character is similar to that of Scottie’s in Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958).  Although characteristically different to the plot, they are both coping with a phobia.  They are both entrenched with characteristics that depict obsession and repression.  It is not to say that Hitchcock coincidentally amalgamated such themes into these texts.  It is probably quite the contrary.  Hitchcock uses these character traits to allow such themes to emerge from his films, thus also allowing for Freud’s psychoanalytic theory to be appropriated by both the male and female genders.  Hitchcock does in fact allow for the audience to pathologize the protagonists in both Marnie and Vertigo.

While Marnie portrays female empowerment not stereotypical of post-War ideologies, Scottie does not portray the total male stereotype either.  He is an ex-detective who upholds all that is “maleness” except for his rejection from the sanction of family and the institution of marriage, and the fact that he is scared of heights, his phobia.  Marnie’s character can look after herself while also taking care of her needy mother in the meantime.  What the audience does not know about Marnie is the trauma she experienced that has affected her life since childhood.  This is eventually what leads to Marnie’s downward spiral of frustration and her emotional breakdown.  Similarly, Scottie’s character is pathologized at the end of Vertigo.  Kim Novak’s character falls off the ledge of a tower, thus, leaving him companionless and pathologized by the end of the film.

For the purpose of this essay, let us focus on Marnie, and Marnie’s representation of gendered stereotypes and psychosexual confliction in relation to Laura Mulvey’s article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”.

Marnie is portrayed as a self-sufficient woman who does not need a man in order to feel complete.  Right from the beginning, the representation of this woman strikes the audience as peculiar.  American familial-centered post-War ideologies are not in congruence with the alternative lifestyle Marnie leads.  We never see her in the kitchen, and we know that she does not have any children.  We later find out that she is a thief, a liar and a cheat, and this is how she gains her earnings.  She maintains all of this while financially supporting her mother and upholding the stereotypical status of the patriarch.

Mark represents the “male lack” that Marnie needs according to Freudian theory.  Mulvey’s article states, “Ultimately, the meaning of woman is sexual difference, the visually ascertainable absence of the penis, the material organization of entrance to the symbolic order and the law of the father.” (Mulvey 21) Mark’s role is crucial to the film.  He wants to be with the forbidden female whom he is mystified by, and yet he also wants to get down to the root of her psychological problem.  Moreover, according to Freud, Mulvey also explains why Mark is so adamant about resolving her behavioural anomaly.  She says, “…preoccupation with the re-enactment of the original trauma (investigating the woman, demystifying her mystery)…” (Mulvey 21)  This is essentially what Mark’s role accomplishes.  By doing so, this will satisfy Mark’s castration anxiety.

It is the final scene of Marnie that reveals Marnie’s strange behaviour and why she is so afraid of male companionship.  However, in the cruise ship honeymoon scene, this is when Marnie’s rejection of Mark is drastically exemplified.  It is in this scene where Marnie denies Mark of all sexual relations, even though they have just gotten married.  At first Mark complies, but after a few days he bursts out of frustration and pulls off Marnie’s night gown, in a primal attempt to obtain the sexual satisfaction that he has been longing for.  Mark’s primitive sexual urges need to be met.  He finds it absurd that his wife will not agree to consummate the marriage, on their honeymoon, no less.

This psychoanalytic situation may be scrutinized in accordance with Luce Irigaray’s article “This Sex Which Is Not One”.  It is Mark whom is mystified about the forbidden female interest that he longs for.  Irigaray states, “Female sexuality has always been conceptualized on the basis of masculine parameters.  Thus the opposition between ‘masculine’ clitoral activity and ‘feminine’ vaginal passivity…seems rather too clearly required by the practice of male sexuality.” (Irigaray 248)  Mark attempts to initiate action, while Marnie—the passive—rejects his forward approach.

A mixture of Mark’s sexual obsession and Marnie’s sexual repression does not make for a harmonious situation.  We soon figure out why in the final scene of the film.  Nevertheless, Mark is keen on playing detective and figuring out why Marnie is not reciprocating to his sexual advances.  He does not divorce her.  He does however sneakily find out where Marnie’s mother lives and eventually uses this information to trace his investigation back to the root of the problem.

Mary Ann Doane’s article “Film and the Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectator” gives a Freudian analysis to human sexuality, thus exemplifying Marnie as an anomaly to its structure.  Freud’s analysis suggests, “…the girl, upon seeing the penis for the first time, ‘makes her judgment and her decision in a flash.  She has seen it and knows that she is without it and wants to have it.’” (Doane 182)  It is the last statement about wanting to have it that differs in Marnie’s situation.  Because of the traumatic childhood incident, we realize why she has not followed the pre-determined Freudian template that is considered to be natural.  Mark finally determines the reason in the last scene of the film when he meets her mother.

The final sequence of Marnie wraps up key issues regarding the lack of male companionship while emphasizing Marnie’s mother’s influence.  The audience succeeds to find out why Marnie does not psychologically need male companionship and therefore the reason for Mark’s rejection as a sexual love interest.  The sequence starts off with Mark and Marnie rushing into the Edgar home from the pouring rain.  This pathetic fallacy represents a fragmented element of Marnie’s psychological problem.  This is one of the things that she fears, because of “the incident”. 

The concealment of Marnie’s mother’s past is then unmasked.  The audience finds out that Marnie’s mother was a prostitute when Marnie was a young girl.  One of her clients tried to molest Marnie (or so it seems) while Marnie’s mother tried to fend him off.  In an emotional flashback sequence, we are introduced to the male client and his behavioural disobedience.  Marnie’s mother succeeds in fighting off the man while shrieks of unrelenting horror bellow from Marnie’s mouth.  The man then attacks Marnie’s mother.  Marnie grabs a nearby poking stick and proceeds to hit him over the head several times until it starts gushing a tremendous amount of blood.

As a single incident in a child’s memory, one could understand why Marnie is psychologically distressed.  It is now evident how Marnie’s obsession with the colour red relates to this one incident in her life.  Since Marnie was the one who killed the man, and thus being exposed to this violent scenario, it is obvious why she fears the bloody colour.  In the beginning of the film when Jesse brings Marnie’s mother flowers, this is the first instance where the audience notices Marnie’s fear of the colour red.  Another incident is depicted when Marnie gets the job at Rutland and Company, she spills red ink on her blouse sending her into a fit of hysteria. 

It is not only the colour red that triggers this behaviour.  This incident also explains her inactive libido, or perhaps more accurately, her repressed sexual urges.  Every time Mark approaches Marnie, Marnie rejects his attempts at intimacy.  Culturally speaking in a general sense, Sean Connery was a good-looking man for his time (some may argue that he is still good-looking now), and the fact that Marnie rejects his attempts at lovemaking may impress and confuse a heterosexual female audience.  However, by linking these past incidents with her mother’s sexual history, we pathologize Marnie while understanding her skepticism of the male gender.  Instead she sublimates her sexual energy into another pastime.  As we see throughout the film, Marnie is keen on riding horses.

Mary D. Mitkiff’s article entitled “Women and Horses – What’s it all About?” explains precisely why Marnie’s sublimation of sexual energy is sufficient, rather than actually dealing with a male counterpart.  Mitkiff’s article explains the proper way for a female to ride a horse in order to advert injury.  This quote could implicitly assume sexual sublimation.  Mitkiff states, “mov[ing] the tip of the tailbone dorsally…makes it easy for a women to ride with a hollow back and dropped crotch…[this] is a pelvic motion essential to following the motion of either the trot or canter.” (Mitkiff, pars. 11)  Marnie therefore uses the horse as a vehicle to sublimate her sexual urges, thus not falling into the stereotypical realm of the dependent female most common of American post-War ideologies.

Marnie’s role as the sexually repressed female is paralleled with that of Mark, her altruistic obsessive saviour.  Mark’s role effectively re-establishes the patriarchal model, while the audience pathologizes Marnie.  Since her history plays a crucial part in this film and is concealed until the end, one must assume that her final psychological state is inevitable.  However, the dichotomy of Mark’s patriarchal/doctorial role works as a crutch to help Marnie cope with her past of cheating, lies and thievery.  It is Mark’s obsessive nature that eventually leads Marnie down the path of positivity and redemption and off the path of negativity and denial.  It is his good intentions that could relieve the notion of Marnie’s pathologization, thus making for a potentially happy ending.

Bibliographical Information

Rucas, Derek P. "The Pathologization of Marnie." Film Articles and Critiques. 7 Mar. 2003 <https://www.angelfire.com/film/articles/marnie.htm>.

transcribed by Derek P. Rucas