Religious Icons •relates to themes to do with life, death and the supernatural

Crisis of Masculinity•Role of men and women in 1950s society

Tunnels & Corridors •represented as passages to (and from) death

Physical appearances & beauty:1)physical manifestations in people2) ideals of beauty but with a price to pay

Colours Red & GreenRed - considered to signify dangerGreen – considered to represent • nature & life• life after death /

supernatural / ghosts

The power of Psychological obsession•the rational v irrational romantic delusion Scottie has with Madeline•The idea that we’re all prisoners of our own psyche

Sequoia Trees •considered to by symbolic of life and death – the years we live and generations of time

Flowers •idealised notions of beauty and femininity as fragile•represents Scottie’s idealisation of Madeline as his ideal woman

The Supernatural •ideas about dying and coming back from the dead

Towers •Phallic symbols and connected to themes around Scottie’s impotence and power struggles in the film

Spirals•eyes / hairstyles / stairs / trees•reinforces ideas surrounding vertigo and closely linked to themes around life and death

Death•Presented as attractive and frightening through ideas about fear of vertigo (Scottie) and potential suicide (Madeline)•Scottie seems obsessed with paradox of being attracted by death but terrified of it.

SYMBOLSMOTIFSTHEMES