Swirling Colors

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Swirling Colors

Psychological research has shown different colors to arouse or symbolize different emotions or states of mind. In a color reaction test, the warm colors, most significantly red, but also yellows and oranges, were found to represent an active state of mind. The cooler colors, most significantly blue and green, and also purple, were more passive and calming. “warmth signifies contact with the environment, coolness signifying withdrawal into oneself.” (Sasaki) Red specifically can also symbolize aggression, warning, or danger, or cause an agitated state of emotion. Likewise, green can symbolize passivity, or safety. Blue can signify guilt, and violet or purple a sense of calmness and appeasement. The most opposing of these two are red and green, colors complimentary to eachother due to their contrary positions on the color wheel. In Hitchcock’s Vertigo, all these colors play a role in character development, contrast, and symbolism, each character having a color with which they are associated, with a striking emphasis on the contrast between red and green, and a later omnipresence of blue.

Midge, one of the first characters seen after the opening chase scene, is associated with yellows and oranges, the colors in which her apartment is decorated, and also wearing red glasses. This signifies that Midge is in contact with her environment, according to Sasaki. The next scene is in Elster’s office, with hues of red and reddish tones. This is a fitting color for the representation of Elster, who, though rarely seen, is the one person in any position of true control in the film, though once his story is played out, he disappears entirely.

The first introduction to the character of Madeline, regardless of her true identity, is her in a green dress contrasted with the voluptuous red plush walls of the restaurant. The next time she is seen is getting into her car, appropriately green, completing for the viewer the association of this color with that character. Throughout the film she is amongst green things, such as the green box in the flower shop she enters. She even mentions that she loves the green of the trees, ironically in the Redwoods, another striking contrast of the two colors, though only verbal. The color plays into the mystery and trickery of the story more to fool the reader as well as Scottie as this is a color signifying passiveness.

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