Much of the tension created in this film was derived from the way Hitchcock placed its audience in an almost first-person perspective, allowing them to experience the events from Jeffries' point of view. This is particularly well exemplified in the use of shots through the frame of the window and through the frame of the telescopic lens of the camera; these shots give the audience the same false sense of security experienced by Jeffries and heighten the drama when the fourth wall is broken by Lars Thorwald.
Because all of the sound in the film is diagetic, the audience is further enveloped in this first person perspective. Like other films, Rear Window employs a musical score to help guide the emotions of the audience. Unlike other films, the music is provided by characters, namely the composer and his friends in one of the apartments. In one instance, a song is playing in one of the apartments with lyrics that frequently repeat the phrase "I see you" during a sequence in which Jeffries is spying on Ms. Lonelyhearts having an imaginary date, creating a humorous link between the two situations. Jeffries, like Ms. Lonelyhearts, is enriching his life with imaginary connections. In his case, it is the entertainment he receives by imagining the details of the relationships he sees and occasionally hears from his window; in her case, it is the love she receives from a person she imagines seeing.
Later in that same scene, background city noise overruns the sound of the music, climaxing with a siren as the camera focuses on the windows belonging to the Thorwalds. The sound is jarring, unexpected, and alarming. It creates the connection between the Thorwalds and dangerous or illicit activity, foreshadowing the murder in a subtle way that is forgotten soon afterward. However, the subconscious connection remains, and leaves the audience more likely to be convinced, as Jeffries is, that Thorwald did in fact kill his wife.
Good stuff, Amanda. Interesting that what Jeffries sees is, indeed, amusing--and we're encouraged to think so by his own responses--despite the fact that most of what he sees turns sour at some point: Miss Lonelyhearts' depressing isolation, the aftermath of a murder, Miss Torso's empty flirtations. Perhaps were intended to question why we find such sights amusing?
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