As she delves into the stories themes and symbols, she encounters many similarities between the two, and how they relate to women and men s roles in film. Both movies portray females who construct their own fantasies and desires. For example, in Rebecca , the female protagonist wishes to capture Maxim s gaze. Women s ultimate goal is to be adorned by this gaze, yet to possess the image through the gaze is to become it. Not only do men control women, but also the camera s movement in Rebecca and Caught.
Women also change themselves in order to capture the male s attention.
The woman s sexuality, as spectator, must undergo a constant process of transformation. Lastly, Doane addresses symbolism within the films and their meanings. For example, in Caught , the mink coat symbolizes Leonora s social position and the articulation of the woman s relation to the spectacle and the male gaze. Doane begins by discussing Freud s idea of hieroglyphic language. Like in her previous article, Doane then begins to discuss women as the object of the gaze and the desire as either voyeurism or fetishism.