Erin Bradfield

“Is it Future or Is it Past?”: Trauma, Repetition and Tragic Heroes in Vertigo and Twin Peaks

Time can be slippery. As Chris Marker notes, the phenomenon of ‘vertigo’ operates on multiple levels in Hitchcock’s film—from the persistent fear of falling to the experience of getting caught up in what he calls “the vertigo of time.” Reality gives way to fantasy and then to nightmare, as Scottie desperately tries to save Madeleine and later attempts to recreate her likeness when he meets Judy. Of course, everything is not as it seems. Inevitably, Scottie’s pursuit of a “second chance” ends tragically after he attempts to brutally refashion Judy in the image of his lost love, Madeleine. Beginning again can be a dicey proposition. Second chances, when intertwined with vertiginous desire, turn into a form of repetition compulsion. In this essay, I explore one thread of the legacy and uptake of Hitchcock’s classic in the work of David Lynch. In particular, I argue that there are striking parallels between the protagonist detectives, Scottie Ferguson in ‘Vertigo’ and Special Agent Dale Cooper in the various iterations of Twin Peaks. These similarities all but guarantee that the characters will be compelled to repeat familiar patterns and play out their obsessions in new ways, leading to an unsettled sense of time and place. I argue that unresolved trauma inspires a form of tragic heroism in both Scottie and Cooper such that they cannot save the various female characters in their orbits—e.g., Madeleine Elster, Judy Barton, Annie Blackburn, and Laura Palmer. In fact, the failure to fully work through their psychological maladies seals their fates and dooms them to repeat and replay rather than to recover and recuperate.

About
Erin Bradfield is Teaching Professor in Philosophy at Santa Clara University where she offers courses in Aesthetics, Ethics, Film, and Culture. Her research focuses on the social and political dimensions of Kantian aesthetics. In particular, she works on issues regarding communication, exclusion, and community formation. Her most recent essays address topics in negative aesthetics including ugliness, disgust, and the sublime. She is currently working on a monograph on David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.