Gender roles define the both the relationship between men and women in society as well as the balance of power between the two. When gender roles are defied, the status quo is often disrupted as demonstrated by Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in which gender roles are tested and tried. Although Scottie is a man of authority--a detective--his acrophobia weakens him, feminizes him. In Slavoj Žižek’s How to Read Lacan , Žižek describes the Big Other, a network combining the symbolic, rules and order, the imaginary, images, and the real, that which cannot be mediated. Žižek explains that the symbolic is composed of different types of rules and order: gender roles would be those “follow[ed] blindly, out of habit” (Žižek 9). Scottie’s failure to maintain…show more content… Agreeing to follow Madeleine reinstates a certain amount of Scottie’s authority and masculinity, and temporarily returns order to the symbolic. Nonetheless, Scottie still struggles to fully retake his masculinity. While Scottie is trying to uncover more about the mysterious Carlotta Valdes--the woman supposedly possessing Madeleine--he asks Midge for help. When she offers to take him to see Pop Leibel, a local bookstore owner and authority on the history of San Francisco, Scottie tells Midge to get her hat: “I don’t need a hat,” she proclaims as she rushes out the door in excitement. Scottie is left to follow, unable to finish his drink. Midge dominates the scene. She does not wait for Scottie to finish his drink as one might expect and she disregards Scottie’s order. Leibel explains that Carlotta’s lover “threw her away…men could do that in those days.” As Leibel describes, it was acceptable for a woman to simply be forgotten, tossed aside, that was behavior allowed by the gender balance of Carlotta’s day. As Scottie further investigates Madeleine’s curious case, he falls in love. Wanting to keep Madeleine safe, and disregard the illogical facts presented to him, Scottie always tries to give rationale to what Madeleine is experiencing. Scottie is not only trying to take control of the situation; he is trying to reestablish the symbolic, the world of societal rules. Not only has Scottie fallen out of pace with the typical rules of the gender balance and he tries to restore the power balance he is so familiar with. Nonetheless, Scottie fails to save Madeleine. His vertigo--his weakness--prevents him from saving Madeleine’s life. Not only is Scottie unable to rescue Madeleine, he loses control. Scottie ultimately finds himself in a sanitarium, needing to be cared for and needing help to mend his broken heart. The gender roles are still reversed at this point in the film. Scottie is still too weak to salvage his