Nearly 80 years after its premier, Gaslight has never felt more relevant. Adapted from Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play Gas Light, George Cukor’s 1944 film follows a young newlywed named Paula (Ingrid Bergman) as she’s slowly driven to the brink of insanity by her nefarious husband Gregory (Charles Boyer). The film’s title has since been verbified to describe an extended period of psychological manipulation designed to make the victim doubt their sanity and “gaslighting” was recently named the Merriam-Webster word of the year. The dictionary’s official definition is “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage;” a perfect description of the way Gregory abuses his wife in the film. Gaslight hit theaters 78 years ago, but Gregory’s tactics are all too familiar today, an intimate and terrifying version of the large-scale manipulation we see all around us.
Set in 1875 London, Gaslight begins with the aftermath of a murder: famed opera singer Alice Alquist has been strangled and her killer is still on the loose. With no other guardians, Alice’s young niece Paula moves to Italy and begins to study music. Years later, she marries a charming man named Gregory after a whirlwind courtship and the young lovers move back into Alice’s abandoned estate filled with the dusty possessions she left behind. No sooner have they returned to London than Paula begins to see and hear strange things in the house. The gaslights dim every evening without explanation and she hears strange noises coming from the boarded up attic. Even worse, Paula seems to be losing track of reality. Jewelry and objects keep coming up missing and she has no recollection of taking them. We later learn that Gregory has been intentionally causing her to doubt her perception in order to commit her to a mental institution, removing her from the home so that he can pilfer through Alice’s belongings.
Paula first meets Gregory through her vocal lessons in Italy. He is her accompanist and the two begin a secret love affair under the nose of her voice teacher. A good accompanist will follow the vocalist and subtly adjust his playing to support her interpretation of the song. But some take charge of the music themselves, taking over decisions about tempo and dynamics that the singer is then forced to match. Gregory begins his manipulation with music, literally shaping the environment in which Paula uses her voice. She depends on him for support before they ever begin a romantic relationship, planting seeds of trust he will later exploit.
Paula’s relationship with Gregory begins on cloud nine. He showers her with praise and adoration insisting they spend as much time together as possible. She becomes so consumed with her new beau that she’s unable to focus on her singing and gives up her lessons altogether. This is a practice called love bombing, a manipulative tactic in which an abuser bombards a victim with excessive attention, compliments, and gifts with the intention of building feelings of dependence and obligation. Paula begins to crave Gregory’s love. She distances herself from everyone else in order to spend more time with the source of this affection, removing access to praise or validation from anyone else and further distancing herself from objective reality. It’s only when Gregory begins to withdraw this attention that we see the vacuum he has created. The absence of his constant adoration is so painful that Paula will do nearly anything to get it back.
Once the newlyweds move into Alice’s house (and Gregory and Paula are legally bound by marriage) the more explicit side of his manipulation begins. He intentionally creates situations that would make Paula doubt her memory, beginning a systematic process of destabilization. Moments before they go out for a tour of the city, Gregory gives Paula a brooch he claims is a family heirloom. Noticing a faulty clasp, he insists it won’t be safe on her neck and suggests she keep it in her purse. He then secretly removes the brooch and waits for her to realize it’s gone. During a tour of the Tour of London, Paula reaches into her bag and notices that the brooch is missing. Because of Gregory’s suggestion that she’s always losing things, she immediately blames herself and Gregory is quick to agree. It’s no accident that Cukor stages this discovery while the couple is visiting a torture chamber, a parallel to the torture Gregory is inflicting on his wife.
One of the more frustrating aspects of Gregory’s plan is the jealousy he displays and creates within the house. While out with Paula, he notices a man looking at her as they walk by. Paula doesn’t notice, but Gregory accuses her of knowing him and inviting his attention. As we will later learn, this man is Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten), a detective and childhood fan of Alice Alquist. Gregory has no reason to distrust Paula, but he berates her for the attention anyway, increasing her feelings that she has unknowingly made some sort of unforgivable mistake.
By contrast, Gregory seems to have no compunctions about inviting attention from other women. He hires a streetwise maid named Nancy marking the first film appearance for beloved actress Angela Lansbury. Her flirtatious and cheeky performance is both delightfully scandalous and a far cry from the matronly roles for which she would come to be known. Gregory flirts with Nancy and intentionally builds tension between the maid and his wife. When Paula calls out his behavior he blames her instability, claiming she is too sensitive and telling her she “must get over this ridiculous fear of the servants.” In what we would come to identify as classic gaslighting behavior, Gregory is causing Paula to doubt what she can clearly see and then blaming her for her own distress. Not only is she losing her husband’s attention to another woman, but he tells her it’s her fault for being so jealous. Nevermind that Gregory has displayed jealousy of his own. That’s Paula’s fault as well.
As the film goes on, Gregory begins to systematically isolate and destabilize Paula. When she is invited to a concert at the home of a family friend, Gregory takes it upon himself to decline the invitation, telling the hostess that his wife is not well. When Paula insists on attending, he immediately changes his tactic and demands to come with her. His response, “You didn’t really think I would let you go alone did you?” could be read as romantic support, but his intention is to keep her away from anyone who might recognize his abuse. Over the course of the evening, he secretly removes his pocket watch and hides it in her purse then accuses her of taking it in the middle of the concert. Paula becomes so upset when she discovers the watch in her possession that she causes a scene and Gregory interrupts the concert to take her home. Not only has he further eroded her mental stability, but he’s humiliated her in front of London society causing her to retreat even further into his sinister control.
This destabilization continues at home. Gregory secretly removes a painting near the piano then accuses her of stealing it. When Paula begins to analyze her behavior, he takes his control to a new level of intensity. She remembers a letter they found among her aunt’s sheet music on the day they moved in about a mysterious man named Sergis Bauer. Gregory snatches it away insisting that it will be too upsetting for her to read. Now when Paula recalls finding the letter, Gregory insists that she was holding nothing at all. It’s a brazen lie, but because he’s so effectively caused Paula to doubt her sanity, she believes him. Remembering the love bombing period of their courtship, she tells herself that he loves her. Why would he lie? Adding to her misery, Gregory claims that Paula’s mother did not die in childbirth, but years later in a mental institution. He tells her she was sent there after showing the same type of delusions he has been creating for Paula. This is all a ploy to commit Paula and remove her from the house. As it turns out, he is Bauer, a con man with a wife in another country who murdered Alice Alquist years ago. Unable to find the jewels immediately after her death, he’s concocted this plan to finish the job.
The film is bookended with the lighting of gaslights on the streets of London, a visual allegory for Gregory’s devious control. Each evening, he goes out alone and sneaks into the attic to search for the jewels. While in the attic he lowers and raises the gas and makes loud noises creating a horrific atmosphere in the house that only Paula can see or hear. This manipulation of her physical surroundings leaves her with no place in which she feels safe and creates a perfect metaphor for the chaos he is causing inside her head. The turning point of the film comes when Brian visits the house while Gregory is out. He sees the lights flickering as well, finally giving Paula proof that she is not crazy. Brian uncovers Gregory’s sinister plot and reveals his true identity. Even then, Paula is reluctant to believe Brian as the roots of Gregory’s abuse have grown so deep. It’s not until she finds the letter he claims doesn’t exist and the brooch he accused her of losing that she begins to see how badly she’s been manipulated.
The film ends on an empowering moment. With Brian’s support, Paula can finally see what Gregory has done. He sits tied to a chair awaiting arrest and she insists on confronting him with his lies. When he begs for her to cut him free with a knife, she turns his accusations against him and asks why he would want her help when she’s always losing things? How can he trust her to free him when she’s so unreliable? Paula ultimately gets a happy ending. Her abuser is gone, but the practice of gaslighting it seems is here to stay. Every day we are bombarded with people telling us to reject what we can easily see with our own eyes. We’re asked to believe alternative facts rather than objective reality.
Recent films like Resurrection and The Invisible Man explore modern gaslighting with characters who do so simply to maintain control over their romantic partners. Like Gregory, they intentionally manipulate the women in their lives, creating an environment of total dependency that feels nearly impossible to escape. We encounter gaslighters like Gregory every day, too. It’s become so ingrained in our culture that we often don’t see the abusive behavior even when it’s staring us in the face. We doubt our own perception because we don’t want to admit that someone we trust would manipulate us for their own gain.
Freedom comes with calling out this insidious behavior, demanding honesty, and trusting ourselves to recognize the truth we see in the world around us.
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