Female Desire in John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962): The Hatbox and the Cactus Flower

Abstract

The article proposes a reinterpretation of John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) based on the theoretical and methodological premises developed by Professor Jesús González Requena. Its methodology is grounded in textual analysis, which brings together elements of psychoanalysis, semiotics, and philosophy to unravel the symbolic unconscious embedded in the film text. Theoretical approaches by Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva, and Gilles Deleuze are also incorporated to explore sexual difference, desire, and violence as key organizing principles of the narrative. The analysis focuses on the love triangle involving Hallie (Vera Miles), Tom Doniphon (John Wayne), and Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart), showing how Hallie’s desire—linked to progress, education, and the law—drives the male protagonists’ actions. The article concludes that the film tells a melancholy love story in which female and male desires confront the impossibility of their full realization—an impossibility symbolized by the cactus flower in Hallie’s hatbox in the film’s closing shot.