The collapse of Langmuir monolayers of arachidic acid (AA) on water at various rates of molecular area compression has been investigated in situ by imaging ellipsometry (IE). The thickness of the collapsed AA molecules, which are inherently inhomogeneous, was determined by IE with a spatial resolution of a few microns. For the analysis, we determined the dielectric function of AA monolayers from 380 to 1690 nm by conventional spectroscopic ellipsometry. Compression rates ranged from 0.23 to $0.94{AA}^2/min$. A change of multilayer domains was observed in the in situ IE images. Lower compression rates resulted in more uniform collapsed films. Our experimental results correspond with previous theoretical simulations.