Analysis Of The Final Scenes Of Alfred Hitchcocks Notorious :: essays research papers

Analysis of the Final Scenes of Alfred Hitchcocks infamousAfter viewing Alfred Hitchcocks Notorious for the first time, the filmdid not find me as particularly complex. Nothing specific about the filmlodged itself in my brain screaming for an answeror, at least, an attemptedanswer. Yet, upon subsequent viewings, elusive things became more noticeable.(Perhaps Hitchcocks subtlety is what makes him so enormously popular)Hitchcock uses motifs and objects, tanginess styles and transmutation points of view, andlight and dark to help explain the relationships between Alicia, Devlin,Sebastian and Mrs. Sebastian, and an overall report card of being trapped. Ananalysis of the film from the first poisoning scene to the nett scene in thefilm shows how the above tools lead to a bankrupt understanding of thecharacters motivations.The most obvious recurring object in the lowest scenes is the poisoned cocoa cup. In the first scene of the portion being analyzed, Sebastiansuggests to Alicia that she pledge her coffee, and Hitchcock zooms onto theobject as she slowly takes a sip. In a later scene, Mrs. Sebastian pours thecoffee into the cup for Alicia, and sets it on a small table in front of her.Here, Hitchcock not altogether zooms in on the small teacup, precisely heightens the soundit makes connecting to the table, includes it in every shot possible, and showsus not only the full coffee cup, only the empty cup as tumesce after Alicia hasdrank it. Again, the cup is zoomed in on after Alicia realizes shes beingpoisoned. Because the coffee is poisoned, the coffee itself becomes a metaphorfor life and death, supported by the occurrence that the poisoner herself ours it,and the shots of the full and empty teacup. In this way, it also suggestsAlicias inability to escape her websitewhenever she drinks the coffee, shebecomes trapped due to the poison in her cupand the poison in her sham of amarriage..A repeated object not so noticeable is Mrs. Sebastians needlework.M rs. Sebastian is constantly working on her needlepoint while Alicia is beingpoisoned. Hitchcock, in fact, goes out of his way to make sure that a shot ofher toiling at her work is included several times. One cannot help simply bereminded of Dickens classic A Tale of Two Citieswith Madame Defarge plain stitcheveryones fate into her work. At the beginning of the film, Devlin handsAlicia a handkerchief, and a scarf, which she keeps, but returns to him in thissegment. These pieces of cloth throughout the film help tie Alicia to the