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

Analysis of the Final Scenes of Alfred Hitchcocks NotoriousAfter viewing Alfred Hitchcocks Notorious for the first time, the filmdid not strike 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, subtile things became more noticeable.(Perhaps Hitchcocks subtlety is what makes him so enormously popular)Hitchcock uses motifs and objects, shot styles and shifting points of view, andlight and dark to help explain the relationships between Alicia, Devlin,Sebastian and Mrs. Sebastian, and an overall theme of organism trapped. Ananalysis of the film from the first poisoning scene to the final scene in thefilm shows how the above tools lead to a better understanding of thecharacters motivations.The some obvious recurring object in the final scenes is the poisonedcoffee transfuse. In the first scene of the portion being analyzed, Sebastiansuggests to Alicia that she dri nk her coffee, and Hitchcock zooms onto theobject as she slow 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 only zooms in on the small teacup, but heightens the soundit makes connecting to the table, includes it in every shot possible, and showsus not only the full coffee cup, but the empty cup as well 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 fact 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 situationwhenever 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.Mrs. 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 but bereminded of ogre classic A Tale of Two Citieswith Madame Defarge knittingeveryones 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