Alfred Hitchcock's Film Shadow Of A Doubt

“To restore morality, we must first recognize the source from which all morality springs,” (Roy Moore). To Alfred Hitchcock, the restoration of morality is everything. Morality comes from biological sources such as survival instincts, as well as society and human interaction. Morality plays the starring role in everyone’s life and is an important detail in Hitchcock’s films. Film reviewer Jamey Hughton claims that Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley would leave director Alfred Hitchcock in awe after viewing the film. Hughton states this because he believes Minghella seems to have replicated Hitchcock’s breathtaking work in this film. Although the two movies are incredibly well filmed thrillers, I would have to disagree with Hughton’s …show more content…
In this film, as well as every one of Hitchcock’s films, he has many core ideas that are shown throughout the film. These core ideas are that the line between good and evil is blurred, the protagonist is relatable, and that moral order is restored in the end. All of these ideas and many more were shown in Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt. One of the ideas that shows up is the line between good and evil being blurred and this is shown through Young Charlie. At the beginning of this film, Charlie was an innocent, young schoolgirl who was bored with her ordinary life. At the end of the film, Charlie is a mature young adult after Uncle Charlie is gone and out of her life. This transformation happens because as the story progresses, it turns out Charlie is not the young girl she once was anymore. During a scene in the film, Charlie is talking to Uncle Charlie on the porch and she threatens to kill her uncle herself if he dares hurt her family. Charlie does this because she is being protective of her family, but to say she would kill her uncle herself is a bit of a concern, At this point, the viewer is unsure of who is good and who is evil because the good girl is now threatening to kill a family member. This element fits Hitchcock’s core idea of the line between good and evil being blurred because Charlie was …show more content…
Ripley, a film about a sociopath who is sent by a man’s father to retrieve his son from Italy after his son left the country and his family behind. This story takes a turn when Tom Ripley, the sociopath, kills the son, Dickie Greenleaf, and assumes his identity. Some of Hitchcock’s ideas can be uncovered in this film, but not all of them. The first key concept is that the line between good and evil is blurred. This concept is the only one of the three to be prominently shown in this film. Dickie Greenleaf is a wealthy, handsome man who has anything he could possibly want. Dickie is not necessarily supposed to be viewed as a bad guy, but he is in this film because of the way he treats people. When he was in school, Dickie beat up a boy and nearly killed him. On top of assaulting a fellow student, Dickie also treats his fiancée and friend very poorly. Dickie cheats on his fiancée with another girl and he constantly puts down his friend. Although Tom is the sociopath in this film, he is seen as a bit of a better person than Dickie because Dickie is plain rude, whereas Tom was not blatantly as mean. Dickie is not meant to be seen as evil, but through the eyes of our protagonist Tom, he seems to be. This blur between and Tom and Dickie is a basis of one of Hitchcock’s ideas. The next key idea is that the protagonist is relatable, which is somewhat applicable to Tom Ripley. Even though Tom is the protagonist, he is also a sociopath who