Theme of Shadow of a Doubt

One of the themes found in the films of Alfred Hitchcock is known as the transference of guilt, a theme Hitchcock first used when he was still working in England and that he continued with his American films. One way this was seen was that the hero or heroine would often be accused of a crime he or she did not commit, but there is more to it than that. For Hitchcock, the hero was always actually guilty of something, some sin in his life, which he would have to pay for by suffering through this period of false accusation. The idea of guilt and transference is clearly important in Shadow of a Doubt from 1943, and part of the fascination one has with this film is in seeing the ways in which this theme is presented. Young Charlie takes on the guilt of her uncle because she knows about it and says nothing, and she is nearly killed because of this. The suspense is created by the fact that the audience knows Uncle Charlie is a killer and waits to see how young Charlie will figure it out for herself. Once she knows, we watch to see what she does about it, knowing the conflict facing her because she loves her Uncle. William Rothman calls this Hitchcock's first American film to be the equal of his British work and says that it "gives form to all he learned in Hollywood as it declares continuity with the whole body of his earlier work."

The transference of guilt is not direct in this film. No one suspects Young Charlie of committing the murders, and her guilt is not that so

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mes the unpredictable evil of Uncle Charlie. Hitchcock shows in his films that there is always a good deal of turmoil and criminality beneath the surface, and he sets his "crimes" in sunny places rather than in old dark houses for the most part. He shows that evil can come into any setting and that complacency can be upset at any time. This film starts in the city where evil is expected, but it soon moves to the small town setting and builds a picture of life in this sunny corner of California before the evil of the city intrudes in the form of Uncle Charlie. This family is one that never expects to encounter such evil, and the irony is that this family has in some way spawned it since Uncle Charlie is a family member. Hitchcock uses a device to show the menace of Uncle Charlie, overlaying a picture of the people waltzing as "The Merry Widow" plays wildly on the soundtrack--Uncle Charlie is known as the Merry Widow Killer. Here Hitchcock is using something accepted as good in one context as an image of something quite different in another context. This device in itself brings out the director's view that things are not always the way they seem and that the darkest deeds can take place in the most commonplace locations and

Category: Film - T