"Shadow of a Doubt"

Paper Summary:

The author argues, through a close analysis of two scenes from the film, "Shadow of Doubt" by Alfred Hitchcock, that the work serves as an indictment of the middle class. The paper emphasizes the roles of money and family in the film and analyzes some of its technical aspects in order to support this argument.

From the Paper:

"But arguably, it is not only Uncle Charlie, but Little Charlie as well who serve as critical counterpoints to a middle-class, suburban America. Little Charlie comments to her father: "Money. How can you talk about money when I'm talking about souls?" In the opening sequence, Uncle Charlie's money spills over from the nightstand on to the floor, indicating that he is either careless or doesn't care about money. As we see later in the film, in scenes such as those in the Santa Rosa bank, Uncle Charlie is "not interested in money", primarily, we assume, because he has so much of it. Uncle Charlie's disregard for money is in stark contrast to the middle-class concern with money, as embodied by the character of Joe Newton, the banker."

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