"Strangers on a Train"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Patricia Hightsmith's characters, as interpreted by Alfred Hitchcock on the screen, are interpreted from a moral point of view. The author analyzes how Hitchcock incorporated Highsmith's literary technique to develop these characterizations in the film.

From the Paper:

"Riding on a train is, in life as well as in film, a curious situation. It draws together strangers of apparently different backgrounds. It is a situation of forward motion, a fact conveyed by the film s use of train sounds, from the beginning shriek of a train whistle (paralleling the shriek of a murdered victim) and also through such sounds as the churning engine. The sight of the wheels pulsating forward on the tracks also suggests such propelled, forward motion. Yet a train is not only a representation of forward motion, for tracks cross, the train must stop at certain points, and in a similar way individual s lives cross and intersect."

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