The Moral Ambiguity of Shadow of a Doubt

An essay I wrote for the Hitchcock class I took at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2007.

Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt attracts scrutiny for the doubling which pervades much of its milieu, from the names of the two main characters to the composition of many of the shots. Critic Fernando Croce describes the film's two main characters, Charlie and Uncle Charlie as a “moral yin-yang” (Croce). While Shadow of a Doubt indeed concerns humankind's dual capacity for good and evil, Hitchcock, on a subtler level, rejects this generalizing dichotomy, presenting an ambiguous moral vision. Firstly, Hitchcock posits the protagonist's sexual awakening in the immoral context of an incestuous relationship with a serial killer. Secondly, Hitchcock depicts dominating moral and social institutions such as marriage and the police as perpetuating a depressing and sexless cycle of bourgeois ennui. Therefore, immorality is both a legitimately dangerous threat and the key to psychosexual fulfillment; morality is a confining trap; and the protagonist, by choosing morality, completes a circular journey that ends where she began: somber and unsatisfied.

The introduction of Charlie (Teresa Wright) and Uncle Charlie, (Joseph Cotten) each lying in their respective beds establishes the sexual connection between them (McLaughlin 141). Charlie, the heroine, begins the film in a distressed state, which she envisions only her beloved Uncle Charlie capable of remedying. Upon his telepathic arrival via phallic train, the incestuous tenor of their relationship heightens as they embrace at the train station like old lovers, go on lunch dates, and even participate in a mock marriage engagement.

During the romantic interactions between Charlie and Uncle Charlie, which effectively end following Charlie's suspicion-confirming trip to the library, Uncle Charlie remedies Charlie's distress by exposing her to an erotically charged relationship. Though Charlie never explicitly expresses sexual desire for Uncle Charlie, Hitchcock's mise-en-scene makes clear her arousal at Uncle Charlie and the chemistry they share, especially during the mock marriage engagement scene. In Shot #3 of this scene, Charlie's aroused eyes glance up and down the off-screen Uncle Charlie. In Shot #5, Charlie approaches the off screen Uncle Charlie and excitedly states, “We're not just an uncle and a nice. It's something else. I know you.” The attraction is mutual and probably more explicitly understood by Uncle Charlie, a serial seducer. In Shot #11, Uncle Charlie stares longingly at Charlie's face as she examines the ring, which he has just presented to her. In Shot #11, he suavely says, “Emeralds are the most beautiful diamonds in the world,” strongly implying that Charlie is a metaphorical gem. The score also highlights the romantic undercurrents between the two characters. When Uncle Charlie asks for Charlie's hand, orchestral swells fill the soundtrack for the first time in the scene. The setting of the kitchen, which is just barely out of sight of the dining room with the rest of the family, has a clandestine, romantic quality. Throughout the canon of film and television, kitchens are sanctuaries to which lovers escape for private moments. This scene is no exception.

As a result of Hithcock's manipulation of formal elements during such scenes, the audience is forced to embrace the erotic relationship between Charlie and Uncle Charlie. Even as the audience consciously repudiates incest- incest with a serial killer no less- the romantic mise-en-scene as well as other formal elements, which Hitchcock manipulates, holds visceral and organic appeal. Furthermore, Charlie's transformation from a sullen, frustrated girl of the first scene to an aroused young woman with sexual potential indicates her growth as a character.

In addition to eroticizing the two characters' perverse connection and implying its positive role in Charlie's greater sexual awareness, Hitchcock further deconstructs established moral norms by depicting the relationship between Charlie and her socially acceptable suitor, Detective Graham (MacDonald Carey) with deliberate awkwardness. Detective Graham, who convinces Charlie of the validity of her suspicions regarding Uncle Charlie, increasingly attempts to co-opt her into his bourgeois value systems of marriage and the law. Graham provides a perfect counterpoint to Uncle Charlie. Whereas Uncle Charlie is a serial seducer and killer, a misanthrope, and a charismatic presence, Graham is an ineffective cop, blandly likeable, overly earnest, and comparatively sexless. Graham represents the dullness of proper moral values.

Contrasted with the mock marriage engagement, the romantic scene involving Graham and Charlie is devoid of comparable heat or chemistry. The frilly violin swells of the score constitute the only formal indicator of romance. The two characters speak in a garage, shrouded in ominous shadows. Graham proposes the notion of marriage, while Charlie seems perturbed at the prospect. Graham then awkwardly proclaims, “I love you Charlie; I love you terribly.” Charlie responds that she just wants to be friends with him. The door of the garage bangs shut, trapping the two momentarily. As in other Hitchcock films such as The Lodger, Notorious, and Rear Window, marriage is a negative institution to be avoided. The last scene of the film reiterates the irresolute character of their union. As Charlie and Graham stand outside the church wherein the funeral of Uncle Charlie takes place, they are struck with somberness from the funeral organs (McLaughlin 149).

In addition to the limitations and confines of marriage, Graham represents the negative qualities of another social institution, which Hitchcock frequently targets in his films: the police. Uncle Charlie attempts to murder Charlie on three separate occasions, and Graham fails to come to her rescue each time. It is his institution's false conclusion that Uncle Charlie is innocent which enables these murder attempts to occur. Furthermore, Charlie unsuccessfully attempts to contact Graham, who is unavailable and again, unhelpful.

During this final scene, Graham banally remarks that the world “seems to go crazy every now and then, like your uncle,” to which Charlie remains silent. This omission of any kind of response perhaps indicates that Charlie recognizes how she cannot endorse such a simplistic moral assessment. After all, she too defied her society's conventions, both by questioning her sex role in the beginning of the film and engaging in an erotically charged relationship with her uncle. Now, she is in union with an unexciting, ineffectual man. Perhaps these are all the thoughts running through Charlie's mind at this moment.

Charlie begins Shadow of a Doubt as a young woman, disillusioned with the limitations of her middle-class life. She finds an erotic outlet in an explicitly perverse and socially immoral relationship with her uncle, only to repudiate this relationship upon recognizing her uncle's capacity for violence. Finally, Charlie comes full circle and unenthusiastically settles back in the sexless though moral, social fabric of the female sex role. “Dinner then dishes then bed. I don't see how she stands it,” Charlie pityingly says of her mother in her first scene. The very life she pitied now seems her inevitable adult path. In Shadow of the Doubt, Hitchcock's presentation of moral ambiguity charts his protagonist's cyclical, depressing course.