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Garrett DeMartini
McKee
Tue 3:00
Doppelganger: Shadow of a Protagonist
One of Hitchcock’s most beloved and well known themes in his films is his fascination
with doublesand doppelgangers. They always seem to have an important and crucial meaning in
the films he directs. The reason why Hitchcock uses these in his movies so much is because
doppelgangers represent “strong inner conflict” (Spoto) within the character.The use of doubles
reveals a lot about whom and what the characters represent. These doubles give us a sense of
balance and understanding in the story. We tend to see both sides of the conflict and this gives us
a better view of what is going on. Hitchcock wants to show us that there are always two sides to
every story, and yet each side is different and complicated, so in a way they both mirror each
other.
In Hitchcock’s TV show, Alfred Hitchcock Presentswe experience an episode directed by
him that reveals the destructive power of the use of doppelgangers. This episode is called The
Case of Mr.Pelham. This episode has been considered one of the best in the entire TV series and
heavily relies on the theme of doubles, use of doppelgangers, and identity crisis’s. In this episode
an accountant named Albert Pelham (Tom Ewell) is convinced that someone is trying to steal his
identity by pretending to be him. This deals with the loss of control of a character and how it
begins to mediate another’s life. (McDougal) If he doesn’t find out what is going on, he will
soon find his life spiraling out of control.

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Throughout the episode, every time he is gone somewhere, the doppelganger takes his
place. When he leaves his office to get lunch, the doppelganger replaces him as if he never left.
When he comes back, his double does the opposite and leaves. Mr.Pelham catches on to this,
however he is too scared to tell anybody because he thinks that they will assume he is crazy.
Overtime the doppelganger becomes so intrusive, he begins living at his house. This leads
Mr.Pelham to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown. His double always seems to be one step
ahead of him. Finally, Mr.Pelham confronts his doppelganger in his own house. In the end the
doppelganger convinces everyone that he in fact is the real Mr.Pelham. The actual Mr.Pelham
gets sent away and the imposter lives out his life as the man whom he stole his identity from.
This episode shows the purest form doppelgangers and how it can be used to take over
someone’s life. Hitchcock brilliantly shows how Mr.Pelham slowly becomes someone he is not.
Throughout the episode we see how Pelham, without realizing it, basally giving the imposter his
own life. When the imposter starts using Pelham’s clothes, he goes out and buys a new
outrageous lookingtie that he himself would never wear to throw the imposter off. And when the
imposter causes an uproar at the gentlemen’s club, Pelham simply stops going there.
We slowly start to see him being forced out of his own life. However it seems that when
this happens he avoids the confrontation, and simply moves out of the way. This leads to his
eventual downfall. When it finally comes to when the two confront each other Mr. Pelham is
nothing like how he used to be. The imposter even asks his servant “Would you ever see me in a
tie like that?” His servant obviously agrees with the fake Mr. Pelham and the real one loses
everything.

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Hitchcock’s use of imagery in this episode is amazing. He makes a clever use of mirrors
for when the main character walks into his house. We get a great sense of foreshadowing when
we see him and himself in the reflection. The special effects are pretty amazing as well when we
see Pelham and his imposter come face to face on the same screen, who are played by the same
actor. Hitchcock also wanted to get across that some men are easier to imposter, because of their
bland lifestyle. It seems that Mr. Pelham was victim of this. However his double actually made
him a better person. This shows Hitchcock’s twisted sense of humor and how he toys with his
characters.
Another one of Hitchcock’s works that predominantly uses the theme of doubles and
double-crossing is his film Strangers on a Train (1951). The film starts off by when two men
who happen to meet by chance on a train. There is Guy (Farley Granger) who is a tennis star and
who wants to start merging into the political arena. And then there is Bruno (Robert Walker)
who is a college dropout and avid drinker. While on the train Bruno suggests to Guy that they
should each kill the person that is causing trouble for each of them in their lives. For Guy it is his
unfaithful wife who he wants to finally divorce so he can be with the girl he really loves. For
Bruno it is his father. The two joke about how it would be the perfect murder since they don’t
know each other. Guy thinks it’s all a joke, until Bruno actually kills his soon to be ex-wife.
Hitchcock makes it clear to the audience that Guy is good and Bruno is bad. Bruno
represents the evil in people; he drinks, gambles, isn’t productive, and above all thinks of killing
people. He is the darkness of the human psyche. Guy, however, represents the complete
opposite. He wants to be a politician, is on the right course in life, and is in love. These two men
couldn’t be any more different and shouldn’t have anything to do with each other. Except after
Bruno strangles Guy’s soon to be ex, the two are intertwined together in an epic downward

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spiral. They need each other. Bruno needs Guy to kill his father and Guy needs to prevent Bruno
from telling people that the two had a “murder pact”.
The film is filled with the ongoing theme of doubles. For instance, the beginning of the
film when it focuses on the two men’s shoes as they make their way to the train station. It
continually cuts back and forth between the two and gives us a glace on how different those two
men are. The amazing thing is, we haven’t even seen their faces yet. Another interesting double
is that they swap each other’s murders. Since now they are theoretically working together, it
would be considered a double murder. Even what the characters do seems to be a form of
doubles. Guy, plays doubles tennis and even on his lighter he has two tennis racquets. Bruno
always orders scotch and plain water and makes it doubles. Hitchcock obviously has is work cut
out for him in this film with his relentless use for doubles.
He goes even further with his theme of doubles to make the characters double cross each
other. For instance Guy’s wife changes her mind about getting a divorce, hence double crossing
him. She even reveals that she is pregnant with another man’s child, thus double crossing him
again. Or even the fact that Guy never carried out the plan to kill Bruno’s father, therefore
double crossing him as well. This is truly Hitchcock’s style, because there are so many layers of
hidden meanings to each of the things the characters do.
Another one of Hitchcock’s masterpieces is Shadow of a Doubt (1943). The film revolves
around Charles Oakley (Joseph Cotton) and his niece Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa
Wright). Charles Oakley is a murder who marries rich widows and then ends up killing them for
their money. He is wanted by the cops in Philadelphia, so he leaves and goes to California to
visit his sister’s family and his niece. His niece who also goes by the name Charlie is very

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attached to her uncle when he firsts arrives. However, she soon learns of her uncles crimes and
fears for herself and family. Everyone seems to loves him, except for her and she must keep
what she knows a secret. The tension between them grows and he ends up falling off a train in a
struggle. Even after his death she keeps his secret from her family.
An obvious nod to the theme of doubles would have to be that they are both named
Charlie. However, they are both completely different. Like many of Hitchcock’s otherfilms, one
is evil and the other good. Uncle Charlie kills women for their money and has a negative view of
the world. He has a horrible stance of women and called them “silly, useless, fat, and greedy”.
Charlotte or Charlie represents the innocence of the world and ignorance is bliss mentality of
being young. She blindly adores her Uncle Charlie and as to some could suggest that she is in
love with him.“Through Charlie’s transformation from an independent woman to a supportive
wife, he theorizes the family as both threatening and a trap. (Sloan, 26) We see her then change
even more, that she begins to question her surroundings and become truly independent.
There are many double shots in this film that give a sense of two worlds colliding. For
instance at the beginning of the film when we are introduced to the two Charlie’s, it begins with
a shot of the cities they both live in. Then it shows identical shots of Charlie and Uncle Charlie
both lying in their respective beds, lying in the exact same position. This obviously represents
that they are in a sense connected, even though they are not in the same room, let alone city or
state. Hitchcock wants to make it obvious to the audience that these two people are almost mirror
images of each other in terms of character.
Hitchcock also has themes of doubles that are harder for the audience to see and are less
noticeable. There are two scenes at the train station. The first is when Uncle Charlie arrives and

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the second is when he is supposed to depart. This also is ironic because in the first visit to the
train station Uncle Charlie gives Charlie a kiss on the cheek, this represents young Charlie’s
innocence. Then the second time when Uncle Charlie falls off the train, this represents the loss of
Charlie’s innocence.
There are also two scenes that take place in the garage of the house. Each of the scenes
represents defining moments in Charlie’s life. The first is when Detective Jack Graham
(Macdonald Carey) talks to Charlie about the widow murder. He then tells Charlie that he loves
her. The two then get stuck in the garage when the door won’t open. This is clever
foreshadowing for the next scene. This time the two manage to get out. In the second scene,
Charlie goes into the garage to start the car for the family as they leave for the dinner. The car is
cleverly rigged and won’t turn off. This causes exhaust to fill the garage and this time the door
won’t open. Charlie is helpless as fumes start to engulf the garage. Charlie survives, however this
represents a near death experience. Hitchcock put these two major events in the same location
because it shows the aspects of life (love) and death.
People also play a major role in Hitchcock’s use of doubles, besides the obvious Uncle
Charlie and Charlie. There are two suspects in the murder of the widows and there are also two
detectives that are investigating it. Ironically one of them falls in love with the Charlie, who is
the niece of the man they are trying to catch. Also Charlie’s father Joseph and his friend Herbie
always discuss the perfect murder. It’s clever that Hitchcock put two of them together to talk
about murder, but it’s even cleverer that they talk about it twice throughout the entire film. These
doubles represent the grander aspect of Hitchcock’s theme.

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Hitchcock’s use of doubles shows us one of his best techniques when it comes to filming.
He applies so much structure to what he is filming and then at the last minute throws it all out the
window. “Doubling his obsession with objectivity and critical distance, the evenhanded approach
of the sophisticate, as well as his willingness to let the pattern go, to risk chaos.” (Sloan, 22)
Hitchcock is not afraid to let everything spiral out of control because that’s what he wants. When
we think of doubles and how Hitchcock portrays them, they are always neat and even. Whether
it’s Guy and Bruno, Mr. Pelham and his doppelganger, or even scenes that replicate each other.
We see them as structured and that one does not over power the other. Then at the last
minute Hitchcock breaks this pattern and in a sense ensures chaos between the characters. For
that split second we don’t know who will triumph over the other. The outcome could be
anything since throughout the whole time we’ve been watching, the characters and the whole
world they live in has been balanced. It could be that good triumphs over evil as in Strangers on
a Train and Shadow of a Doubt. Or in some cases the mysterious evil takes over and wins as we
see in The Case of Mr. Pelham. This differs from film to film so it is not always the ending the
audience will expect.
However one thing Hitchcock does repeat in all of his films is that how the protagonist
must change in order to confront the doppelganger. The change is not always the protagonist can
see him or herself doing and in a way they become more like the doppelganger themselves.
Hitchcock lets us slowly see this transition and make us realize that sometimes you must fight
with fire with fire. In his own way Hitchcock lets us experience both sides of the story, he shows
us how radically different two people can be. Yet at the same time he shows us these characters
are so similar it’s like one of them is looking at the other in a mirror. The ironic thing about

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looking into a mirror is thateverything on the other side is the complete opposite. This is
Hitchcockian film making at its best.

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Bibliography
Sloan, Jane E. Alfred Hitchcock: A Filmography and Bibliography.
University of California Press, 1995.
Spoto, Donald. The art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures.
Anchor, 2010.
Spoto, Donald. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock.
Da Capo Press, 1999.
Horton, Andrew, and Stuart Y. McDougal. Play It Again, Sam: Retakes on Remakes.
Brekeley:University of California, 1998. Print.
Walker, Michael. Hitchcock's Motifs. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP,
2005. Print.