Beginning of Essay
After viewing Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious for the first time, the film did not strike me as particularly complex. Nothing specific about the film lodged itself in my brain screaming for an answer—or, at least, an attempted answer. Yet, upon subsequent viewin ....

Middle of Essay
.... later scene, Mrs. Sebastian pours the coffee into the cup for Alicia, and sets it on a small table in front of her. Here, Hitchcock not only zooms in on the small teacup, but heightens the sound it makes connecting to the table, includes it in every shot possible, and shows us not only the full coffee cup, but the empty cup as well after Alicia has drank it. Again, the cup is zoomed in on after Alicia realizes she's being poisoned. Because the coffee is poisoned, the coffee itself becomes a metaphor for life and death, supported by the fact that the poisoner herself ours it, and the shots of the full and empty teacup. In this way, it also suggests ....