Sample Response to Viewing Journal 8: North by Northwest

Question

The writer is responding to the following question from the journal assignment: Compare Eve Kendall from North by Northwest with Alicia Huberman from Notorious.  Do both characters function similarly in their respective films?  If so, why?  If not, why?   
 

Response

"Narrative Craters and the Bombshells Who Create Them (today on Jerry)," by Ethan Jones

Hitchcock had a thing for blondes.  He also had a very certain way in which he liked to present them in films.  They were often big breasted, overtly sexual, and overwhelmingly emotional.  In the cases of Alicia in Notorious and Eve in North by Northwest, all of these factors are present.  In addition to their similar physical attributes and emotional deficiencies, both women also find their trusting nature and sexuality exploited by government officials looking to bring down international villains.  Alicia and Eve play almost the exact same physical role as hired mistresses employed by government officials.  The primary difference between the two characters is their role in the narrative and how it affects the overall themes of the films. 

Though Cary Grant is the star of Notorious, the film is a suspenseful love story focused upon Bergman’s Alicia.  Her true identity is exposed almost immediately in Notorious, allowing the remainder of the film to study her in a new environment and compare her actions to the other characters.  We see her attitude grow more melancholy, as her stay with Alex grows lengthier.  Her loyalty is even tested when she is proposed to, and must turn away from Devlin.  She is seeking his approval constantly, and instead of questioning her character, we question only Devlin’s blasé attitude towards her.  Alicia forces us to question Devlin’s love.  Her role as Devlin’s love interest supercedes her role as a spy.  Alicia is an experiment of both the government and Hitchcock in this sense. 

Eve Kendall, in North by Northwest, is also a sexually manipulative government agent, but her role in the narrative is to mirror the themes of identity and agency being sought by the main character Thornhill.  Her role as Thornhill’s love interest is less important than her shifting identities and the affect that has on the narrative.  In stark contrast to Alicia Huberman, we do not truly know the identity of Eve Kendall until the final sequence of the two-hour film. This can also be said about Roger Thornhill since he does not reach agency or true identity until the same sequence.The ambiguity of Eve’s character mirrors, and allows us to focus upon, Thornhill’s struggle towards agency. He is not seeking Kaplan; he is seeking himself. Eve’s changing identities from innocent passenger, to mistress, to government agent echo Thornhill’s own changes from powerless businessman, to obsessed detective, to hero.  Eve’s sexual and romantic interest in Thornhill is an accessory to her primary narrative role as an actor that enables Roger to reach agency. 

The narrative significance of the female characters in Notorious and North by Northwest cannot be underestimated.  Though at times these bombshells seem like nothing more than objects of desire and catalysts of problems, they play integral roles in the development of the leading men and the underlying themes of each film.  Physically their roles as legitimized prostitutes are identical, but Alicia and Eve have very different effects on the respective narratives.