Alfred Hitchcock Self Plagiarism Analysis

Self-plagiarism, the act of copying one’s own idea or work, is always considered a forbidden move which will lead to several punishment and drastic harm of reputation. However, it has been said by Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, that “Self-plagiarism is style.” With that being said, Hitchcock has showcased his ability to add similar elements or tropes repeatedly without letting his audience down, as proven by the awards presented by The Academy Award. A normal plagiarism work is definitely not granting you an award from Oscar. No, it is not the conventional plagiarism that Hitchcock is talking about. Instead It is the excellent uses of repeated elements that the audience may not even notice. So how exactly did Hitchcock self-plagiarize

The restoration of justice means that despite the protagonist, if he is the hero in the film, suffers a lot because he manages to fight the devils throughout the whole film, the justice at the end of the film will eventually be restored, punishing the villains. This element has been repeated a lot in Hitchcock’s works. In The 39 steps, the process of it pretty straightforward compared to that of Spellbound. At the end of the film, Richard came back to the performance hall where he saw Mr. Memory and figured out that he was the tool, who possess extraordinary memory skill, of storing the great secret for the 39 steps. Richard forced him to tell what 39 steps actually was, leading the boss of it shot fire and caused a chaos in the hall. With his conscious fading, Mr. memory revealed the secret and ended the film, leaving the audience to imagine the fate of villains. While in Spellbound, Constance figured out the meaning of dream sequence of John, proving that he was not the murder. Justice seems to be restored. However, Hitchcock has played a little bit more and twisted the plot that the traces on Edward’s corpse, after investigation, still showed that John was the killer. With Dr. Brulov suggesting to accept the reality and start a new life, everything seemed to be gloomy. But guess what? Hitch has twisted it again. After Constance returned to the asylum, she found out the inconsistency of Dr. Murchison’s speech and discovered the true devil, using psychoanalysis to get away thereafter. The true devil behind has been revealed and punished. In the article Spellbound: Love and Psychoanalysis by Lesley Brill, “the pleasure of the final ending is enriched by the false conclusions that went before; by showing us how fragile joy can be and exposing us to the real possibility of enduring misery, the film intensifies the happiness we feel for the