“Love and Duty in Notorious” by Joey Plyler The conflict between the concepts of love and duty is a common motif in storytelling. Perhaps no better an example of this motif in film lies in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film Notorious, in which passions broil between two American spies as they try to infiltrate a Nazi operation in Brazil. The characters caught in the crossfire of this conflict of love and duty are T.R. Devlin, Alicia Huberman, and Alexander Sebastian. Throughout the film they are shown to grapple with this choice between obligation and desire, as Hitchcock portrays these concepts as exclusive of each other. Ultimately, each character must make a choice; the romantic leads choosing love, and the villain choosing duty. While it is the conflict inherent in making this choice that drives the plot, the consequences of which ideal is chosen implies an interesting commentary on the value of each. First we must consider the film’s romantic leads, Devlin and Huberman, played by Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, respectively. In the case of Huberman, her struggle begins before the events of the film when she is forced to choose between her duty to her country or her love for her father. While she ostensibly does not make a choice, neither testifying for or against her father, she also refuses to help in his plans and, revealed through Devlin’s recording, professes a great love for America, which places her choice more on the side of duty than love. As a result, Huberman falls into drinking and pleasure-seeking to deal with the pain caused by this conflict. News of her father’s death later in the film briefly reprieves her of this pain, as she no longer must make a choice. This reprieve is short-lived, as the subject of her love-duty conflict changes from her father to Devlin. In the moments when they allow themselves to accept their feelings, both parties are shown to be happier and more fulfilled. Huberman’s alcoholism, another motif which is explored throughout Notorious, recedes in these moments and worsens when she is faced with the reality of her duty. In Devlin’s case, his feelings for Huberman interfere with the requirements for their assignment in Rio, and to mitigate the pain of this, he distances himself from Huberman. A symbol of this distance comes in the form of the bottle of champagne Devlin purchases for a romantic dinner with Huberman, a bottle which he leaves at the embassy office after learning
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