The Divine Clockmaker: Christian Principles of Time and Order in Alfred Hitchcock's Films

Abstract

Alfred Hitchcock displayed in his personal, artistic, and professional life an underlying assumption that time is closely associated with law and order; this assumption is manifest in his feature films. The belief in a rational universal system, fostered during his formative years, presupposes an intelligent Creator and an orderly design. The related themes of saving time, keeping time, doing time, and being on time assume a Christian morality based on individual responsibility, the possibility of redemption, and the importance of reinforcing faith with action. Consequently, time serves as a metaphor for law and order in Hitchcock's films. The innumerable references to lateness, clocks, and schedules throughout his corpus reflect the significance and ubiquity of his divinely ordered Christian cosmology. This religious paradigm is apparent in most of his major American films, such as Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window, and North by Northwest.