Page 238 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

MYTHIC APPROACH

can collect “double indemnity” on Dietrichson’s life insurance policy.
Reflecting on the scheme, Walter at first blames Phyllis for seducing him
into this heinous act. But then Walter admits that this was something that
he had been capable of all along:

[This was] tied up with something I’d been thinking about for years, since
long before I ran into Phyllis Dietrichson. . . . And then one night you get
to thinking how you could crook the house yourself. I fought it, only I
didn’t fight it hard enough.

Thus, the difference between thinking of committing a crime and actu-
ally acting on this impulse is merely a matter of degree. What determines
whether a person is ethical is his/her ability to resist these temptations.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951) considers the complex
issue of good and evil as aspects of the self: the good in evil and the
evil in good. In this story, two strangers meet on a train. Col Needham
provides the following plot summary:

Psychotic mother’s boy Bruno Anthony meets famous tennis professional
Guy Haines on a train. Guy wants to move into a career in politics and
has been dating a senator’s daughter while awaiting a divorce from his
wife. Bruno wants to kill his father, but knows he will be caught because
he has a motive. Bruno dreams up a crazy scheme whereby he and Guy
exchange murders. Guy takes this as a joke, but Bruno is serious and takes
things into his own hands. 15

This Hitchcock film offers a penetrating look into the mythic theme
of the divided self. Guy Haines is a clean-cut, upper-class tennis play-
er—the classic film hero. On the other hand, Bruno is the embodiment
of evil: a psychopath, he is driven by impulse, laughing at one moment
and flying into a rage the next. But surprisingly, the “evil” Bruno is, in
some respects, a more engaging character than the “good” Guy, who
is passive and indecisive. Psychologist Carl Jung recognized evil as a
necessary part of the psyche, “one of the pairs of opposites that pro-
vides psychic life with its energy.” Thus, many of the most attractive
16
aspects of human personality are manifestations of “evil” impulses:
energy, focus, and passion. Indeed, this “evil” side of self is vital for
survival. For instance, infants will cry and even take food from others
to sustain themselves.
Although Guy takes no direct role in the killing of his wife, he fails

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