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Jessica Brent makes the claim that with the advent of sound, Hitchcock was able to marginalize the feminine image. The sound age forced a change in aesthetic and style with the feminine being destroyed and replaced with the investigative gaze. She asserts that the visual pleasure beyond the gaze is removed from Hitchcock's work. Women and feminine figures are forced into the narrative demands of the male eye.

On one hand, I'm still not entirely convinced of this argument or completely sure of its meaning. However, I think that scene in which Alice kills Crewe escapes Brent's interpretation should it be true. Alice kills Crewe behind a curtain, away from the eyes of the portraits and the audience. The only male eyes that see her are Crewe's and she is usurping his position. Therefore, at the crucial moment of the film where Alice asserts herself and confronts her anxieties, she is separate from any narrative demands that might be forced upon her.