While Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” follows Hannay and Pamela’s relationship, the gaze through which the audience views the film is as a third party to the couple. After the two escape custody, they spend the night in a hotel, but they are not entirely alone as they are joined by the camera and all who see them through it. At any moment there is another presence; like Bonitzer mentioned in his essay, “how is one to show coupling?” (Bonitzer 24). Any capture of an event seen by an audience decreases in intimacy because there is a constant third eye. Then, coupling is not depicted as it truly is.

In the same way viewers are implicated in the crimes they see on screen, they become a part of the relationships they view. The camera shoots moments of the two in bed, Hannay rolling over on Pamela, and the two in different amounts of clothing. Each of these images could foreshadow something sexual, yet viewers do not see any revealing moments between the two. Meaning is built from the relationship between images, and it is left up to the viewer to use what little insight they have to make connections about the relationship between the two characters. This depiction of coupling is incomplete because of the added presence of the gaze, but the viewers have only that gaze to use to understand the couple so it remains a crucial part of the film. A sacrifice is made in coupling to allow the audience the best experience.