When Susan (Katharine Hepburn) meets Dr. Lehman, he tells her, “The love impulse in man frequently reveals itself in terms of conflict.” The psychiatrist’s advice aptly describes how David (Cary Grant) behaves toward Susan.
From the moment they first meet, David and Susan are in conflict. She steals his golf ball and then his car, and everything she does annoys and irritates him.
Despite David’s aversion to Susan, there is something about her that he can’t resist. She is the opposite of his frigid fiancée, Alice, who doesn’t want a honeymoon. Her priority for David is going back work—no sex and no children in their future together.
In contrast to Alice, Susan is vivacious, impulsive, and likes to have fun. Susan falls in love with David because he is “so good looking” without his glasses. Susan is an active protagonist who knows what she wants. To make David fall in love with her, she follows him.
David is uptight and impatient—a man who takes himself too seriously. With Susan, he meets someone who has the qualities he lacks. They are in conflict because David is struggling to embrace Susan’s opposing traits. Eventually, he synthesizes Susan’s ability to have fun into his character.
In the climax of the film, David realizes he loves “poor darling Susan” when she is in danger from a leopard. David protects her, and she tells him, “I love you.”
By encountering his opposite, David learns to value love over his work. He declares he had “the best day of his whole life” with Susan, and in the final scene, after his work is destroyed, they are no longer in conflict. David hugs Susan.
Christopher John Lindsay 
Fun recap.
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