Gothic Patriarchy In Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds

Following his 1960 release Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock returned with another horror film in 1963, The Birds. The film opens in San Francisco, introducing the audience to Melanie Daniels who meets Mitch Brenner in a bird shop where he is attempting to purchase lovebirds as a present for his sister, Cathy. After Mitch pranks Melanie, she takes it upon herself to bring the birds to Bodega Bay, where Mitch’s mother and sister live. It is not long after her arrival that horror ensues with flocks of birds accumulating in the town, launching vicious attacks against its residents with no explanation for their actions. After the film’s release, many spectators were left with a number of questions concerning the motives of the birds which subsequently

Bishop claims that it is not the birds who pose a threat to Melanie, although the attacks are centred around her, but rather “the greater threat…is in fact the human members of the Brenner family, a patriarchal structure” and the Brenner family house, a theme which Abramson and Morris do not

The house is initially presented as “brightly lit, lightly colored, and implicitly inviting” but when the birds start attacking and Mitch boards up the windows, it resembles a prison. The house is now an eerie, ominous Gothic dwelling which Bishop argues is a threat to Melanie as she intrudes upon this home that “represents a patriarchical legacy” now controlled by Lydia Brenner, as her husband has passed on. Melanie’s intrusion is first demonstrated when she enters the vacant home to leave the lovebirds for Cathy, being assaulted by a seagull when she exits, “an event that notably follows her act of invasion”. Subsequently, Melanie intrudes again when Mitch invites her over for dinner much to the dismay of his possessive mother, Lydia, who wants to preserve the house as it is, therefore, Melanie is unwelcome. Bishop maintains that the birds attack only after Melanie commits an act of intrusion upon the Brenner house as seen at the conclusion of the film when Melanie’s curious nature influences her to go to Cathy’s room where she hears noises. This results in Melanie being viciously attacked by the birds leaving her “mute and essentially blind” thus she has “been reduced to one more child for Lydia” no longer posing a threat to the Brenner family. Melanie’s invasion of the Brenner family