Myth & Symbol- The Birds Movie

Kathy asks Melanie if she would come to her

11th birthday party. Melanie refuses.

Setting of the film

1960s San Francisco

What happened during Melanie's meeting with Anna Hayworth?

Anna says Mitchells' daughter is Cathy, not Alice. She asks Melanie where she meet Mitchell and Melanie answers with "San Francisco at the pet store." Anna responds with "that is where everyone meets him." Sounds very suspicious.

After the bird attack on Bodega Bay, mitch and melanie run up to

Annnie's house to get Cathy. They have to by the school and see it covered with birds. They have to slowly sneak past. They see a body lying outside the house and it is annie. Cathy is in the house and is seen crying. Mitch covers Annie with his coat and then takes her inside.

When Melanie goes to Mitchells house for dinner, she meets

Cathy. Hugs and thanks her for the love birds

What is Mitchell's initial feelings on the pet shop birds?

Feels awful that the birds are caged up and is wondering the reason to separate them in cages

before dinner, Lidia calls up

Fred about her chicken feed not being good because her chickens will not eat it. She thinks there is something wrong with the feed. It could be spoiled and it could be sickening her animals. Insists they are not fussy eaters. Fred says his chickens are not eating their feed.

eyeglasses symbol

Glasses on a character in a Hitchcock movie may signify intelligence as easily as lack of glamour. The character wearing the specs may be a useful associate of the protagonist or an annoying obstruction. In this film, the glasses seem to represent the helpless position of humans at the hands of these birds. It could also represent the return to a more primitive state that the birds seek, if one's reading is that the birds wish to save the environment from human harm, here by destroying a technology (eyeglasses) that has helped humans overcome their weaknesses to dominate the environment.

When Melanie questions the clerk about the information of Alice, what does he respond with?

He refers her to the teacher Anna Hayworth at her house with a little red mailbox on top of the hill, next to a schoolhouse.

Melanie finally reveals to mitchell that the letter said

I hope these birds help with your personality

the ornithologists assertions (dramatic irony)

Irony is used in the diner when the amateur ornithologist smugly rejects Melanie's story about the attack on the school children as impossible for a variety of reasons. er assertions, which she voices as beyond all doubt, are ironic in that she fails to understand her own situation. larger theme of human assumptions of superiority over nature being put to the test.

What are some of the major themes of the movie?

Mastery of the planet, love and evolution, the cold war, the chaos of nature, silence. sexuality, and environmental or ecological degradation

Newspaper rival of Melanie's father made a false and negative accusation towards

Melanie He did this to disown the daniels family by writing about Melanie jumping into a fountain in rome naked

What conversation does Melanie and Lydia have after her dreadful experience at her neighbors house?

Melanie brings tea to lydia, who is worried about cathy at school. she talks about how much she misses her husband and how weak she is without him. She also says that she's not sure she's happy with Mitch liking Melanie because she is afraid of being left alone. She then asks melanie to get cathy from school

he is not the villain (situational irony)

Melanie walks into Mitch's apartment building to deliver the birds. She gets in the elevator with a strange man, who stares at her as they go up. When she gets off the elevator, he seems to be following her and watching her. Experienced horror or thriller film viewers at the time would have immediately suspected this man to be a villain: he finds himself alone with our vulnerable female star, and acts strangely around her. However, he soon defies our expectations by speaking to her kindly and helping her.

the sexuality theme

Melanie's aggressive pursuit of Mitch is an unlikely behavior in the world they live in, but it generates the entire plot of the film by bringing the characters together

When MItch, Melanie, and Cathy go to the Brenner's house,

Mitch boards up the windows. Melanie tries to reach her father but isnt able to because the phone is dead. Then Lydia calls from inside that there's news on the radio

When Melanie leaves the house and goes back onto the boat, she sees

Mitchell exit the barn, goes into the house, and looks out onto the water with his binocaulaurs and sees Melanie. He then hops into his car and drives away to meet Madeline at Bodega bay's docks

While traveling across the bay, Melanie sees

Mitchells daughter and mother going into a green farm truck and Mitchell entering the red barn.

environmental or ecological degradation theme

Mrs. Bundy, the ornithologist, is the first to explicitly draw a link between environmental degradation and the attacks when she insists that it is humans who harm the planet, and not birds.

Where does Melanie drive to next after finding out that MItchell is out of town?

She drives to a costal town by the name of Bodega. It is a pastureized town. Small, old, and very quaint.

How does Melanie get to Mitchells place across the bay?

She takes a small boat, rather than driving all the way around the bay on the back roads so that she can make her visit and gift a surprise

When Mitchell leaves the pet shop, what does Melanie do?

She writes down his license plate when he drove off and she calls a man named charlie from the newspaper company to see if he can get in touch with the DMV about the license plate. SHe wants to know more about this man.

What is the first sign that love and birds go together?

Someone whistles at Madeline as she walks down the street in San Francisco, and she looks up at a bunch of gulls flying overhead

the cold war theme

The Birds can be interpreted as commentary on the pervasive fears of the atomic age. The attacks themselves, from an anonymous crowd of assailants above, seem to reflect Cold War fears, and the doom with which some of the townspeople discuss a war with birds reflects the way that people talked about nuclear warfare.

Why is Mitchell, Anna Haywood, and MItchell's mother LIdia suspicious of Melanie?

They all wonder why Melanie came up all the way from San Francisco to see a man she just meet a few days ago. He thinks she loves him. daline says she loaths him and the seagulls. Mitchell asks about the letter and what was written. Melanie does not reveal the answer

What does the radio say about the bird attacks?

They attacked school children and thats it.

Why are the birds locked up in cages, according to Madeline?

To be with their own kind and mate.

Upon arriving to the Mitchells place, she

Walks into the door. No knocking or doorbell. Guess she wanted to keep her deliverance of the bird gift a surprise and to make herself not known. She also leaves an envelope for Kathy

What do Melanie and Mitch do during Cathy's birthday party?

While the kids play, Mitch and Melanie climb up the bank by the seaside and drink. Mitch tries to get Melanie to stay for dinner, but Melanie says to Mitch she is a very busy girl. she does thinks like raise money for a korean boy to go to school and she takes classes at Beriley to improve herself. Monday and Wednesday work for the travelers apa airport. Thursday she has a meeting and lunch.

the mastery of the planet theme

Who has primacy over the planet? Humans or animals? The film pits humans, for all their intelligence and technological developments, against birds, often seen as unintelligent animals. The birds establish primacy over the humans by attacking the humans, specifically the main characters, in their attempts to escape. They attack other towns, representing a battle for the whole planet

while melanie is waiting on the bench in front of a jungle gym,

a bird flys behind her and lands on the jungle gym. then soon more join. melanie smokes and is oblivious to what's happening. Until she looks up and sees a bird flying, following it with her eyes, and sees it land on the jungle gym, which is now covered with birds

at the tides restaurant, Madeline finds out that Mitchell is

a criminal justice lawyer.

mrs bundy

a patron at the restaurant who tells melanie that difference between crows and blackbirds. the children were attacked by crows. she is an ortithnologist and is certain that birds couldn't have attacked the children. they are not aggressive, they bring beauty to the world. crows may have attacked the children because of what humans do to pollute the world and degrade mother nature

After mitch calls Melanie at Anine's house, they hear a loud thump at the door. Melanie and Annie open it to find

a seagull that crashed into the door and killed itself. Annie says maybe the gull lost its way in the dark, but Melanie points out there's a full moon

the silence theme

absence of a musical score. dditionally, Hitchcock silences his characters at important times in the film, usually when they are overcome with fear. it elevates the din of the birds to a soundtrack status, occupying the audio in the film with an almost constant, fear-inducing slew of caws; it generates an understanding of the incredibly profound panic that takes over the characters and renders them unable to speak in several instances

Finally, after a period of rest, the birds

alert their presence by chirping louder and louder. everyone is left helpless in the living room to defend themselves. mitch throws more wood on the fire. Then some birds smash through a window and they peck at the doors to get through. Mitch gets his hand all bloodied as he tries to close the window they've smashed open. Mitch uses a lamp cord to tie the window shut. MItch bandages his hand. Mitch then has to put a big piece of furniture in front of the door and hamers it into place. power goes out. then the screeching gets fainter and the birds leave

After the bird attack on Melanie in the upstairs room, Lydia and Mitch bring her to the living room where they

bandage her up and give her some brandy. She wakes up and thrashes frantically, catatonic with shock. Mitch wants to get her to the hospital in san francisco but lydia doesnt think they can make it. mitch says they have to do it

as everyone casts scared glances at the air, cathy

becomes sick and goes to the bathroom to vomit.

claustrophobia motif

being trapped within confined spaces. Melaine inds sanctuary from an attack inside a phone booth on a small-town street corner surrounded by other people also trying to defend themselves against the onslaught. From within this sanctuary, the fear is primarily directed outward to the suffering taking place around here and the knowledge that she is as helpless as those on the outside. The second sequence is the exact opposite: she is alone inside a dark room, the only victim of an attack nobody else can see, and every bit as helpless.

What does Melanie hear inside the restaurant amongst the people in the restaurant arguing?

birds shrieking.

When Melanie learns from the DMV the registerant of the Ford Galaxie, Mitchell Brenner, she decides to

bring two green birds to give them as a gift to Mitchell at his apartment in San Francisco. But upon attempting to leave the birds at his doorstep, a neighbor says to Madeline what Mitchell is out of town and will not be back until Monday. He asks Melanie that she should take them back and care for them.

The types of birds in the movie that are symbolic

crows, love birds

What are some of the symbols, allegory, and motifs of the film?

dominant mother (motif) eye glasses (symbol) claustrophobia (motif) the birds (allegory) vulnerability (motif)

in the next morning. lydia leaves the house to

drop Cathy at school and she visits her neighbors farm Mr. fawcett's (the one with the chickens that were acting up). there she meets Fawcett's helper, who says he hasn't seen him this morning.

the lovebirds can be seen as a symbol of

f the part that romantic attraction plays in the human struggle for our continuing evolution.

Throughout the film, the birds are usually seen

flying outside in the sky, on telephone poles, flying by the water, or in pet shop cages

mitch, who was able to get everyone in the car (including the love birds that cathy brings), the last shot of the movie is

from the yard all the birds watch as the car slowly drives away into the distance

Officer Al

gets called in by the brenners to investigate the bird attack at the brenners. he doesnt understand what happened and doesn't believe that the birds attacked. they don't do this kind of stuff. says the birds were probably provoked

When Cathy asks why the birds are attacking, Mitch says

he doesnt know exactly

vulnerability (motif)

he film is full of images of the birds attacking the most vulnerable people, or attacking people in vulnerable positions. People are likely to be more frightened by the concept of the villain(s) attacking us when we are vulnerable than when we are prepared, and so he shows several attacks on children, going as far as to highlight the broken glasses of one student to make her seem more defenseless and weak. hey still happen to people in vulnerable positions: locked in their car, in a room, or in the dark.

Mitchell, seeing the seagull attack, advises her that they should go to

he tides restaurant by the docks. The restaurant owner and his wife takes proxide and wipes to clean the wound.

When Melanie runs outside, she

heads for the phone booth and shuts herself in and cowers as the birds smash through the glass. she thrashes around helplessly inside. a blood guy beset by birds staggeres up to the phone booth. mitch comes to get her and helps her inside the restaurant

After parking the car out in front, he goes back inside to

help a still unresponsive melanie to the car. Shes sees the birds and says no/

What does Melanie open up to Mitch about during Cathy's party?

her mother abandoned her when she was little.

When Melanie and Mitch go back inside the restaurant, they find the townspeople (who were in the place before)

hiding in the back hallway. everyone looks traumatized, even the skeptical ornithologist. The mother starts ranting hysterically and says it's all Melanie's fault because the birds weren't here until Melanie arrived and she's EVIL. Melanie slaps her, which seems like the thing to do. Everyone's horrified.The owner of the diner comes back in and says the birds are going away

this isn't usual, is it?

his is an excellent example of understatement in the film, a type of verbal irony. Melanie is understating reality here: she knows the events to be in fact highly unusual, and her reactions to each one indicate that she thinks this.

What sort of conflict does Cathy have with her father?

his job of being in the detention center of the courthouse for many hours and the dangerous people he has to deal with at work.

while melanie tries to get mitch on the phone, the people in the diner argue about

how the birds could or could not have attacked the students. one guy procliams it is the end of the world. a fisherman says that gulls has been attacking his boats. a mother in the corner asks everyone to be quieter because the talk is scaring the children. (she leaves with her kids to get out of town) one guy wants to kill all of the birds but mrs bundy says there are too many birds to kill

During the restaurant scene, what does Mitchel ask Melanie?

if she could join them for dinner at 7:00 to meet Kathy. She accepts the invitation and is able to receive permission from anna to stay at her place for one night

Mitchell claims he has seen Melaine at translation:

in court and knows all about her party-girl lifestyle and fondness for pranks. they're both lying to each other. Also—surprise!—they're flirting. That's what we call a meet-cute.

later in the night, the fire is still going in the house. Everyone is sleep. Melanie is still awake and she hears a fluttering of wings. Because of her curiosity, she decides to

investigate it herself to not wake the others and takes the flashlight. She checks the kitchen where the lovebirds are still in the cage. then, she heads for the stairs. she goes to a room where the fluttering is. she opens it and sees a hole in the roof. the birds are perched on furniture in the room. she shines her light at them and they attack her. she is unable to get the door behind her open. She sinks to the ground and blocks the door. Mitch and lydia hear the scuffling and are able to get her out of the room

symbolism of melanie's wealth

it was not enough to protect her. the birds made sure that she was not so smug or sophsiticated

Upon agreeing to go to san francisco, mitch goes outside to try to get

melanie's car. the ground is covered with birds. he slowly walks past them and manages to get in the garage, open the door, and turn on the car. he hears the announcer say that the bird attacks have stopped and that there have been a few attacks outside the bodegay bay. most of bodega bay has evacuated and theres talk of sending in the military

As Mitch slowly drives the car out, you see the shots of gulls

milling on the ground

Recognizing Melanie from an unflattering incident reported in the newspapers, Mitch pretends to

mistake Melanie for a shop employee.

love and evolution theme

mitch and Melanie must be brought together because the birds are threatening the human species with extinction in a battle for supremacy over the planet. mitch and Melanie must work together to save themselves and Mitch's family from the attacking birds, suggesting an evolutionary' future of marriage or procreation between the two of them.

who shows up at the diner?

mitch and officer al. they ask what had happened to melanie. she tells them about the bird attack on the children and she says cathy is with annie at her house

the chaos of nature theme

not even a hint of an explanation for their violence is ever given. In many ways it reflects the inherent chaos in nature,

When Mitch and Melanie head back down to the party, the kids are

playing blind mans bluff, with Annie supervising and Cathy blindfolded. both Annie and Lydia give Mitch and Melanie dark, broody looks. A seagull wooshes down and bops Cathy in the head. Then more seagulls come down and attack the children and pop the balloons. Then they fly away. This gives mitch the opportunity to convince Melanie to stay for dinner

love bird

refers to both the yellow feathered birds and the romantic relationship between Melanie Daniels and Mitchell Brenner

When Melanie is about to dock her boat, a

seagull attacks Melanie on the head

When everyone in the diner goes to the window to see where the bird shrieks are coming from, they see

seagulls swooping down and knocking over a guy at a gas pump. The mother with her kids go running back in. MItch races outside with Al and others to try to do something about the birds. they get the guy at the pump, but they don't see the gas nozzle is loose and that gas is pouring into the street toward some parked cars. A man lights a cigar and he doesn't see the gasoline has reached his car. he drops the match and the car blows up, incinerating him. other cars explode and the fire races back toward the gas pump, causing a huge explosio

Who calls Annie's house that evening when Melanie comes back to Annie's house?

she asks Melanie again to come to Cathy's birthday party. melanie agrees because she wants to, despite of her mother.

When Melanie pulls up at the bodega bay school,

she goes inside. the students are singing; melanie gets annie's attention, and annie signals her to wait a minute. melanie goes outside and sits on a bench

What does Annie think of Lydia?

she is possessive of her son and she pushes her son's girlfriends away

when Lydia goes inside Mr. Fawcetts house, what eerie discovery does she make?

she sees some broken teacups and finds the body of Mr. fawcett with his eyes pecked out. She runs away, drives home, and runs inside, unable to speak

What does Annie reveal to Melanie during their first night together at her house?

she used to live in san francisco but came up to Bodega bay for a weekend when mitch invited her. Their relationship didn't work out, but she liked Bodega Bay, so she stayed. they broke up 4 years agp

What is the actual truth behind melanie and the rome fountain?

she was pushed into it by some crazies

Later into the evening at the Brenner's house, everyone

sits around quietly in the living room while Mitch checks the defenses. Cathy asks if they can bring the lovebirds into the living room, but lydia says no because they are birds. they are left in the kitchen.

Mitch to the fisherman, who is skeptical of the vicious bird attacks, about using

smoke to confuse the birds.

After having dinner with the Brenners, Melanie goes back to Annie's house. There Annie offers her

some brandy; she seems to think Melanie needs it after an evening with mitch

how does officer Al explain Mr. fawcett's death?

someone murdered him and committed a felony crime. then after the murderer left, the birds came in.

After the radio report, the characters are forced to

stay inside the house because mitch insists that they shouldn't go while the birds are massing. Lydia argues with her son and says that they should leave and that she wishes her husband was here. Cathy is crying. lydia says they will run out of wood and food.

When the two green birds are in Melanie car and when the car turns around corners really fast, the birds

sway with the car

the birds (allegoru_

the birds may similiary be an allegory for a soviet nuclear attack. the film was produced at the height of the Cold War, when terror raining down from the sky was a constant threat

look back there on the jungle gym (Dramatic orony)

the disconnect between Melanie's calm demeanor and the disquieting activity the audience can see taking place behind her is a demonstration of dramatic irony.

where does Mitch get called down to?

the fawcett farm by officer Al. he orders melanie to stay to look affer lydia. they kiss

Upon arrival to Bodego, Melanie goes to

the general store and asks the clerk to see if he knows mitchell brenner. Clerk says he lives right across the bay. Brenner lives with his daughter alice. Has no wife

Melanie Daniels

the lead character who goes to a pet shop in San Francisco to purchase a bird. When she meets Mitchell Brenner and learns from him that he has a sisters birthday coming up, she buys 2 love birds for her. She is also a rich socialite.

Anna Hayworth

the local teacher, Annie Hayworth. Annie previously dated Mitch, but ended it due to Mitch's cold, overbearing mother who dislikes any woman in Mitch's life.

irony of the film

the ornithologists assertions: dramatic irony , look bac there on the ungle gym: dramatic irony hes not the villian: situation irony , this isn't usual, is t?

Melanie, who is now freaked out about the birds on the jungle gym, goes quick to

the school. she tells annie to close the door out into the playground and shows her the crows through the window. annie and melanie decide they have to get the kids out

What unexpected event happens at Melanie's second dinner at the brenner's house?

the second bird attack commences. sparrows pour in out of the fire place. The women cover their eyes as mitch tries to get the birds out with a blanket.

after the bird attack on the children, melanie goes to

the town diner. she is on the phone with her father. she tries to convince him that there have been bird attacks in bodega bay but he doesnt believe her

what does Melanie and Annie decide to do with the school kids/

they organize a fire drill and get the kids to go outside. they are mobbed and chased by the birds. a girl falls down and loses her glasses, and cathy and melanie run back to help her. they get to a car and roll up the windows. the birds attack the car and melanei honks the horn to get them to fly away. then they all fly off

How does Melanie know Anna Haywood?

through being college classmates. this is a lie

Mitch, distraught by the death of annie, was going to

throw a rock at the crows sitting on the house, but Melanie stops him, presumably because she's afraid to rile them up.

As Mitch, Melanie, and Cathy drive aw

went outside when they heard the explosion, and the birds attacked. Annie pushed Cathy inside, and then the birds got her.

the dominant mother motif

ydia Brenner is nevertheless presented as quite controlling of her son and a potential obstacle to the fulfillment of Mitch and Melanie's blossoming romance.