der; and he showed the cinematic value and versatility of the a limited setting (Lifeboat) and the very long take (Rope). In short, Hitchcock showed other filmmakers how well the elements of film could be shaped and manipulated to achieve the desired effect, to extend thematic interest, and to keep the audience interested throughout.
Margaret M. Horowitz states that a psychoanalytic interpretation of The Birds is most appropriate to explain the film on a latent level though the supernatural reality of the wild birds. Her belief is that Mitch and his mother act as a couple throughout the film, so that Melanie is an intrusion into their world, an intrusion that has to be punished. The three-way relationship is presented as Freudian in nature, and there is ample evidence that this interpretation does explain much about the relationships in the film.
The triangle represented by mother, son, and blonde is a replacement for the previous triangle of mother, son, and schoolteacher, and the schoolteacher shows her jealousy from the beginning, as does the mother. The mother looks askance at this blonde from the city, and Melanie knows it. Her conversation with the schoolteacher shows that the teacher also knows it and that she as well has been aware of the degree to which Mitch is tied to his mother's apron strings. It is not until after the bird attacks in the house, when Mitch's mother is attacked and Melanie takes control by chasing off the birds and saving the mother, that Melanie displaces the mother in the family structure and relegates the mother to the role of mother and no other. Horwitz writes: "The wild birds function as a kind of malevolent female superego, an indirect revelation of Lydia's [the mother's] character. She is a possessive mother, intent upon furthering a symbiotic, Oedipal relationship with her son" (p. 281).
Horwitz also finds that in the structure of the film, the bird attacks become more and more...