Mistreatment of Women in Alfred Hitchcock’s Films

In films, people question the roles in which women play. Women have evolved over the years to achieve equality within industries. In Hitchcock’s films, women are the center of mistreatment. In the film, The Birds, he introduces a pretty young woman who is trying to play a harmless joke on handsome Mitch, but it slowly takes an unexpected turn. Melanie, the main character, brings Mitch’s sister a gift of lovebirds to their house. After this, Bodega Bay is time and time again attacked by a swarm of birds. During each scene that the birds attack Melanie, she is put into these tight, claustrophobic places, the phone booth and then the attic which she has nowhere to exit because of the attacking birds. The “effect of these scenes certainly gives off the impression that these (predominantly male) filmmakers actively want to see Melanie/Tippi struggle for her life”. But after every time she is attacked Mitch is always there to bring her to safety. Hitchcock is implying that a woman will always need a man to help her out of a situation and they are incapable of getting themselves out of tough situations. Today, there are fewer films about female characters needing to be rescued by a man and more about women saving themselves and being independent.

During this film, Hitchcock looks to try and get the audience to question whether “the inexplicable ferocity of the birds or the idea that the dubious role of ‘woman’ in Hollywood is one inextricably rooted in sexually-charged imagery”. He does this by focusing on certain body parts of Melanie in the attic scene when the birds are attacking her. He chooses to show “the shorn sleeve of a shielding arm as it slices the air; an unnaturally wobbling pair of bloodied legs; an open, dangling palm being nipped at by a beak”. Hitchcock uses close-up shots to sexualize her and create a sense of perversion. It poses the question as to whether or not Hitchcock wanted to sexualize the female character or to show the audience that the only thing a woman is good for is her looks and body features. Not only during this film but many others that Hitchcock has produced the mistreatment of the female characters. Either they died or are tortured in a way that affects them mentally. In this film, Hitchcock does both, he physically makes Melanie gets attacked by the bird and while doing so it affects her mentally. The torture she received in the attic left her scared and afraid, frightened that the birds will attack her again. Hitchcock’s work does not accept the feminist way for the reason that he renders his female character helpless and in need of a man’s help.

Another film that embodies this notion: that women are to be used by a man, is Vertigo. Vertigo is about an ex-detective, Scottie Ferguson, who after his love dies, or so he thinks, goes on to find a replacement for Madeline. In the first half of the film, we see Madeline as a beauty that cannot be recreated for Scottie. In one of the scenes with Midge, she recreates herself as the Carlotta painting. Once Scottie sees it, he is speechless and based on his facial expression, says that Midge is not good enough to be compared to Madeline/ Carlotta. From this scene, the audience can gather that Hitchcock is conveying that not every woman is equally beautiful and could satisfy a man’s needs. As we get further into the film we find out that Madeline is actually Judy. Once Judy is introduced, the audience sees Scottie following her just to talk to her, as she resembles Madeleine. During Scottie’s and Judy’s interactions her dialogue diminishes the role of women and allows for a man to boost his ego. Judy says that she has been “picked up before”, suggesting that she been used for her physical features. It is like Hitchcock is suggesting that women are prostitutes in some way. He also suggests that a woman’s role had not real power without a man present.

Hitchcock turns what the audience sees as a romantic love story into an obsessive, tragic love story. This obsession that Scottie has is with Madeline’s beauty. He makes sure that Judy is just like Madeleine from her hair to her clothes even to her eyebrows. When Scottie is doing this to Judy he tells her that “it can’t matter to you”, showing Judy that her voice does not matter nor does she get an option as to how she looks. Scottie is “breaking her down and making her into the image of the dead wife”. This goes to show how Hitchcock takes away the power women have and shows them that her role in life is to make her man happy while pushing down her own feelings and desires, for they are not as important in comparison.

Both of these films, The Birds and Vertigo are similar in many ways. Although they follow different storylines the base for each of the films is clear. Death is inevitable in one of Hitchcock films but the way in which it is reached is always unpredictable. In Vertigo Madeline/Judy is driven to death by an obsessive lover, while “The Birds” Melanie is mentally unstable by the end of the film after traveling to a small town in search of a handsome stranger. Each in their own way these films say something about the female role in society. Thankfully women’s role in films has improved greatly. Women are seen as independent and capable of doing anything a man could do and even better.