Attack # 5: Lydia Brenner’s living room is invaded at 54:45
Another straightforward event. The party is over & Lydia is graciously rushing through dinner in order to hurry Melanie out the door.
Hurry up with yours, Mitch. I'm sure Miss Daniels wants to be on her way.
What follows is Cathy inviting Melanie to stay the night, Mitch concurring, Melanie planning on leaving, Lydia trying to expedite Melanie leaving & Mitch roundly chiding Lydia for it.
Cathy: I think you ought to stay the night, Melanie. We have an extra room upstairs and
everything.
Mitch: That road can be a pretty bad one at night.
Melanie: If I go across to Santa Rosa, I'll come out on the freeway much earlier, won't I?
Lydia: Yes, and the freeway is much quicker.
Mitch: But she'll be hitting all the heavy traffic going back to San Francisco.
A mere second or so later and living room is flooded with small lovebird-sized sparrows whose color resembles the two lovebirds Melanie bought for Cathy.
Connection? Melanie staying the night, for Lydia, is a certain symbolic gesture of an intimate life for Melanie with Mitch. Lydia balk’s at the idea as she fears greater intimacy will pull Mitch further away leaving Lydia abandoned.
Why would Lydia be afraid of being alone if she still has Cathy? Because being abandoned for Lydia does not mean being solitary. Rather, it is being left without an emotional resource from whom she can sponge off strength of character.
Cathy is inadequate to provide such emotional nourishment so, whether Cathy was there or not, Lydia would starve for emotional strength all the same. Hitchcock's concept of Mother as vain, detracting & dominating now includes the role of emotional leech.
What follows Lydia being chided is birds: an unconscious reaction to a conscious realization.
But these aren't seagulls flooding in. Why the change in species? As stated earlier, all birds are Mother so different species represent different aspects of Mother.
Seagulls are large, open-aired & public birds with a broad domain. They perfectly symbolize Lydia's view of her public environment & circumstance.
The much smaller Sparrows, on the other hand, more correctly represent Mother's thoughts on the smaller scale, the personal - rather than public - qualities of her existence. In this case, the personal impact on Lydia's life of Mitch dumping Mother for Melanie.
Hence, the attack is carried out by a much smaller - but no less assertive - bird. And the attack itself is limited to a single room in Lydia's own home. Private & personal.
Hence, the attack is carried out by a much smaller - but no less assertive - bird. And the attack itself is limited to a single room in Lydia's own home. Private & personal.
Though the birds could easily have broken through the windows and entered the room that way, they flood down through the fireplace - a symbol of warmth and light. Sadly, Lydia's home is emotionally cold & dark.
The rush in of the sparrows is like a cloud, like smoke backed up from the fireplace.
The rush in of the sparrows is like a cloud, like smoke backed up from the fireplace.
Melanie ends up staying the night. The movie later suggests Mitch & Melanie were intimate during that stay.
Starting at 1:01:58, Melanie tells Mitch she's taking Lydia some tea. Mitch responds with a small but intimate kiss on Melanie's neck, they embrace & speak to each other in a manner befitting two people who had just been recently - and newly - intimate.
Doubtless Lydia knew of it and so the next immediate attack is extremely revealing.
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