Lydia Brenner: A Psychological Assessment
of Hitchcock's Mother
of Hitchcock's Mother
So does The Birds end on a happy note? Unfortunately not. For most, a joyful resolution would be the perfect ending. However, a closer look at the footage with an honest admission of human nature and a different, darker ending emerges.
As we’ve seen, the presence of birds is a symbol for Lydia Brenner’s glowering states of mind with the bird attacks representing her more aggressive feelings.
The final image of the car driving away inspires no breaking up of the massive flocks watching passively. To be sure, those who wish to see a happy ending will do so. Yet...
...all the birds remain.
As the radio announcer states:
It appears that the bird attacks come in waves, with long intervals between.
The end image would seem to correlate to a “long interval”. Annie confided to Melanie:
Now that I'm no longer a threat, we're very good friends.
It’s easy to see no birds were at Annie's house until she outright dismissed Lydia & her wishes (see Attack #3).
With these massive flocks of birds still present in the last scene, one can easily conclude all Lydia would need on the road or at the hospital is but one word of undesired news and who knows what might be unleashed? Melanie, like Annie, could return to threat-status.
Sadly, a human’s psychology can only change so fast. A compassionate-looking moment in a car is not enough to provide a human with an entirely new way of life. The desire to change may be birthed in a single moment, but not the change itself.
To illustrate: an overweight person may be seized with an unwavering commitment to weight loss and healthy eating, That one moment, however, causes no weight to be lost.
Lydia Brenner, sweet & sympathetic though she appears to be on the surface, is a different person at her core according to the reality of the film. She is a deeply contemptible human with no strength of character to affect a positive overhaul having been a bad seed her entire life.
So what will happen next as that car drives away?...
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