The Birds Movies Vs. Short Stories

Essay by Getfree2A, March 2008

download word file, 3 pages 3.0

Downloaded 14 times

The BirdsBoth Alfred Hitchcock and Daphne du Maurier had a version of a story titled The Birds. Though both stories share a name they’re are completely different. One is a short story by Daphne du Maurier about a man, Nat, and his family who live and England and are attacked by birds. The other a movie about a woman, Melanie Daniels, and a man, Mitch Brenam, and his family who live in California and are also attacked by birds. The reason Alfred Hitchcock changed the original location of the birds is to change the mood and the detailed plot of the story, because du Maurier’s version sets a feeling of claustrophobia, Alfred Hitchcock’s version is made to feel open; in the Hitchcock version the frightening parts are made to be unexpected and in the short story the frightening parts are made to feel tragic; California is perceived as always sunny, whereas England is perceived as a dark place.

The overall feelings of this story differ due to changes in the setting of each. In the short story version of “The Birds” the mood is made to feel claustrophobic. De Maurier sets the atmosphere by saying “The boards were strong against the windows, and on the chimneys too” (du Maurier 72). The purpose of this is to make the reader feel trapped. If the reader feels trapped by the birds, there is a sense of tragedy and no hope for survival. In Hitchcock’s version, the setting is open. He does this so that when the birds attack there isn’t so much a feeling of tragedy as there is a sudden feeling of fright. Also the open setting gives a feeling of hope. To give the audience and final sense of relief Hitchcock wrote into the script “It looks... it looks...