Blackmail Character Analysis

Power of Female Characters in the “Blackmail” and “The Birds” by Alfred Hitchcock

Films Blackmail and The Birds were created in different decades and belong to different genres. However, they have similar features, like female characters’ appearance and attitude to the world. Both women, Alice White from Blackmail and Melanie Daniels from The Birds, can be called a beauty model of their periods of time; they were slim, young girls with fair hair. Male protagonists also showed similar physical and mental traits; Frank Webber and Mitch Brenner were cared-for, good-looking men with strong face and a job that was related to the legal system (police detective and a lawyer respectively). While couples had similar appearances, there were totally different balances of powers. While they both came to the same final, where a strong man saves his helpless girlfriend, they used different ways to achieve this result.

Melanie and Mitch started as “equal” in terms of power. The woman had her beauty and father’s status that equated her with the protagonist, whose power was conditioned by the gender, job and appearance. Melanie knows about her strong position and this understanding affects her behavior. The woman intruded to Mitch’s house with the assurance there would not be any negative consequences of this action. Filmmakers showed Melanie’s power in her appearance. Despite her physical traits, the woman often had elegant, well-attended outfit; and she always knew how to restore her look