The Dominant Mother Motif in Alfred Hitchcock’s Films

In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) goes on the run after stealing $40,000 from her boss in Phoenix, Arizona. She checks in at the remote Bates Motel, where she meets the proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). It soon becomes clear that Norman has problems of his own.

Norman is a child trapped inside an adult’s body. His speech is impulsive and jarring, as in his opener to Marion, ‘You eat like a bird’ (35:22). He frequently titters (28:22), and eats sweets (59:15), and his bedroom contains an unmade bed and toys (1:38:21). Norman often talks about himself with reference to his mother, as if he can only exist vicariously through her. His days involve running ‘little errands’ (36:51) on her behalf, and he claims he cannot live independently because, if he did, ‘who’d look after her?’ (40:05).

Psycho is just one example of Hitchcock’s preoccupation with the controlling, jealous mother. In Notorious (1946), Madame Sebastian (Leopoldine Konstantin) also dominates her son; Hitchcock uses skilful cinematography to emphasise her intimidating, watchful presence (54:25). In The Birds (1963), Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), despite being a successful lawyer, lives with his possessive mother, who jealously questions him about his new romantic interest (37:36).

While little is known of Hitchcock’s own relationship with his mother, who died four years before Notorious the first of his ‘mother’ films, he once reflected drily ‘I think my mother scared me when I was three months old…that’s how fear starts in everyone.’¹

Hitchcock’s fixation has produced engrossing cinema that encourages the viewer to reflect on whether ‘a boy’s best friend is his mother’ (Psycho 37:01) or perhaps his worst enemy.