Rhetorical Analysis

Alfred Hitchcock, “the emblematic artist of the twentieth century”, would agree that a social epidemic, such as Covid-19, caused depression (White xii). Throughout Hitchcock’s life, he had an uneasiness of isolation, a worry of sickness, and an angst of dying which is translated into his short stories and eventually his films. He uses his work in order to convey the fears and traumas he was internalizing. Hitchcock’s target audience is adults seeking suspense and absurdity.

One way that Hitchcock would agree that Covid-19 caused depression was his uneasiness with isolation from his childhood. Isolation has been a recurring theme for Hitchcock beginning with his childhood. Many times, his parents wouldn’t be home when he woke up in the middle of the night. “’My parents use to put me to bed at six o’clock so that they could go out and eat in a restaurant’ he told Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci. ‘I used to wake up at eight o’clock, my parents weren’t there, there was only that dim light, the silence of an empty house.’” (McGilligan 16). In school, he would isolate himself because of bullies. “His nickname was Cockie and he was not widely popular. He portrayed himself as a lonely boy without playmates” (Ackroyd 8). Feelings of not belonging continued throughout his life. “Early on Hitchcock felt like an outsider, apart from other kids on Salmon Lane, or at St. Ignatius; later in America, even after his reputation was firmly established, he still felt apart from the Hollywood crowd” (McGilligan 23). “Living though wartime in his formative years deeply influenced a body of work…” (McGilligan 26). Hitchcock would later show his turmoil with isolation in his works, such as the film, The Birds. In this film, the only way the community could survive the vicious attack of the birds was through isolation. If they let anyone inside their home, it would open a way for the birds to attack so isolation was the only way to survive (The Birds). In his previous work, Rear Window, which Hitchcock was “heavily involved in building the script from the template of its source material”, the protagonist has been isolated in his home for seven weeks which left him feeling very bored and pessimistic (White 184). To further drive home the fact the protagonist could not leave his home, the entire movie was filmed only from inside his residence (Rear Window). Later in life, Hitchcock would take great measures to prevent being alone despite the fact he was an accomplished director surrounded by actors and actresses. “Again and again, he inveigled the cameraman and assistant director back to Claridge’s so he wouldn’t have to sit alone in his suite, arranging an elaborate dinner that he only picked at, drinking steadily while talking morosely about the two things he loved most in the world: film and his adored Alma” (McGilligan 709). This is evidence that Hitchcock would agree that isolation during Covid-19 would cause depression.

Hitchcock would agree Covid-19 caused depression and he portrayed this by his own worry of sickness. When Hitchcock’s wife Alma was diagnosed with cervical cancer the worry of her sickness took a toll on him. “According to his authorized biographer John Russell Taylor ‘He would drive straight to the hospital weeping and shaking convulsively. He dined alone in a nearby restaurant but could not bear to go near the place in later years. Alma herself said years later ‘He wants it blotted out of his life’. The days of panic and near hysteria had to be eliminated from his memories’” (Ackroyd 192). After Alma recovered from cervical cancer, nearly a decade later she suffered from a stroke bringing the uneasiness of sickness back to Hitchcock. “The effect on Hitchcock was acute. He was a disturbed and as anxious as he had been 13 years before when Alma had been diagnosed with cancer” (Ackroyd 245). Worry of sickness was not limited to just loved ones but also translated to himself. “After a medical examination for an insurance policy, Hitchcock discovered he had an enlarged heart and hernia. Such was his fear of treatment that he refused the operation on his abdomen and so obliged to wear a truss. His insurance was declined” (Ackroyd 106). Hitchcock would agree the uneasiness of sickness during Covid-19 would cause depression.

Hitchcock would further confirm that Covid-19 caused depression through his fear of death. The death of his mother and brother took a toll on Hitchcock. “Hitchcock’s reaction to the two deaths are not recorded but it is known that he began to lose a great deal of weight in the following months. Mortality beckoned. David Selznick wrote ‘I am sincerely and seriously worried about Hitch’s fabulous loss of weight. I do hope he has a physician as otherwise we are liable to get a shock one morning about a heart attack or something of the sort’” (Ackroyd 109). Hitchcock had a fear of his own impending death. “In 1968, Hitchcock “once again far overweight, pink-cheeked from drinking, and transparently depressed with the realization that time, always his cruelest enemy was closing in” (McGilligan 684). “Pain was not the only stimulus for drink. There was also fear. His personal assistant Peggy Robertson, told Freeman that before one story meeting he had told her ‘He couldn’t continue’. He asked her repeatedly ‘When do you think I will go? When?’ Ingred Bergman recalled that ‘he took both my hands, tears streamed down his face saying ‘Ingred I am going to die’. The news of the death of contemporaries also reduced him to tears but perhaps from hysteria as much as grief’” (Ackroyd 259). These events would prove that Hitchcock would agree fear of death during Covid-19 caused depression.

Throughout the life of Alfred Hitchcock, his personal experiences created the discomfort of isolation and the fear of sickness and death as evidenced by his lifework which would show he would agree a social epidemic, such as Covid-19, would cause depression. Isolation began at childhood by being bullied and feeling abandoned at times from his parents. He was terrified of death experienced at first with living through a world war then again with the possible death of his wife followed by continual loss of friends. All of these fears can be found in his work of the Birds (Birds). “In the Birds, the scene in the attic where she is attacked by the birds but saved by Mitch ‘Hitchcock said in interviews that this detail was inspired by his personal memories of feeling alone at Claridge’s in London during World War II- hearing bombs fall, and shouts and noises and not knowing what to do” (McGilligan 628). In this award-winning movie, Hitchcock showed against isolation and fear death which is eerily what happened to the world nearly 37 years later. In order to survive the birds, one had to lock themselves in their homes and if a loved one stepped outside the house, they could die (The Birds). During Covid-19 in order to survive the virus, one had to lock themselves in their homes and those exposed died. Hitchcock was very effective in convincing all viewers that using isolation to survive sickness and death would cause fear, anxiety, and depression. Hitchcock knew a social epidemic would cause depression because Hitchcock himself was depressed. Hitchcock was “adrift in senility and depression” (McGilligan 739).