He told a number of stories about his upbringing, characterizing it as solitary despite his siblings, overseen by his sternly formal parents.
Hitchcock was born in London, the middle child of a Catholic grocer. He told a number of stories about his upbringing, characterizing it as solitary despite his siblings, overseen by his sternly formal parents. Aspects of his mother were borrowed for his popular movie Psycho, including her insistence on his formal address to her from the foot of her bed and her making him stand silently for hours as punishment. At least once, his father had him locked briefly in a jail cell as punishment. It’s not that his parents were necessarily cruel, especially by the standards of the turn of the century England—but their stoic discipline only enhanced young Hitchcock’s feelings of isolation. This early exposure to strict authority—to unfair punishment and feelings of guilt—led to his lifelong fear of the police, and, in turn, is probably responsible for the majority of his films dealing with crime in one way or another. It is possible that he took the blame for the actions of his siblings, too, or, at least, felt that he did. One of the strongest recurring themes in his work is that of an innocent person suffering the consequences of another individual’s crimes.