Herrmann’s score seems to reject notions of larger relevance to gender politics, focusing instead on the internal relevance of the water motif to the plot.  After all, from Mama’s sailor john arises Marnie’s mental instability – and, as per Freud,1 only by reliving her “accident” may Marnie break free.  Hitchcock echoes this in many ways, not least among them the ostentatious phallic boat that divides the horizon of Mama’s street.  It is thus fitting that Herrmann introduces what I term his “sailor motif,” stated in a combination of low strings and woodwinds which quiver for a beat, then are restated in a higher register in a rising and falling motion.  It could be argued that this motif adequately evokes: a sense of “storm at sea,” combining hovering strings; a random, chaotic, amelodic voice; the call-and-response reminiscent of the echoes of thunder and lightning; and a fluidity evocative of rolling water rather than land.  At a minimum, though, the musical motif cues Marnie’s memory of the sailor’s role in the accident, and paints an ominous picture that becomes more fully developed with each passing flashback – peaking once at Mark’s implied sexual encounter, and exploding finally at Marnie’s final regression.

The Sailor's Motif, in its variation for the third flashback sequence, gives way to a light statement of the Love Theme as Marnie passes Mark.