Psycho Essay

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

Psycho begins by showing the protagonist Marion with her boyfriend Sam who she wants to marry but can't due to him having to pay for his wives divorce, it starts showing them too sleeping together but having to stop because they are in fear of being caught. which shows how they are together in secret and have dangers of being caught which makes the audience fear for the two but mainly Marion as she is the main character. Sam has debts which he can not pay off which prevents him from being with Marion,  but Marion becomes restless of waiting for him to pay them off so to try and pay Sam's debt off Marion decides to steal $40,000 from a client from her work so she can finally be with Sam. Marion is trusted by his boss to put the clients money in the bank but she puts it in a envelope and leaves her town, during which she sees her boss and the client crossing the road and her boss looks directly at her which makes the audience fear for her again because she is guilty and before she has even left her town she is already nearly caught.

Throughout the film restricted narration is used as the audience are unaware of what is going to happen next and only learn things as Marion does. This is because Hitchcock makes the audience immerse with Marion as they follow her all through the film, this is done by the constant use of POV shots which are mainly used when Marion is running away with the money. For example when she is driving she falls asleep in her car and is woken by a Police Officer who bangs on her window, the audience see this through a POV shot to make them feel as if they have too be sleeping in the car and have been woken by the Police Officer, the POV shot also creates tension as when Marion gets into her car and drives away she looks through the mirror in her car to see behind her which is too what the audience see which builds tension as it looks like the Police Officer is following Marion as the audience know she is guilty because she has committed a crime but they do not want her to be caught because she is the protagonist and the character the audience relate too so they are made to constantly fear for Marion because she has good intentions. the constant use of POV shots are used by Hitchcock to immerse the audience and to make them familiarise with Marion as she is the main character.

The film follows Todorov's theory of narrative, the beginning of the film being the equilibrium of  Marion stealing the $40,000 grand to help her pay off  Sam's debt so she can be with him. The disruption of the equilibrium would be Marion being killed by Norman when he stays at his hotel. The recognition of the disruption would be Marion's sister and others going to the police to report that Marion is missing. The attempt to repair would be the Sam and Marion's sister going to the Bates Motel and discovering that Norman has been the one killing everyone whilst he has been blaming his mother even though he killed her and dug up her body. The new equilibrium would be Norman being arrested for what he has killed the detective and Marion.

Enigma codes are used throughout the film which Hitchcock uses very frequently as they are a good way of creating tension with in the audience, for example when Marion is killed it is by Norman's mother but the audience do not until the end that Norman's mother was killed by Norman and he takes her personality as a alter ego because he is a physco. The subject of Norman being mentally ill is also played very well by Hithcock as when during the final scene before the car which the money was put in is pulled out of the swamp, the camera shows a shot of Norman looking directly down the cameras lens in a sinister way, this breaks the fourth wall as he is directly addressing the audience which makes him seem creepier for the audience.  Also sound creates tension for example the show scene where Marion is killed a certain sound is played which sounds like screeching violins, this sound is used through out the film to create tension and is used as a motive to do so.

Hitchcock is clever in the way he handles the characters, Marion would be used as the protagonist or due to Propp's theory the damsel in distress, this is because the audience would usually expect the protagonist to be a savour who is brave and takes part in heroic acts for the good of others, not a thief who steals $40,000 and tries to get away with it. Hitchcock allows Marion to be killed as part of the films plot which is unusual because often the main character never really dies but Marion does which is confusing and disorientating for the audience because they have bonded and become used to her throughout the film but she is just taken away which makes the audience feel sort of uncomfortable because they now have to find another character to relate with, who ends up being Norman as they watch him try to get away with Marion's death by lying to the detective. Norman would be viewed as the villain but not all through the film because in the beginning the audience believe it is his mother doing the killing and he is just the son who hides the evidence to protect her but in the end they realise it has been him.

Using Levi Strauss' theory of binary oppositions as the audience we could see the film as Good Vs Evil and also strange. This is because we would see Norman as the Evil and the strange as he has a strange mental disorder where by he becomes Mother and he kills which makes him Evil because there is no good reason for it, and we would see Marion and the police as good because Marion has good intentions and is the protagonist and the police are good because they represent Law and Order and peace.