Psycho Essay

The film opens up with an overview of a city during the day. It looks very casual, and has a sense of normality about it, suggesting that there are a variety of storylines taking place in it. However, the camera moves in, and focuses through a window, where we meet two main characters, Marion and Sam. The fact that the camera shows an overview of the city before making contact with Sam and Marion, shows that anybody's life could be influenced like in the film, at any time, since we're given the feeling of a random selection by the camera.

Psycho leads me to believing that the narration of the film is restricted, due to the idea that we identify with Marion, despite everything she does wrong, as she takes control of the narrative. She's the first character we see on screen, and we connect with her through watching her, and seeing through her perspectives in Point Of View shots. Marion's death occurs at around 47 minutes into the film, however throughout the first 47 minutes, the story focuses on what she does, and we spend the majority of the time looking at her face, and more specifically into her eyes due to her being in every scene. As we see Marion in mostly Close-Up shots, for example when she's driving in her car, the audience are drawn to her eyes. They show as deer-like, being the main feature on her face. It's believed that you can tell a person's feelings, and thoughts from what their eyes are showing, and we can see a lot of Panic and confusion occurring in hers throughout the Close-Up shots.

We sympathize with Marion throughout the plot, because although she stole the money from Cassidy, she done it for love so she could be with Sam. Unusually, as an audience, Hitchcock puts us in the position to identify with the 'criminal' Marion, rather than the 'victim' Cassidy. This stems from our perceptions of Cassidy, as he's portrayed as arrogant, and seems to be vulgar about money. Furthermore, the audience is given the information that he is a crook, and so is in no better of a position than Marion. Sam is in debt and they can't marry, so Marion takes the money in honor of him and their marriage. This idea can be perceived as Marion being the Hero character, whilst Sam leaves all the hard work for her to do.

After stealing the money, Marion creates an excuse and leaves in her car, where she then makes her way to the apartment, one of the first scenes we're introduced to. The camera focuses on the woman where she seems to be panicked, and rapidly packs a suitcase. We begin to question what she's doing, before the camera moves towards the money in her purse. This gives the impression that what's about to happen, is going to be based around her stealing the money. As the film moves on, we see Marion looking straight into the camera as she sits in her car, and is accompanied by voice-overs. Through this, we can not only hear her thoughts, but also the voices of other characters such as Cassidy. These voices aren't what the characters have said, but what she thinks they'd be saying at that current time, if they knew what she was doing. I interpret this as being her conscience telling her what's right, even though she continues to ignore it on a variety of occasions. This is just one part of the film which represents the theme of right Vs wrong. Tension is created, because one of the voice overs shows Marion imagining Cassidy taking a violent revenge against her. Also, from this moment on, Marion 'goes on the run', facing certain obstacles, such as the weather, and the police officer, creating tension and suspense, as the audience don't know what's going to happen next.

"The Shower Scene" is a well known scene in thriller films. People can recognise it by the ear-piercing, high pitched music, and flashes of constant camera angles when the main character is being murdered. Marion first decides to get a shower, to clean up, and to think about returning the money, listening to her conscience. This action suggests that she is washing away the guilt, and removing any anxiety. During the murder of Marion, there are a variety of camera angles, types, and shots. They're all randomly placed, with no order to them, causing the audience to become disorientated, and put in a helpless position, with the camera constantly changing and moving. The audience feel sympathy for Marion, as she's the only character who they've really connected and identified with. As well as being confused, and shocked, they're also alienated, due to the feeling of being alone without Marion to tell the story, and are forced to question who's going to tell the story now. Meanwhile, the next character we come across is Norman, the manager of the motel. As an audience, Hitchcock forces us to identify with Norman, although while doing this, he is disposing of a corpse. With an unexpected ending to the film, I personally didn't realize it was Norman who sub-concisely murdered Marion.