Psycho (1960) Analysis

In this scene from Psycho (1960) we are given first impressions of Norman Bates, the owner of Bates Motel. His office is very dull with low key lighting, creating an unsettling mood and making Norman seem a mysterious character.
The first thing you notice about his office is the stuffed birds. We find out from Norman that he likes to stuff birds, which connotes his obsession with dead things. The birds of prey also represent Norman in that they kill other animals like Norman ‘the mother’ murders Marion (his prey). Marion’s surname (Crane) also refers to her as a bird.
As a Motel owner we also expect Norman to be a normal character with hobbies such as sports etc. Norman doesn’t fit in the CDI (cultural dominant ideologies) as he has a strange hobby of stuffing birds something we would expect a museum owner to do. In this scene the mise-en-scene portrays Norman to be as a mysterious character that makes the audience feel uncomfortable.


In this scene from Psycho (1960) we see a killer emerging from behind the shower curtain when Marion is in the shower. We cannot identify the face but can only see the dark shape of a figure holding a large knife due to the low key lighting in the bathroom. When the figure attacks Marion we don’t see the knife go into her skin as the ‘Hays Code’ didn’t allow body horror to be shown in films. The scene is made up of a quick montage shots showing Marion being attacked for about 60 seconds. Hitchcock loved montage and Battleship Potemkin inspired him a lot. The water raining down from the shower adds confusion to the scene and makes the scene more noisy and busy. It also gives the scene a miserable mood through the use of pathetic fallacy. When she is being attacked we get point of view shots from the killer attacking Marion, which helps us identify with her situation and feel even more sympathy for her.


In this scene we Norman in his dark office looking through a secret hole in the wall. Half of Norman’s face is in the shadows showing he is an evil and untrustworthy person but also this also connotes that he has a good side to make the audience feel sorry for him. We get a point of view shot of Norman’s view through the hole watching Marion getting changed in her room. This scene is an indication of how Hitchcock used some of his own characteristics in Norman’s character such as he liked to get thrills from looking at people knowing they could not see him. This concept of “male gaze” was highlighted by Laura Mulvey in her essay ‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema'. This is further evidence that Hitchcock is an auteur. Andrew Sarris, one of the leading critics behind the ‘Auteur theory’.