sociology
ts- Movies A Thematic Analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho has been commended for forming the archetypical basis of all horror films that followed its 1960 release. The mass appeal that Psycho has maintained for over three decades can undoubtedly be attributed to its universality. In Psycho, Hitchcock allows the audience to become a subjective character within the plot to enhance the film's psychological effects for an audience that is forced to recognise its own neurosis and psychological inadequacies as it is compelled to identify, for varying lengths of time, with the contrasting personalities of the film's main characters. Hitchcock conveys an intensifying theme in Psycho, that bases itself on the unending subconscious battle between good and evil that exists in everyone through the audience's subjective participation and implicit character parallels. Psycho begins with a view of a city that is arbitrarily identified along with an exact date and !time. The camera, seemingly at random, chooses first one of the many buildings and then one of the many windows to explore before the audience is introduced to Marion and Sam. Hitchcock's use of random selection creates a sense of normalcy for the audienc
The clash between Marion and Norman, although not apparent to the audience until the end of the film, is one of neurosis versus psychosis. The split personality motif reaches the height of its foreshadowing power as Marion battles both sides of her conscience while driving on an ominous and seemingly endless road toward the Bates Motel. Psycho concludes by providing a blatant explanation for Norman's psychotic tendencies. In the car dealership, for example, Marion enters the secluded bathroom in order to have privacy while counting her money. The terror that Hitchcock conveys to the audience manifests itself once the audience learns that it empathised with a psychotic person to a greater extent than with rational one when its sympathy is shifted to Norman. Despite the fact that Arbogast interrupts Norman's seemingly innocent existence the audience does not perceive him as an annoyance as they had the interrogative policeman who had hindered Marion's journey. Even more disturbing for the audience, however, is that the scene is shot not through Marion's eyes, but those of the killer. Arbogast's murder is not as intense as Marion's because the audience had not developed any type of subjective bond with his character. The fear that Psycho creates for the audience does not arise from the brutality of the murders but from the subconscious identification with the film's characters who all reflect one side of a collective character. Arbogast's primary motivation, however, was to recover the stolen money which similarly compels the audience to take an interest in his que!st. Hitchcock has reassured the audience of Marion's credibility and introduced Norman as a wholesome character. Faced with this spectacle, Hitchcock forces the audience to examine its conscious self in relation to the events that it had just subjectively played a role in. In the opening sequence of Psycho, Hitchcock succeeds in capturing the audience's initial senses of awareness and suspicion while allowing it to identify with Marion's helpless situation. Throughout the first part of the film, Marion's reflection is often noted in several mirrors and windows. The shift from the normal to the abnormal is not apparent to the audience in the parlour scene but the audience is later forced to disturbingly reexamine its own conscience and character judgment abilities to discover why Norman's predicament seemed more worthy of its sympathy than Marion's.
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Acceptance Essays
