Personality Switching In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
Julianne Campbell
ENG 4U (Hachey)
October 1st 2010
Alfred Hitchcock's schizoid masterpiece Psycho cleverly portrays the theme of personality switching through characterization, setting and cinematography. There are two main examples of characters who show the sign of multiple identities. Norman Bates is a prime example of sort of personality switching, we see a major transition of his throughout this film. A not as obvious change is that of Marion Crane from a so-called good to evil transformation.
The first is the much more obvious Norman Bates. Hitchcock created Norman to be the epitome of the Oedipus conflict, he is a true “Mama's boy”, who would do anything to have his mother for himself. The audience learns in the film that …show more content…
his mother and step-father were found dead in bed further autopsy showed they were poisoned. Norman would have been furious to see this because of his sexual desires for his mother, he would see his step-father as a rival. It is impossible to not to take a reliable guess that Norman was behind the death of his parents. He finally has his mother to himself after their death, this is when Norman begins his transformation into his mother-his second personality. Marion Crane is also a fantastic creation of Hitchcocks'. He nowhere nearly as obviously portrays this message with her character; in the very first scene we are introduced to Marion and one of her multiple personalities, a secretive and less than respectable girl at play with her lover during her lunch break. Her character then shifts back to a humble secretary when she returns to work. Within the first quarter of the movie we see Marion transition from one the first personality to her second and then to the final personality she reflects when she flees the city.
Hitchcock's use of changing setting is a genius way to show the changing personalities of the two character previously mentioned. At the beginning of the film, Marion is dressed very light colours and everything around her is very lightly coloured. As her character begins to evolve after stealing the money, she changes into darker clothing, carries a darker purse and the rest of the film featuring her is shot in the darkness of the night. Marion begins to realize what she has done is wrong and decides to return the money in the morning, and takes a shower to wash her sins away, but before she can return to her angelic self she is murdered by a combination of angry characters that she has betrayed and she believes they are seeking revenge on her. Marion makes her final appearance as Norman stuffs her into the trunk of her car and pushes it into a sinkhole, the point at which her whole world goes black – her final downfall. We also see Norman in a dark setting, which matches his dark, quiet and solemn personality. He is fascinated with birds and he is seen often in each scene with some sort of representation of the birds. The house in which he lives is very dark and mysterious, it gives off a very lonely vibe. It is easily seen that Norman doesn't have many, if any friends and he spends his time fascinated with the birds.
Alfred Hitchcock is a cinematographic genius, his use of mischievous camera angles, clever symbols, and use of black and white all help depict his theme of dual personalities and dual characters.
The way Hitchcock chooses to use his cameras is brilliant, for example his use of having the main focus of the scene set off onto the right and left side to represent Norman's transition from himself into his mother. The framing in this film is carefully used to show this; specifically in the scene where Arbogast is leaving the Bates Motel and we see Norman leaning up against the motel on the right side of the frame. But by the end of the film, after Norman's transformation he now sits to the left side of the frame. Hitchcock cleverly used placing Norman off-centre to make shots seem empty. Alfred Hitchcock also used reflections and mirrors to reflect the theme of dual personalities. While Lila searches Mrs Bates bedroom Lila steps toward the dressing table and sees herself reflected back and forth between two mirrors – this creates a reflection of reflections, the furthest shows only the back of her head. This could imply mixed identity. In the same way that Norman Bates symbolically dies and his alter-ego Mother takes over, the selfish Marion Crane symbolically dies in the shower and as well is replaced for the rest of the film by her morally superior alter-ego
sister. Hitchcock's concoction of using creative cinematography, incorporating setting and creating interesting characters helps communicate his idea of personality switching in this film. This main theme could be explored in many different ways, and there are many examples that help connect these ideas. The transformations of these characters are a very important element of this movie which help present this theme wonderfully.
ENG 4U (Hachey)
October 1st 2010
Alfred Hitchcock's schizoid masterpiece Psycho cleverly portrays the theme of personality switching through characterization, setting and cinematography. There are two main examples of characters who show the sign of multiple identities. Norman Bates is a prime example of sort of personality switching, we see a major transition of his throughout this film. A not as obvious change is that of Marion Crane from a so-called good to evil transformation.
The first is the much more obvious Norman Bates. Hitchcock created Norman to be the epitome of the Oedipus conflict, he is a true “Mama's boy”, who would do anything to have his mother for himself. The audience learns in the film that …show more content…
his mother and step-father were found dead in bed further autopsy showed they were poisoned. Norman would have been furious to see this because of his sexual desires for his mother, he would see his step-father as a rival. It is impossible to not to take a reliable guess that Norman was behind the death of his parents. He finally has his mother to himself after their death, this is when Norman begins his transformation into his mother-his second personality. Marion Crane is also a fantastic creation of Hitchcocks'. He nowhere nearly as obviously portrays this message with her character; in the very first scene we are introduced to Marion and one of her multiple personalities, a secretive and less than respectable girl at play with her lover during her lunch break. Her character then shifts back to a humble secretary when she returns to work. Within the first quarter of the movie we see Marion transition from one the first personality to her second and then to the final personality she reflects when she flees the city.
Hitchcock's use of changing setting is a genius way to show the changing personalities of the two character previously mentioned. At the beginning of the film, Marion is dressed very light colours and everything around her is very lightly coloured. As her character begins to evolve after stealing the money, she changes into darker clothing, carries a darker purse and the rest of the film featuring her is shot in the darkness of the night. Marion begins to realize what she has done is wrong and decides to return the money in the morning, and takes a shower to wash her sins away, but before she can return to her angelic self she is murdered by a combination of angry characters that she has betrayed and she believes they are seeking revenge on her. Marion makes her final appearance as Norman stuffs her into the trunk of her car and pushes it into a sinkhole, the point at which her whole world goes black – her final downfall. We also see Norman in a dark setting, which matches his dark, quiet and solemn personality. He is fascinated with birds and he is seen often in each scene with some sort of representation of the birds. The house in which he lives is very dark and mysterious, it gives off a very lonely vibe. It is easily seen that Norman doesn't have many, if any friends and he spends his time fascinated with the birds.
Alfred Hitchcock is a cinematographic genius, his use of mischievous camera angles, clever symbols, and use of black and white all help depict his theme of dual personalities and dual characters.
The way Hitchcock chooses to use his cameras is brilliant, for example his use of having the main focus of the scene set off onto the right and left side to represent Norman's transition from himself into his mother. The framing in this film is carefully used to show this; specifically in the scene where Arbogast is leaving the Bates Motel and we see Norman leaning up against the motel on the right side of the frame. But by the end of the film, after Norman's transformation he now sits to the left side of the frame. Hitchcock cleverly used placing Norman off-centre to make shots seem empty. Alfred Hitchcock also used reflections and mirrors to reflect the theme of dual personalities. While Lila searches Mrs Bates bedroom Lila steps toward the dressing table and sees herself reflected back and forth between two mirrors – this creates a reflection of reflections, the furthest shows only the back of her head. This could imply mixed identity. In the same way that Norman Bates symbolically dies and his alter-ego Mother takes over, the selfish Marion Crane symbolically dies in the shower and as well is replaced for the rest of the film by her morally superior alter-ego
sister. Hitchcock's concoction of using creative cinematography, incorporating setting and creating interesting characters helps communicate his idea of personality switching in this film. This main theme could be explored in many different ways, and there are many examples that help connect these ideas. The transformations of these characters are a very important element of this movie which help present this theme wonderfully.