A Gothic Analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho

If today’s idea of what Gothic means matched what it originally meant, society might think twice before they call that kid with black lipstick and eyeliner who sits in the back of the class Gothic. Gothic hasn’t always been a jest towards a group of people that dresses differently; it used to be something that people terrorized each other with¾much like “horror” is today. Gothic literature is an expression of the morbid nature of humanity in its quest to quench humankind’s intrinsic thirst for terror. Gothic literature is distinct in its purposes; few other genres of literature even attempt what Gothic literature does. Gothic literature is used to evoke an imminent terror in its audience instead of a forgettable jolt that simply makes the audience jump, shock the audience by not only surprising it with twists but by crossing lines that other works refuse to go near, show both supernatural and moral evil as heroic as well as horrendous, and create a mood of dreadful suspense and distorted intrigue. Concisely, Gothic literature shows the “darker” side of life that strains at the limits between mortality and immortality, reason and emotion, order and disorder, mind and body, and love and hate. Alfred Hitchcock kept a Gothic purpose prevalent in his movie Psycho as he created its characters and the romances between them, setting, and imagery. Characters¾and the romances between them¾are commended in Gothic pieces for their unconscious fear, twisted behavior, and spiritual confusion and reliance on trust-fear and good-evil affiliations that make the audience feel similar to the characters. In Psycho, Norman stutters, sweats, talks with his hands, and makes mistakes while talking to the detective, Sam, and Lila after his mother had killed Marion, who the detective, Sam, and Lila were looking for. Norman also does not keep eye contact with any of them as he answers their relentless interrogation. Norman’s behavior is an example of a Gothic trait of unconscious fear,