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…
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
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…
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