Narrative and the Film Extract (III)

    The story inspiring Hitchcock's "Psycho" was actually based off the original thrilling story by Robert Blocht and later recreated into a visual masterpiece by Hitchcock's screenwriter, Joseph Stefano. Psycho at first appeared to have a linear structure because it followed the beginnings of the dramatic life and times of Marion Crane. From what I perceived from watching in class I concluded that there are elements of a thee act structure in the scenes with Marion. We see the problem of Sam not wanting to be married(dilemma), and therefore Marion steals the large sum of money. This followed by everyone suspecting her of a crime and her running away from her guilt(rising action.) What's different in Psycho, and perhaps why many audiences were surprised about, was the shifting between main characters that ultimately FREAKED OUT the viewers. Am in confusing everyone yet? Good because that's exactly what the director was aiming for. Hitchcock wanted to toy with the audience's mind and change the audience's conventional understanding of storytelling.

     Americans had never been exposed to a plot that was as twisted and as remarkable as Psycho. The film was split into three acts: Marion's heist following her death, introducing Norman who did anything to protect his mother, and the worried sister that never gave up in searching. The transition in-between characters in the story creates this unique complex where the audience begins to "feel emotions" towards certain character. An example of this is Marion, where in the beginning the audience begins to feel animosity and pity towards her for stealing. Yet after they see the change in her mindset they come to respect her at the end (she decides to return the money the day after). As the audience begins to form a relationship with her....DNGHH DNGHH DNGHH DNGHH..... She comes to her untimely death by a mysterious silhouette.

Let me mislead you by making the main

character of the story really large in the

 advertisement and then killing her off like it 

was nothing. (narrative in a nutshell)

CUT TO: 

THE DEAD BODY 

Lying half in, half out of the tub, the head tumbled 

 over, touching the floor, the hair wet, one eye wide 

open as if popped, one arm lying limp and wet along the 

tile floor.  Coming down the side of the tub, running 

thick and dark along the porcelain, we see many small 

threads of blood.  

                 In a dramatic twist the main character of the story is killed off and quickly switches off to the character of Norman Bates cleaning up the scene and confronting his "mother". The idea of switching of protagonists adds to the thrilling story because the audiences are left confused and out of the dark. The character they build an emotional bond with ceases to exist and thus This
continues throughout the story, the audience's trust and distrust of characters, as Norman continues to murder the detective and attack Sam and Marion's sister. 

        

        The nature of the audience's engagement in the story is that they play a omnipresent or "voyeuristic" perception of the unfolding events. Hitchcock is able to pull at the audience's emotions regarding characters unworthy of such feelings. I've already briefly discussed this but I'll go more into depth using Norman. For example, the audience can build sympathy for the character of psychotic murderer Norman Bates.  In the beginning he is seen as a nice man helping Marion with her luggage. He welcomes her into his house and by the way he talks and smiles at her it is obvious he has a sexual attraction to her... even goes as far as to offering to have dinner with her. Norman beings to trust Marion more and he reveals in the conversation with Crane that he makes it a hobby to preserve and stuff birds for fun. Revealing his creepy and sinister side to the audience. He cleans up traces of the murder and the audience feels remorse for Norman, seeing how he'll do anything to protect his mother from being sent into an institution. It's not until the ending where the police discover the mother died long ago and that Norman was a schizophrenic trapped in his mother's persona. “A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality” (Hitchcock).

          In terms of plot progression it is apparent that the stylistic choice of MacGuffins were used to progress the story. At first it was the $40,000 that Marion had stolen. Hitchcock absolutely stretched the robbery scenario as long as he could. Examples being the police, car dealer, and the boss that all push Marion in the direction of the Bates Motel. At which point once she is murdered the money no longer becomes an important factor and instead the audience is consumed in discovering whether Marion's sister will find her. The search for the sister also becomes less important for in the last vestige of the film the audience discovers that the mother is dead and realize Norman's ill-mind. Ultimately questioning whom the re normal bates is.

        An important factor is Norman Bates and his relationship with Marion. In the behind the scenes commentary of Psycho it was debated largely about the casting choices for Norman Bates. The original concept was that he was an overweight greasy man. However many of Hitchcock's cast differed with him giving the idea that this visual characterization of him would make him an obvious antagonist. So they chose a scrawny, charming, and seemingly harmless man living with his mother as the character. What this does in the sense of genre is that it heightens the audience's unawareness of Norman and ultimately they perceive him as vulnerable since he's so separated from the world and devoted to his mother,"A boy's best friend is his mother." (Bates) The concept of Norman also adds to the theme of vulnerability in humans. Norman lived with his mother and believed that women were a source of evil and bad intentions. When his mother took a lover his jealousy consumed him and he murdered both of them. Desperately trying to keep his mother alive in his mind he began to act like her, dress like, eventually becoming her towards the end.