Movies A Thematic Analysis Essay, Research Paper

A Thematic Analysis of Alfred Hitchcock & # 8217 ; s PsychoAlfred Hitchcock+s Psycho has been commended for organizing the archetypal footing of all horror movies that followed its 1960 release. The mass entreaty that Psycho has maintained for over three decennaries can doubtless be attributed to its catholicity. In Psycho, Hitchcock allows the audience to go a subjective character within the secret plan to heighten the film+s psychological effects for an audience that is forced to recognize its ain neuroticism and psychological insufficiencies as it is comp elled to place, for changing lengths of clip, with the contrasting personalities of the film+s chief characters. Hitchcock conveys an intensifying subject in Psycho, that bases itself on the ageless subconscious conflict between good and evil that exists in everyone through the audience+s subjective engagement and inexplicit character analogues. Psycho begins with a position of a metropolis that is randomly identified along with an exact day of the month and clip. The camera, apparently at random, chooses first one of the adult male Y edifices and so one of the many Windowss to research before the audience is introduced to Marion and Sam. Hitchcock+s usage of random choice creates a sense of normality for the audience. The fact that the metropolis and room were randomly identified impresses upon the audience that their ain lives could indiscriminately be applied to the events that are about to follow. In the gap sequence of Psycho, Hitchcock succeeds in capturing the audience+s initial senses of consciousness and intuition while leting it to place with Marion+s incapacitated state of affairs. The audience+s understanding toward Marion is heightened with the debut of Cassidy whose petroleum self-praise encourages the audience+s disfavor of his character. Cassidy+s blazing statement that all sadness can be bought away with money, provokes the audience to organize a justification for Marion+s larceny of his 40 thousand dollars. As Marion begins her journey, the audience is drawn further into the deepnesss of what is disturbingly unnatural behavior although it is hundred ompelled to place and sympathise with her actions. It is with Marion+s character that Hitchcock foremost introduces the impression of a split personality to the audience. Throughout the first portion of the movie, Marion+s contemplation is frequently noted in several mirrors and Windowss. Hitchcock is hence able to make a voyeuristic esthesis within the audience as it can visualize the effects of any state of affairs through Marion+s witting head. In the auto franchise, for illustration, Marion enters the privy bathroom in order to hold privateness while numbering her money. Hitchcock, nevertheless, with upper camera angles and the convenient placing of a mirror is able to convey the sense of an of all time lingering witting head that makes privateness impossible. Hitchcock brings the audience into the bathroom with Marion and allows it to fight with its ain values and beliefs while Marion makes her ain determination and continues with her journey. The split personality motive reaches the tallness of its boding power as Marion battles both sides of her scruples while driving on an baleful and apparently eternal route toward the Bates Motel. Marion wrestles with the voices of those that her offense and disappearing has affected while the audience is compelled to recognize as to why it can so easy place with Marion despite her unlawful actions. As Marion+s journey comes to an terminal at the Bates Motel, Hitchcock has successfully made the audience a direct participant within the secret plan. The intuition and animus that Marion feels while at the motel is felt by the audience. As Marion frissons while hearing Norman+s female parent cry at him, the audience+s intuitions are heightened as Hitchcock has, at this point, made Marion the critical nexus between the audience and the secret plan. The initial confrontation between Marion and Norman Bates is used by Hitchcock to subtly and easy rock the audience+s understanding from Marion to Norman. Hitchcock compels the audience to place with the quiet and diffident character whose devotedness to his invalid female parent has cost him his ain individuality. After Marion and Norman complete dining, Hitchcock has secured the audience+s empathy for Norman and the audience is made to oppugn its old relationship with Marion whose condemnable behavior does non compare to Norman+s apparently honest and respectable life style. The audience is reassured, nevertheless, when Marion, upon returning to her room, decides to return the money and face the effects of her actions. Upon the

introduction of Norman, Hitchcock introduces the first of several characte r parallels within Psycho. 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 compulsive and obsessive actions that drove Marion to steal the money is recognisable, albeit unusual behaviour, that the audience embraces as its sympathy is primarily directed towards her character. 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. 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 a bilities to discover why Norman+s predicament seemed more worthy of its sympathy than Marion+s. During the infamous shower scene, Hitchcock conveys a sense of cleansing for the audience. Hitchcock has reassured the audience of Marion+s credibility and introduced Norman as a wholesome character. The audience+s newly discovered security is destroyed when Marion is murdered. Even more disturbing for the audience, however, is that the scene is shot not through Marion+s eyes, but those of the killer. The audience, now in a vulnerable state looks to Norman to replace Marion as its main focus in its subjective role. After Marion+s murder, the audience+s role in the film takes a different approach. Hitchcock provokes the audience to utilise the film+s other charact ers in order to solve the mystery of Marion+s death yet he still successfully maintains the sympathetic bond between Norman and the audience. Interestingly, Hitchcock plays on the audience+s obsession with the stolen money as the audience knows that it had been sunk yet clings to the fact that Marion+s death may have been a result of her crime with the introduction of Sam, Lila, and Arbogast. Hitchcock uses Arbogast+s character to arouse suspicion within the audience. Arbogast+s murder is not as intense as Marion+s because the audience had not developed any type of subjective bond with his character. Arbogast+s primary motivation, however, was to recover the stolen money which similarly compels the audience to take an interest in his quest. 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. When Sam and Lila venture to the Bates Motel to investigate both Marion+s and Arbogast+s disappearances, Hitchcock presents the audience with more character parallels. As Lila begins to explore Norman+s home, Hitchcock conveniently places Sam and Norman in the parlour where Marion had dined with Norman before she had been murdered. As the two men face each other, the audience is able to see their contrasting personalities in relation to Marion. Sam, who had legitimately gained Marion+s affection is poised and respectable in comparison to Norman, whose timid nature and sexual repression is reflected in the scenes of Lila+s exploration of his bedroom. The conflict that arises between Sam and Norman reflects the fact that Sam had what Norman wanted but was unable to attain due to his psychotic nature. Psycho concludes by providing a blatant explanation for Norman+s psychotic tendencies. The audience, although it had received a valid explanation for Norman+s actions, is left terrified and confused by the last scene of Norman and the manifestation of his split personality. Fa ced 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. 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. Hitchcock enforces the idea that all the basic emotions and sentiments derived from the film can be felt by anyone as the unending battle +between good and evil exists in all aspects of life. The effective use of character parallels and the creation of the audience+s subjective role in the plot allows Hitchcock to entice terror and a convey a lingering sense of anxiety within the audience through a progressively intensifying theme. Hitchcock+s brilliance as a director has consolidated Psycho+s place among the most reputable and profound horror films ever made.