Psycho: Narrative and the Film Extract

The film Psycho was known for it's advanced narrative structure for it's time. Hitchcock was able to really manipulate the thoughts of the audience in this film. The story starts off with a woman, Marion Crane, having an affair with a man in Phoenix, Arizona. The man she is having an affair with is from Los Angeles and carries a lot of money problems. This is a rising action that reveals conflict. The woman goes to work and is put in charge of $40,000 that she planned to steal and to resolve her lover's money issues. While skipping town, she ends up at the Bate's Motel where she meets the real main character, who is a young man named "Norman," that runs the motel. His mother seems to be mentally abusive towards him which makes the audience feel that the man is harmless and the mother as psycho. No pun intended. The woman from Phoenix is murdered in the hotel from who seems to be the mother of Norman. After following Norman for a little while, the story completely 180's and you come to find that his mother never existed and he pretends to be his mother. This film is told from a limited third person storytelling style. Time passes chronologically in this film over about a span of a couple of weeks. The scene where Marion is killed in the shower changes the structure to the film because who the audience thought the main character was, ends up being not as important to the film as they thought. Also when Marion's sister reveals the corpse of Ms. Bates, it alters the structure because it reveals basically the whole mystery behind the storyline. The involvement with the characters Norman and Sam are close because after Marion is murdered, the storyline follows basically only them two. Also they show character developement. For example, Norman's actions because more suspicious and the audience starts to question him. Sam also is revealed to be a more compassionate and caring character. Norman was casted to be a normal looking, slender man to be less obvious about the actual mental sickness of his character. From his appearance, he instantly comes off as a normal character but completely turns into a mentally distressed psychopath. It also was obvious that Norman had affection for Marion when he first met her. A side of jealousy was exemplified by supposively his mother was introduced to show a the abusive side with his mother. This reveals the theme of maternal attachment because his Norman's obedience and loyalty to his mother in a creepy way.