Psycho: Narrative and the Film Extract

Hitchcock's Psycho was actually based on a novel by Robert Bloch. Hitchcock and his screenwriter, Joseph Stefano, took some artistic liberties and the story in a way they saw fit. For example, Stefano felt that the character of Norman Bates was too much of an outcast; therefore, he wrote Bates as someone "normal," making him far more relatable . That being said, the story is told in a non-linear way due to its complex storyline. With the introductory shots, the audience is introduced to the character of Marion Crane. She seems to be in a critical stage in her relationship where she wants to settle down, but her debts and her boyfriend's debts are standing in the way. At this point, the audience in convinced that the story revolves around this female character. The fact that she is killed 30 minutes into the film completely changes everything the audience could have predicted about the end of the story. From the beginning, it seems to have a linear 3 act-structure, but when the characters hit certain plot points, the story becomes even more confusing because the audience is not used to seeing such plot twists. Every plot point, especially the death of Marion Crane, is an attempt by Hitchcock and Stefano play around with what the normal audience would have expected from their movies at the time.

One principal that the film uses other than narrative sequence as a structure is the presence of the knife. Every time the knife is present in the scene, some new information is always shared with the audience or some new twist is introduced. The first time the knife is know, the audience experiences the death of the Marion Crane, a character who the audience thought was the main character of the story. The second the knife is shown, Arbogast ends up dead as well. Because as the time the audience was not used to seeing the "bad guy" as the main character, Norman Bates was not considered the new main character; instead of Bates, the Audience's first response is the consider Arbogast as the main character. With his death, the audience realizes that the figure that killed him was a woman so Norman cannot be the killed. By this time, Norman is the character who has appeared the most on screen so the audience begins to sympathize with him. Finally, the knife appears for the last time when Lila Crane is about to be murdered. Although Lila does not die by the knife, the audience officially learns the Norman Bates really is the killer. As seen through these examples, the knife is the one key principal that serves to move the plot forward.

The nature of our engagement with the story is that we, as the audience, think that we know more about what is going on than the characters do. I say "think" because it is not completely true. There are instances where Hitchcock has us believed that Norman is a disturbed but a nice young man. In the end, we see Norman to the extreme of being a psychopath. When Norman is wrapping Marion's body after the shower scene, we can see his concern for his mother. All the facts leading up to the death of Marion -- the argument between Norman and his mother, Norman's inability to go against his mothers' words, and Norman's desire to protect his mother -- make the audience believe that Norman can do anything for his mother. When he first sees Marion's dead body, there is a sense of shock on his face which indicates that he may not be behind the murder. The hints quickly add up to make the audience believe that the mother is most likely the killer, which is later "seen" that she is with the death of Arbogast. The whole time the audience believes that they know something that the other character need to know, but in the end they find out that they don't. This is the one nature of the story that keeps bringing in the audience.

 As I said before, Stefano changed the character of Norman Bates to someone the audience could relate to and accept as the protagonist. This character had to be casted perfectly for that to happen. Anthony Perkins made a great Norman Bates for that reason. His posture and personality, along with his acting seemed normal. Because of this, the audience had the opportunity to relate to this average Joe. He seemed to have some issues with his mother, but that's what makes his character so normal. This trouble he has symbolizes every man's struggle to find himself in the world. Perkins plays Bates in such a way that the audience can do nothing but feel for the guy.


Sources:
http://www.galyakay.com/filmnarrative.html

http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/film/Psycho.pdf