ipl-logo

Alfred Hitchcock's Use Of Symbolism In The Film Psycho

758 Words4 Pages

Alfred Hitchcock used various symbols throughout the film Psycho to allow the viewer to get an insight of what is happening in the film. Symbolism is an exceptional way to entice the viewer as it creates suspense and makes it better to understand the film. Alfred uses paintings as a symbol, which can be seen in multiple scenes, to symbolize a certain character in the film to the painting and foreshadow events in the film. This allows the viewer to get more detail on the character’s personality and what is about to happen. In the first picture, we can see Norman Bates is looking at a painting known as Susannah and The Elders. The painting portrays a story from the Bible in which two elder men are spying on a woman taking a bath and then attempt …show more content…

This painting reflects Norman’s suppressed sexuality due to his mother having control over his mind and …show more content…

The painting contains quite a small bird which can be translated to a powerless and weak figure that can be related to Marion since she is the weak and helpless character in this film being prey upon by Norman who is seen besides hawks in certain scenes. The painting is placed right outside of the bathroom in which Marion is killed showing that the bathroom was the trap for her while Norman, the hawk in this case, killed her in the shower. The painting reflects Marion’s personality as weak and powerless and foreshadows that something wrong was going to happen to Marion similar to the Susannah and The Elders painting. The painting symbolizes Marion since the bird in the painting is also small, powerless, and weak. The painting does an effective job in letting the viewer relate bird to Marion and foreshadows her death since Norman in placed in scenes with bigger birds like a hawk. Alfred uses a close-up shot in this scene to make sure the painting is clearly shown to the viewers similar to all his other scenes with

Show More
Related
875 Words | 4 Pages

The bird also symbolizes how people go too far with the amount of power they have. The bird has clipped wings, is trapped in a cage, and its feet are tied up, which means that the bird has no escape. The bird has no freedom and has no way to escape, because it cannot walk or run. Since the bird is being abused and has no power, it is traumatized and explains how its life is like a nightmare. In the text, it states, “His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream/his wings are clipped and his feet are tied” (Angelou paragraph 5).

Read More
631 Words | 3 Pages

Catherine owns a number of caged birds in her chamber. The birds symbolise freedom and the cages she keeps them in symbolises lack of freedom. “I told all this to the cages of birds in my chamber and they listened quite politely. I began to keep birds in order to hear them chirping, but most often now they have to listen to mine”. Symbolism helps show how her perspective changes as she matures.

Read More
765 Words | 4 Pages

Correspondingly, in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou’s short story shows symbolism through the surroundings of the protagonist. To clarify, “black-crepe-dress gloom… black-dressed usher… woolen black clothes worn,” the color and clothing of the guests show that there was a ceremony happening for a fallen loved one. The protagonist shows the color black as a symbol of death, oppression, and bleakness. Also, “it was impossible not to record their roles in the drama,” this sentence from the story is quite interesting because it shows that the protagonist was being oblivious with her words. To enumerate, this a symbolism of grief.

Read More
965 Words | 4 Pages

Is Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ an appropriate text for VCE English in 2018? A speech delivered by a young feminist teacher to the Victorian Department of Education Conference on VCE text selection. October 17, 2017—Speech—Jemina Smith Good morning, my name is Jemina Jade Smith, and I am thrilled to have been given the opportunity to speak at this conference, to share my thoughts on the department’s selection of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window as one of our Year 12 English prescribed texts. I have not taught this text previously, and last month, I decided to watch a re-release of the film.

Read More
754 Words | 4 Pages

Captured Audience Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock is a most significant director and is considered “the master of suspense”. He achieves in capturing the audience’s primary senses of suspicion and awareness in the film Psycho (1960). The film language affects and manipulates the audience with recurring narrative and visual elements of style, using shot choice, mise-en-scene, narrative structure and soundtracks. Conveying a lasting sense of anxiety through an intensifying theme within the audience. Hitchcock misleads the audience to create a shock in Psycho, following the character’s journey.

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

When looking at the painting you feel like you can walk right into it and you would never stop. You can see as far as your eye meets. In this painting the depth is portrayed by the mountains in the background, the mountains are as far out as you can see. Depth is significant in this painting because it allows you to feel like you are right there in the painting, and can see on forever. Creating depth in an painting was significant during this time period because it was something that was hard to do, and this artist portrayed it very well.

Read More
1047 Words | 5 Pages

My deliberate framing of predatory birds further enhances the audience’s perception of Marion’s imminent demise because she is as unsuspecting as the passive birds which surround her. Norman’s statement that he “likes to stuff things” foreshadows her death and the raven in the background furthermore

Read More
1081 Words | 5 Pages

the actual fact that the painter is gazing at one thing that 's visible to spectators within the mirror that the figures at the painting don 't observe implies that the painting goes on the far side the boundaries of Classical illustration and involves a deconstructive reading of the

Read More
620 Words | 3 Pages

The Van Gogh bedroom exhibit was a showing of his career from the beginning when he began painting in Nuenun with some of his earlier works all the way to the very end when he was in the Saint-Paul asylum. The exhibit mainly highlighted the pinnacle of his career, which was the painting of the three bedrooms. Each one so similar but extremely different if looked at very closely. Through this time frame Van Gogh’s form had drastically changed from when he began with landscape portraits such as “Rural Village at Night”. What characterized his beginning works were dark bleak colors, evident brush marks and noticeable texture from said brush marks.

Read More
565 Words | 3 Pages

There are many different types of symbols in today’s culture. For example, many people associate lions with strength, valor, and bravery, and owls with wisdom and a hunter of the night. The symbol that is most interesting is the bird. Birds have many different symbols, which stand of a variety of different events and emotions. These are expressed in the poems “”Hope is a Thing with Feathers”, by Emily Dickson, and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, as well as symbolism in the play “The Miracle Worker”.

Read More
1197 Words | 5 Pages

Symbolism can use an object (like a tree of birds), or art, (like Melinda’s art project or Mr. Freeman's canvas) to represent an abstract idea. Laurie Halse Anderson uses symbolism to hint at a certain mood or emotion, rather than just blatantly saying it. So, the use of symbolism is important because it helps create meaning and emotion in a story. Symbolism makes a book fun to read, the symbolism produces a thought provoking work of art and it, (like in this book), adds meaning to seemingly unrelated objects and elicits emotions in the

Read More
492 Words | 2 Pages

The bird symbolized when Minnie used to be free and the tragedy what happened when she was married. The bird was captured and put in a pretty little cage, much like Minnie however her cage was one of marriage. The bird was Minnie’s youth and innocence. The bird was strangle by Mr. Wright, in turn Minnie strangled him in their marriage bed. He broke her in marriage so she killed him in the very symbol of marriage.

Read More
555 Words | 3 Pages

Even the woman’s frame and posture seem to follow the lines created by the railings of the viewing box. The railings are also implied lines, the first thing our eyes go to is the woman, and then we follow the railings to the man who has his gaze set on the woman. The man’s gaze gives us implied lines that lead us back to the main focus of the painting, the woman. The artist also uses light and dark to guide our eyes to the important parts of the artwork. Most of the artwork is dark, while the woman and the man looking at her are in the light.

Read More
757 Words | 4 Pages

During the Rococo period, Jean- Honore Fragonard painted many important and beautiful paintings. Two very interesting pieces were “The Swing” and “The Stolen Kiss” both were painted by Jean-Honore Fragonard. Fragonard was a French painter during the Rococo period, he produces more than 550 paintings. “The Rococo movement was an art movement that emerged in France and spread throughout the world in the late 17th and early 18th century. The word is a derivative of the French term rocaille, which means “rock and shell garden ornamentation””

Read More
774 Words | 4 Pages

These were explored by the use of the motifs of birds, eyes, hands and mirrors (Filmsite.org, n.d.). Hitchcock skilfully guides the audiences through a tale

Read More

More about Alfred Hitchcock's Use Of Symbolism In The Film Psycho

Open Document