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Good And Evil In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

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Alfred Hitchcock Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock redefined the laws of cinematic history when he released his most popular thriller film Psycho in 1960, staring Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates and Janet Leigh as Marion Crane. Psycho follows the story of a Phoenix secretary who embezzles $40,000 from her employer 's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother. Hitchcock uses mise-en-sćene of motifs to explores several different themes such as voyeurism, duality and the line between good and evil to manipulate and position the audience in each scene.

When Hitchcock first introduces Norman Bates to the film, he is seen as a lonely young man, who is purely devoted to his mother. Hitchcock …show more content…

In order to change the position of the audience and control how the audience feels towards characters, Hitchcock employs numerous themes such as good vs evil to position the audience to feel empathy for Norman. When Norman cries out "Mother! Oh god, mother! Blood! Blood!." the audience immediately feel sympathetic for Norman because of his mothers doings. After Norman finds Marion 's dead body on the ground, he hurls himself out of the bathroom and slams against the wall, causing one of the small framed bird images to fall to the ground, the bird on the picture was a songbird, this symbolism the death of an innocent. This is also a hint at Norman 's duplicitous nature. Immediately after Marion 's sudden death, the camera now follows Norman 's point of view, focusing on every detail of the clean up. Especially the aftermath when the car is sinking in the lake and it suddenly stops half way through, the audience wants it to keep sinking so the murder can be covered up. It is only then truely discovered how Norman is enslaved to his 'mother ' both emotionally and physically is and why he does what he does.

Hitchcock in his groundbreaking film Psycho employed techniques such as mise-en-sćene and motifs to explore themes of voyeurism, dualism and good vs evil by positioning the viewers in each scene as a third perspective, outsiders looking in to reinforce the theme of Birds

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