Psycho Hero's Journey Analysis

Although the movie Psycho, by Alfred Hitchcock, does not follow the “Heroic Journey” format perfectly; the events that take place in Psycho imitate it closely. This is achieved through the meticulous creation of Norman Bates, as we observe a culmination of his actions, emotions, and the events that take place in his life. Psycho follows the traditional format by having a similarity to the 12 stages, beginning with the “ordinary world”, and ending with “atonement/resurrection”. In the initial stage, we have the “beginning” of the movie introducing Norman Bates, the owner of the Bates Motel. Of the first two stages in Psycho, this is by far the most prominent due to the fact that the initial ordinary world, including Mary Crane, was used to emphasize

At the beginning of the film, Mary Crane is entrusted with the task of delivering forty-thousand dollars to the bank. When the opportunity to steal the money arises, she exhibits no hesitation or doubt in her decision to steal the money. Conversely, after Mary Crane steals the money, she begins to take on the symptoms of paranoia that plague her conscious so dominantly, that she begins to regret her actions. Even when it looked as if Mary crane had come to her ethical senses, when she says “I’m going back to Phoenix” with the intention of returning the money, and begins to write a bank statement righting her wrong, she instantaneously refutes the idea of repentance and tears up the document; henceforth, although the Mary Crane exhibits feelings of regret, for a small period of time, those feelings of regret only surface after the initial call to adventure has been accepted. One can deduce that although Psycho’s protagonist showed feelings of remorse and repentance, those feelings did not pertain to the initial absence of reluctance; meaning that Hitchcock’s main character never exhibited feelings of reluctance, straying away from the traditional format. The reason that Hitchcock made the protagonist have a

The context that Psycho takes place in, is that when Norman was a young boy, his mother began to date another man after his father died. The complex that Norman possessed caused him experience feelings of rage and jealousy towards his mother’s partner; in turn, these emotions provoked Norman to take drastic measures by killing his mother and her partner in order to relieve himself of these emotions. Hitchcock’s movie, Psycho, depicts Norman Bates infected with multiple personality disorder, evidenced by him attempting to live the life of himself, and his mother. Consequentially of his complex, Norman additionally projects his feelings of jealousy onto his deceased mother. Norman is able to project his emotions onto his mother because of the facade, that he created, of his own mother being alive, due to regression. Hitchcock uses Norman’s adoption his mother’s personality into himself, to represent to what extent the disabilities that an individual possesses, can affect an individual. In Psycho’s case, Norman Bates’ Oedipus complex is presented as the main factor that encouraged Norman’s decision to kill his mother and her partner. This decision was solely fueled by jealousy due to the Oedipus complex;