1st Psycho Image Analysis

This scene shows Norman Bates looking through the wall to the room where Marion is staying. He is watching her as she undresses before she has a shower. The scene has low key lighting and the shadows are covering the majority of Norman’s face which foreshadows the truth behind the murders. This voyeuristic act by Norman illustrates Laura Mulvey’s “Male Gaze” theory, and shows the audience the first sign that Norman is psychotic.  This is also the first sign we see that Norman is attached to Marion in an abnormal way. This scene is the most prominent presentation of voyeurism from auteur ‘Alfred Hitchcock’. In real life, Hitchcock himself was a voyeur fascinated by blonde women. In many of his films he would enjoy watching blonde women suffer as they acted out the scenes he specifically wrote for blondes. An example of this is the shower scene in Psycho and it is rumoured that Hitchcock made sure the water used was ice cold so that he could watch the blonde actress suffer and scream. The angle of this shot allows us to see the concentration on Norman's face as he is watching Marion, and it purposefully shows us the darkness covering Norman’s mind which represents the part of him that he created to deal with his mother’s death and shows his schizophrenia.