In this assignment, I am going to analyse the way that Alfred Hitchcock gains the sympathy of the audience for Marian Crane even though she steals $40,000.
At the start of the film, the credits are shown. Hitchcock thought hard about the way he would show them. The screen is made up of black and white horizontal bars, which keep on splitting. This shows the two conflicting sides of the film (good verses evil!) During the credits, the ‘Psycho’ theme tune is played. This helps to create tension and suspense even before the film has started.
The opening scene begins with a camera panning round the skyline of Phoenix, Arizona without focusing on anything in particular. The camera then stops and moves in on one building. It then moves onto one open window and zooms in through it. These camera shots show that what is about to happen could easily happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. The way the camera moves through the window and into the hotel room is almost like it was spying on Marian and her boyfriend, Sam, so immediately gaining sympathy for the character.
The first time that you actually see Marian Crane is when she is lying on the bed with only white underwear on. The audience sees an innocent quality about her due to the colour underwear she is wearing. The camera then zooms in on her uneaten lunch, which establishes the fact that she has been on her lunch hour yet has been too busy doing something else to eat it!
There is then a mid shot of Marian and Sam together in profile which shows how much Marian is in love with Sam. A long shot follows with the two of them on the bed showing Marians feelings towards Sam.
When Marian gets dressed, she dresses in light white colours, which shows her innocence. Marian and Sam then talk. The camera pan’s Sam when he is walking back and forth, stressed about paying his wife alimony along with his Father’s debts. When Marian sighs and exclaims that she pays too in an emotional way, the audience gives sympathy as she is suffering also (A close up shot helps us feel sorry for her as well.)
Marian truly wants a civil relationship without any secrecy. She is extremely depressed but soon picks up when Sam agrees to be open about their relationship and agrees to go to dinner with Marian and her sister.
All Marian wants is to be happily married. She tells this to Sam who in return says that it is impossible and starts making up excuses. Marian then turns and walks out of the room, as she doesn’t want to talk about Sam’s divorce. The audience sincerely feel for Marian, as she only wants what other couples take for granted.
Even in this opening scene, there is already a contrast between good and evil. The blinds in the room show split personality along with dark and light.
In the second scene, Marian enters her office at work. From the moment she arrives, marriage seems to be in the topic of conversation. An annoying colleague of Marian’s keeps on going on about how she has had phone calls from her husband and mother when Marian asks if anyone called while she was away. She eventually gets round to telling Marian that her sister called to say she was going away for the weekend. The audience feel sympathy for Marian as it means she will be all alone for the two days.
We feel sorry for Marian when she says she has a headache. When offered a tablet, she explains that that alone could not get rid of unhappiness.
A client then enters the shop. He talks about how he is buying his daughter a house for her wedding present. The client, Mr. Cassidy explains that this is not buying happiness but rather buying away unhappiness. He says that his daughter has never had an unhappy day in her life. This is a big contrast with Marian. All the way through their conversation, Mr. Cassidy remains leering over Marian while she is sitting. The audience feel sorry for her as it shows that he is the most dominant one.
When the client goes away, Marian’s colleague tells Marian that Mr. Cassidy was flirting with Marian and not with her as he must have seen her wedding ring.
There are a few pictures up on the wall in the office. Behind Marian, there is a picture of a desert. This matches Marians life, Barron and alone.
For most of the scene, Marian remains seated with her boss, colleague and client above her. She is also at the back of the shot, which makes her look frail and weak. When the people look down on her, it makes her appear unimportant. The audience really feel for Marian, as no one seems to be paying her much attention.
During the scene, you learn that everyone has a light and dark side. E.g. the client is buying his daughter a house but won the money through gambling. Also, Marians pleasant boss had a bottle of whisky stored away in his office.
At the end of the scene, when Marian leaves the office, her shadow is behind her. This shows that the evil side of Marian is behind her.
Marians boss gave her $40,000 of Mr. Cassidy’s money to put into the bank. The audience feel sympathy for her when she says to her colleague that she will bank it and then go home to sleep off her unhappiness.
When we see Marian in the third scene, she is walking into her bedroom wearing black underwear. This shows that Marian has lost some of her innocence yet still has some of herself left inside as it is the same style as before. When the film ‘Psycho’ was made, woman who wore black underwear were seen as loose woman.
One thing you notice is that when she was walking in, Marian’s shadow was in front of her which could show that she is turning evil.
The next thing we see is a point of view shot of the money Marian was supposed to be taking to the bank on her bed. The look on Marian’s face shows that she is feeling guilty about stealing the money but only wants to be happy. The audience feel so sorry for Marian as you can tell that she isn’t pleased about what she is going to do.
She feels that she is trapped and unable to escape. There are a lot of rectangular images in the scene, i.e. doors and mirrors, which makes it look like Marian is stuck, been framed in a cage or box with no way of reaching freedom.
The camera then pans around to an empty suitcase. This establishes that Marian is planning on running away. There is also another point of view shot of Marian filling it with her clothes. The look on her face shows that she feels terrible for what she is doing.
When Marian is in front of a mirror, she finds it very difficult to look into it. The audience definitely feels sympathy towards her, as she hates herself for what she’s doing. The mirror symbolises two sides of a personality, good and evil.
When Marian is getting her things ready to leave, there is an establishing shot of her putting documents into a black bag. The black bag signifies evil. There is also another shot of Marian putting the money, which is in a white envelope into the black bag. This shows the two sides, good and evil fighting each other.
There is no speech in this scene, yet the music really creates tension and suspense.
In this scene, there is also the first ever power shot of Marian to show that the money has given her a certain amount of power even though she feels horrid about her actions. This is a huge contrast from earlier on in the film when Marian was always portrayed as the weakest person in most of the shots. The audience feel sympathy towards Marian even though she is committing a dreadful sin as you can easily tell by the look on her face that she knows that she is doing wrong and detests herself for it.
When Marian puts some clothes on, she gets dressed in a white/grey dress. This shows that Marian still has some goodness left inside somewhere.
All around her bedroom, there are pictures of her Mother and relatives. This almost shows that they are looking down on her, horror-struck at her actions.
In the next scene, we see Marion driving away in her car along with the stolen money.
The camera does a close up shot on Marian to show the fear and nervousness in her face. Marian has a very expressive face that shows that she is not sure about what she is doing and certainly knows that she is in the wrong. Marian hears voices in her head and thinks to herself what people will do and say when they figure out what she has done. The audience feels sorry and sad for Marian as she is not in high spirits with what she has done and knows she has committed a terrible deed.
After that, the camera does a point of view shot of Marian looking out of her windscreen when she stops at a zebra crossing. She notices her boss crossing the road and acknowledges him. Its not until the man looks back at her in a strange manner after a few more steps when she realises what’s happened. She told her boss that she was unwell and was going straight home to lie down. So it looked a bit suspicious her driving away!
Tense music is then played to create trepidation, and tension. Marion carries on driving yet keeps on looking back, which shows her nervous disposition. When the camera does a close up on her face, you can see that she is terrified at the thought at what could happen to her if found out.
Later in the scene, Marian is driving in the dark. She starts seeing blurs and the glare of car headlights. This shows that she is confused and isn’t quite sure about everything. The audience feels pity towards Marian as she only wants a happy, normal life and feels dreadful for what she’s done.
The next time that we see Marion, she is asleep in her car at the side of the road with a policeman knocking on her window. Marion looks horrified when she wakes up as she thinks she is in trouble. We can tell this when she quickly tries to drive away only for the policeman to stop her. A close up shot of Marion’s face shows how nervous she actually is.
When Marion is talking to the police officer, he is wearing dark sunglasses. You can’t tell the policeman’s character as it is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. The audience feels so sorry for Marion as really, the police are there to help with any problem whereas in this scene it is ironic as the policeman is portrayed as the villain.
During the scene, there are almost fifty different shots. This helps to create tension. The camera repeatedly cuts between Marian and the police officer to show that it is almost a battle between them. It also makes Marion look like a victim. Again in this scene, the police officer is looking down on Marion in the car, making Marion appear weak and vulnerable once more. The audience feel for Marion, as everyone seems to look down on her as if she was worthless and didn’t have any value.
When the policeman eventually lets Marion leave in the car, the tense music is played to build up suspense. Marion notices that the policeman is following her when she looks in her mirror. The mirror once again shows two different conflicting sides of good and evil. The audience knows how Marion must be feeling and they feel so sorry for her as she only wants to be free, and able to live her life the way she wishes.
This film unquestionably shows that appearances can be deceiving! In this scene, it appears that the police officer is the enemy when really he is there to help. Also, later on in the movie, Marion meets a seemingly pleasant, genuine man named Norman Bates who in due course turns out to be a psychotic murderer who will be the one who takes Marion’s life!
In this film ‘Psycho,’ Alfred Hitchcock uses a wide variety of techniques to gain the audiences sympathy for Marion Crane. From camera shots to the clothes she wears, he spent a lot of his time planning the ways he would reveal her. The time and money that Hitchcock invested in the film paid off in the end when the film proved to be one of the best horror films of its time.