Psycho and Marion Essay

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Psycho

Psycho is a 1960 American horror movie which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The actors were Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Janet Leigh. The screen play was based on the 1959 novel called psycho by Robert Bloch. He was inspired by the murderer and grave robber Ed Gein from Wisconsin. The film centers on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane, who ends up at the Bate’s motel after stealing money from her employer, and the motel’s disturbed owner and manager, Norman Bates.
The movie begins with Marion Crane, a secretary from Phoenix, Arizona, having an affair with a married man named Sam Loomis. Marion wanted more from their relationship, but they depart without resolving their future. Marion returns to her job in a real estate office and encounters a sexist cowboy buying a home for his soon-to-be-wedded daughter. She eventually steals $40,000 that the cowboy used for this transaction, but her boss notices her at a traffic light in the city after she asked him for the afternoon off due to a headache. This awkward moment triggers her paranoia, as she flees to California. While driving to meet Sam, she parked along the road midway to sleep when an officer awakens her. He becomes suspicious of her when she began to display physical and mental agitation. The policeman decided to follow her as she drove off to continue with her journey to California. The officer sees her trading her car for another at a car dealership. Later that evening, tired of driving through heavy rain, she stopped for the night at the isolated Bates Motel.
The owner of the motel, Norman Bates, tells Marion that he rarely has customers since the new highway bypassed the place. He mentioned to her that he lives with his mother in the house across the motel and invites Marion to share supper with him. When Norman goes to the house to prepare sandwiches she hears him arguing with his unseen mother about his supposed sexual interest in Marion. When he returns with sandwiches continues their conversation, the talk came to the topic of institutionalize his mother. Norman angrily insists he could never abandon his mother.
While at the motel, Marion begins to feel guilty about stealing the money and resolved to return to Phoenix to return the cash. After making the decision to return the money, Marion removes her clothes to prepare for a shower. Unknown to her Norman watches secretly through a peephole in his office wall, “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed as sexual object” (Mulvey, Laura, Pg.19). She calculates that she can replace the $700 she stole her $824.12 in savings. Marion tears up her note, flushes it down the toilet, and began to shower. A shadowy figure of a woman dressed in black enters the bathroom, glance at her naked body through the shower curtain than stabs her to death. Norman, the owner of the motel, finds Marion corpse and apparently concluded his mother committed the murder. He cleaned the bathroom, wraps Marion's body in the shower curtain in the trunk of her car along with all of her possessions and drove the car into a nearby swamp. “Man is reluctant to gaze at his exhibitionist like the split between spectacle and narrative supports the man’s role as the active one of advancing the story, making things happen” (Mulvey, pg. 20).
Shortly after, Sam is contacted by Lila, Marion's sister, and Milton Arbogast, a private detective. Arbogast was hired to find Marion and recover the money for the cowboy. Arbogast traces her to the motel and questions Norman, who lies unconvincingly about her having left after staying a single night. He refused to let Arbogast talk to his mother, claiming she is ill. Arbogast called Lila and tells her he will contact her again after questioning Mrs. Bates. Arbogast entered Norman's house and was surprised by a knife wielding figure, who stabed him to death. Norman confronts his mother and urges her to hide in the
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