by Sophie Playle

Created on: August 26, 2008

"Psycho" (1960) is often cited as director Alfred Hitchcock's most famous and highly praised movie, and has certainly stood the test of time as an iconic piece of cinematic art. The film follows the happenings in a motel, where Marion, a young woman, is hiding out after stealing a large sum of money from her employer's client. These circumstances lead to the encounter of hotel proprietor Norman Bates, a man who has lived too long under the dominion of his mother...

The underlying themes explored throughout the film are that of privacy and voyeurism. From start to finish, the film's narrative never stops turning around the question of privacy; someone is always watching someone else. As the plot develops, further invasions of privacy take us deeper and deeper into areas where the division between what is private and what is public begin merge: from Marion's first act of theft, to the hole in the wall through which Bates watches her.

The theme of violated privacy becomes more sinister when it is extended beyond the physical. The psychoanalyst makes it his job to expose the elusive secrets of the unconscious. Even after Marion's murder, her death does provide her with any form of privacy. Even though she is no longer present, the Private Eye makes it his business to conspire against the rights of privacy and investigate her past. This theme further escalates when near the end of the movie, we delve into the ruined mind of Bates, a man unable to experience privacy even within his own head, as the voice of his dead mother whispers 'they're probably watching me now.'

Other themes and motives present in the film to add to the sinister undertones include shadows, mirrors, and strangely, birds. Shadows are present from the very beginning of the movie where the blinds make dark bars over Marion and Sam as they look out the window. Bates' mother, until the end, is always cloaked in shadow. Shadows are perhaps used in conjunction with the theme of violated privacy, as it is from the shadows that we can be watched unaware.
As Marion eats, the shadows of stuffed birds loom over her. Furthermore, clever lighting in the hardware store turns the shadows of rakes into talons. This links into the theme of birds in the movie. Marion's surname is Crane, and she comes from Phoenix. Bates' hobby is stuffing birds, and at one point he tells Marion that she eats like a bird. This bird imagery causes Hitchcock's film The Birds' to spring to mind; perhaps Hitchcock was creating thematic links between these two thrillers.

Mirrors also appear as a theme throughout the movie. For example, Marion's eyes are reflected as she checks the rear-view mirror, and her face is reflected in a policeman's sunglasses. A motel window serves as a mirror by reflecting Marion and Norman together. Again, this theme can be linked back to voyeurism the violation of privacy as mirrors are used to watch and deceive. Less obviously, water is linked to mirrors, as calm water serves as a reflective surface. Violent water, such as that rushing from the shower, perhaps symbolises the ultimate break from passive, hidden observation, to dangerous, chaotic violation.

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