Hitchcock's Manipulation of the Audience's Point of View in the Shower Scene in Psycho

Hitchcock's Manipulation of the Audience's Point of View in the Shower Scene in Psycho

Hitchcock has a unique style when it comes to films and manipulation

of the audience. He likes to give the audience several types of view

that in turn give us an incite into the characters feelings and

emotions. He likes to change the lighting, camera angle and

mise-en-scene to manipulate he viewer's point of view. He is a

talented director with unique ability to twist the audience's opinions

and play on emotions with the greatest of ease.

In the shower scene in Psycho, The first shot he chooses to give us is

of a voyeuristic one. He show us Norman Bates moving a picture aside

so that he can peep into the room of Marion a guest at the Bates

motel. The picture he moves out of the way to see into her room is one

that depicts the rape of Lucretia a well-known piece of art and

fitting with the act of Norman! We then see him peeping through a hole

in the wall of the young lady getting undressed then the shot swings

to the audience being the one looking through the hole. Hitchcock

manages to pull this off by placing a black ring around the shot so

that it looks as though we are looking through the hole. This shows us

the point of view of Norman Bates and makes the female seem very

vulnerable. The idea of her getting undressed and Norman spying on her

makes us feel sympathy for Marion and yet there is great excitement

when we ourselves get to look at the black undergarments worn by

Marion.

Then we have a shot of Norman deciding that he has had enough and what

he is doing is morally wrong. He leaves the parlour and heads up to

the main house. The ca...

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...s happens we hear

Marion fall out of the bath. We don't actually get a shot of her

falling it is just presumed by the audience that she falls. We then

see the draped over the bath followed by a shot of Marion's feet in

the bath as the blood swirls down the drain into the plug's vortex.

The idea of the blood swirling down the drain could be interpreted as

Marion's life being washed away with the blood. When we see this we

subconsciously know that Marion is dead. WE then get a final shot of

the camera zooming in on Marion's eye. The light is still surrounding

her. This is when we know that Marion is dead and this is also when

the fear begins to fade. The fading of the shot mimics the fading of

the audiences fear. There is a strange sense of relief, which is also

a common trait of gothic fiction. The calm after the storm.