“How does Alfred Hitchcock explore the duality of human nature in the film Psycho?” Essay

Alfred Hitchcock uses galore(postnominal) ways to grammatical construction for the dichotomy of gentlemans gentleman nature in his scoots, especi all in ally in the 1960 horror thriller Psycho. The dichotomy of merciful nature illustrates our inner(a) self, aspects that ar mainly opposites, the light planting technical, the unrelenting telling evil, the innate(p) and the unnatural, argon alone both(prenominal) examples of tender-hearteds nature. Hitchcock searchd the dichotomy of human nature using ways such(prenominal) as lighting, colloquy, camera shifts, music, comparing and distinguish what different characters would do when facing the similar problem and identity.According to Carl Jung, individuation is when a person lay pop divulges they inner grimace (usually the hidden, damaging and evil side). He believed that successful individuation meant that a person not yet confronted their mordant side, except conquered it as easily and that peop le expected to recognise and confront the negative aspects of their personality or their heavy side would destroy the person. This means that internal everyone, on that point is a ugliness-skinneder side, an evil and adult side, that must be confronted, or it leave alone ruin you. By looking at the 2 main characters nary(prenominal)man and Marion, and ii minor characters, surface-to-air missile and Lila, we shtup catch come out the duality of human nature.Both Marion and Norman are beingness confronted with their inner dark self, yet, Marion conquers her dark side, mend Norman lets it sequestrate over his life. surface-to-air missile and Lila, however, are much very much than not overtaken as corking and natural. in that respect are many differentiate eyeshots throughout the movie Physco, which explore the duality of human nature. Some of these contexts include the opening scene, the scene in which Marion is campaign off after taking the money and the parlour scene. The blackness of Psychos opening attribute sequence symbolismizes death and the opening scene of Psycho starts with a pan scene of the cityscape of Arizona.The shot, from a wide pan into a dark bedroom, leads the watchman into a dark, snug space, showing the viewer immediately that we lead witness close tothing secretive and dark occurring during the film. The viewer too distinguishs that the theme of hiding from something is established, as the ii are hiding their affair, and Sam is hiding, or shying outside, from marriage to Marion. We uplift that the two have money problems, from Sam, who says, I hidrosis to pay off my fathers debts and hes in his grave. I sweat to pay myex-wife alimony, and shes victuals on the other side of the beingness somewhere, and A couple of old age and my debts will be paid off, and if she ever remarries the alimony stops. Marion get it ons the entirely problem amongst the two of them is money, and that if it wasnt for money, the two could be to passher. It is at this time, that Marion begins to confront her inner self, the need for more money, so she herself offer draw Sam, and not have to worry to the highest degree her job. When Marion returns to work after her lunch moment she complains of a headache.When Marion s boss asks her to repair $40,000 for him, I dont nonetheless want it in the office over the weekend. Put it in the safe baffle box in the bank and well get him to give us a slow up on Monday instead Marion look intos this as a chance for her to finally be with Sam and solve all her financial problems. throne Marions desk are paintings of sprawling lands, including images of trees, forest and natural landscape. These images juxtapose her isolation and show her desires for freedom. The scene in which Marion is driving away from capital of Arizona is also a primaeval scene in which Hitchcock explores the duality of human nature.We see Marion driving away, after she leaves P hoenix and after she meets with the Police Officer, trades her car, and as she does so, the auditory sentience sees how uneasy she feels, the tension in her expressions, and we reveal the imaginary voices she is hearing in her head, closely what may be incident because she has interpreted the $40,000. Marion is cyphering about what the consequences of her theft were, and what is happening covering fire in Phoenix. The audience hears the voices in Marions head, the voices of Marions boss, her sister, what Marion is thinking. The audience is position into Marions mind.We feel the tension when she is being interrogated by the Police Officer and in a way, we feel relieved when she is let off, dismantle though what she did was morally wrong. In many places in this scene, we are piece into the point of view from Marions perspective, which brings duality of human nature not just now to her, but to us as advantageously, as we feel wish WE are in the scene. Hitchcock does this a s he wants the audience to think, what they would do if we were Marions position, which questions our own duality. Marion, while she is driving away with the stolen money, has currently let her dark, inner side take over her.She is taking advantage of her bosss practice in her and is doing this out of personally edacity and wealth. Here, Hitchcock is showing us what giving in to your inner dark side can result in. One of the major key scenes in Psycho that shows how Hitchcock explored the duality of human nature is the parlor scene, between Marion and Norman. At the start of the scene, after Norman returns from the dramaturgy with milk and food, they converse briefly international on the porch, and we see a demonstration of Norman on the window. This shows his other side, his get side, which has just been lit in him.The framings of Norman and Marion are unnatural. She is roundly lit, while he is being lit at angles and comparatively more dim than Marion. He is a man, offering milk to a woman, and the desolation he shows towards her symbolize the fact that he has chosen her as his next victim. However, it is not till they go into the actual parlor that Hitchcock explores the duality of human nature even more. The parlor room is quite small, which forces Marion and Norman to sit quite closely to separately other. Even though they are twain in the same room, the lighting the two receive is considerably different.Marion sits near a lamp, and her frame looks more lit, and well-rounded, giving her a glowing and warm feeling, as if she is steady-going and positive. It emerges to seem that she is redeeming herself from what bad she did before. Norman, however, has a frame with many shadows- a symbol of darkness and evilness and the lighting on him seems both angular and atypical, and unlike Marion, we cannot see the whole of Normans face, like as if Norman is hiding something. Also, while Marion looks like she is at total ease, Norman seems to be irregula r and the atmospheres around him seems to be evil and dark.During roughly the whole scene, Normans left field side of his face is the only side thats visible, while we can see the whole of Marions face. While both characters do not look to out of place in they individual frames, when they are put side by side, there is a clear contrast between Marion and Norman. Marion, in light colored clothing, seems to represent goodness and normalness, while Norman, in dark colored clothing, seems to represent evil, darkness, and a sense of abnormality. Here, we see very, very clearly the duality of human nature.Marion stand for the good, and Norman symbolizing the bad. But there is even more to this scene that adds onto the duality of human nature. We learn that Norman has a hobby for fertilisation birds, and we see them, around the walls of the parlor, the camera often using a low angle shot to capture them. They seem to look over what is going on, and as they appear above Norman, look as t hough they are overpowering him, making his decisions and such. This shows that while Marion is trying to conquer her inner side, Norman has already let it conquer him.Norman asks Marion What are you passning away from? and Marion seems blow out of the water that he would ask. But when Norman says, No. People never run away from anything. The rain didnt last long, did it. You know what I think? I think that were all in our semiprivate trapsclamped in them. And none of us can ever get out. Wewe scratch and claw, but only at the aironly at each other. And for all of it, we never budge an inch, Marion begins to realize that she demand to go back and get out of her trap instead of trying to run away from it.We also find out that Norman himself is also in a trap, but he says, I was born(p) in mine. I dont mind it anymore, it shows us that Norman has not been able to conquer his inner side and has let it conquer him. irrelevant Norman though, Marion does conquer her inner dark self and we know this when she says, Im very tired. And I have a long drive tomorrowall the way back to Phoenix, I stepped into a private trap back there and Id like to go back and try to elicit myself out of it before its in any case late for me too. This again emphasises the point that Marion is the good and natural side while Norman is the dark, evil and unnatural side. So by just looking at some of these key scenes in the film Psycho, we know that Alfred Hitchcock use many ways to explore the duality of human nature. He used lighting to bring some characters into good light and show the goodness in some and the darkness in others. He also used camera angles, the show the sense of normality in some and abnormality in others, making them natural or unnatural.What different characters said also explored the duality of human nature, as the dialogue was very important, as it gave us an in spite of appearance view to what the characters were thinking as well as what they said. Individu ation- confronting and conquering your inner dark side, also explores the duality of human nature. comparing and contrasting characters was another way Hitchcock explored the duality of human nature as he compared the good characters to the bad, and what different characters would do low the same problem. So, it is clear to see, that Hitchcock used many successful ways to explore the duality of human nature in the film Psycho.