![]() ![]() Ultimately, the question of whether Marion is good or bad doesn't matter. This symbolism is diluted by the fact that he uses the same knife on Arbogast, though.) (Freudian aside: it's notable that Norman uses a knife to kill Marion-that he uses a long, sharp phallic symbol to, um, "get inside" her. And that sexual provocation leads to-yup, you got it-being killed. Marion is most memorable, and most remembered, as a sexual provocation. And the film in many ways takes Norman's perspective. ![]() In other words, the most vivid image of Marion is not of her being good, or bad it's of her taking a shower-and of her being watched in the shower.įor Norman, Marion isn't really a person she's a sexual fetish in his own psychodrama. The most famous scene in the film is the shower scene, in which Marion appears to be nude. To paraphrase The Hulk: don't make Norman Bates horny. Unfortunately, being sexy around Norman is just about the worst idea. Norman puts Marion in Room #1, where he can watch her through his creeptastic hole in the wall. Norman Bates is-in the words of the psychiatrist who diagnoses Norman's psychosis at the end of the film-"aroused" by Marion. She's neither an innocent maiden nor a sexy-but-taken housewife. This underlines another shocking thing about Marion: not only is she sexually desirable, she's sexually available. Secretary Caroline says to Marion:ĬAROLINE: He was flirting with you. Cassidy, a rich real estate client, finds her attractive… and he doesn't keep it subtle, either. Throughout the film, she's repeatedly sexualized, and presented as attractive and desirable. Yup: this film first makes Marion sexy… and then punishes her for being sexy. And we know from the first moments of Psycho that Marion is doing the nasty outside of wedlock. Marion acted uncharacteristically, passionately, and without due consideration. In stealing the money-in having sex outside of marriage-she went a little mad. MARION: Yes, and just one time can be enough. NORMAN: We all go a little mad sometimes. To which he responds "Frankly, yes.")Ĭheck out what she says to Norman over dinner: ("Am I acting as if something's wrong?" she asks a cop who stops her on the highway. She's no hardened criminal she practically gives herself away every time she encounters anyone. Marion's guilty about stealing the money, too. Marion is violating sexual conventions, but she's determined to stop, and behave like a "good girl" circa 1960. MARION: We can see each other, we can even have dinner… but respectably, in my house with my mother's picture on the mantel and my sister helping me broil a big steak for three! She goes on to say that they're going to continue their relationship in another manner. This is the last time," she declares after their afternoon tryst at the beginning of the film. Yes, she has sex with her married boyfriend, but she knows it's wrong, and she's resolved to stop. But the film assures us repeatedly that she's not really a bad person. She takes $40,000 (which is a huge chunk of change in today's dollars) in order to help her boyfriend get on his feet financially. This is her most important action in the film it's what most of her screen time is about. But in 1960 that nonsense was pearl clutch-inducing. It's no biggie (unless she gets fired) if she's doing that particular deed while playing hooky from her job. Today, it's no biggie if a female character has sex with a man that she's not married to. But somewhere down the list was this: it was deeply shocking for people to see that their main character wasn't a good person. The next few thousand ways in which Psycho traumatized the audiences of 1960 have to do with Norman, Norman's mom, and Norman's fondness for butcher knives. Yup: Marion Crane doesn't make it to the credits. Psycho broke the mold in a lot of ways, but perhaps the biggest shocker for the movie going public in the early 1960's was that the protagonist of Psycho is killed off halfway through the movie. Like the color palette of Psycho, Marion seems to be both black and white. Like Norman, our gal Marion seems to be split between the Dark Side and the Light Side of the Force. ![]()
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