Psycho- Authority and Gender in parlour Scene- Production design and Actors Performance
This is the scene where Norman and Marion eats in the parlour.
In the beginning, from the dialogue, we can tell that Norman is the dominant character because he the one offering to eat in the Parlour, where Marion is the one being questioned. This is repeated when Norman tells Marion to sit down. The dominance of Norman, suggest the natural authority of a 'host', and this disregards the traditional views of males holding authority through money and status becomes norman has neither of these.
The use of birds is very significent in this scene. Birds can symbolize many things. Such as freedom, woman, and passiveness. Furthmore, Marion's last name is "Crane", i think that this is purposly done by Hitchcock to emphasis Marion has a free character. Marion can be compared to birds because in the film, she is represented as a free character. This is against the traditional stereotypes in society, because woman are supposed to stay at home, and are therefore "trapped". Whilst men leave the home and are "free". These gender roles are reversed because Marion is refered to as a bird, furthermore unlike most woman at the time, she had a job and left the house, also she is free in the sense that she can do whatever she wants. On the other hand, Norman is not a free character because he is "trapped" in the house. We can see that his character is more feministic because he admits to doing household work for his mom, and he rarely goes out.
The idea of birds being passive, connects with another theme in this scene, Taxidermy. Norman says that birds are passive, this could suggests that woman in general are the passive members of the society. Also to prove the passiveness of birds and woman, Norman stuffs birds. We can see that the birds are being stuffed, and are under control of Norman.
One of the most scary looking birds is the one looking over Norman, hanging on the wall. We see the bird when the shot of Norman changes, when Norman begins to talk abt his mother. I believe that the bird can represent the mother in the sense that the mother is a woman too, and is as if 'over looking' her son. Furthermore, the opened wings seemed look like a gaurdian angle, similarily the mother is dead, and is protecting and guideing his son. This becomes true later on when Norman, with the mother being dominant kills Marion, the mother can be seen as protecting Norman because she is stopping Marion from reporting her and taking Norman away from her, and also Marion is a suspicisous character where the mother might feel threatened, and is guideing Norman away from her.
Marion attempts to regain control of the situation by initiating questions about Norman's mother. But Norman quickly reassures his position by correcting her. Norman is a character that follows tradition, by being submissive to his mother. Since he is a character that follows tradition, he also assures traditional authority over woman, even when the woman is trying to gain control. Although Norman may not be trying to do this delibritly, we can see that it may be a natural instinct for men to be in control.
Near the end, as Marion is standing up, she looks down at Norman, while Norman looks up to Marion. This symbolises that after the 'power struggle' Marion eventually wins and gains authority over Norman. Even when Norman suggests that she say longer, she rejects him and leaves. this suggests that men in general are in control on the short term, but woman end up in control on the long term. I think this is quite true because in real life because woman eventually reach motherhood, and supposably, authority through motherhood over children is more powerful.
In this scene Marion is eating, another colloquial way to say eating, is stuffing. The word stuffing can therefore have two meanings. Like above, Norman is in control of the birds, and he is the one stuffing them, similarily if Marion is eating Norman's food, then Norman can be said to be stuffing her, and is the authoritive character in this scene. However, we notice that Marion never actually takes a finishes the small piece of bread. This symbolizes that Marion is not getting "stuffed", but just eating a little and tehrefore she is repelling against Norman's control. This is quite true in Marion's character, as she tends to repel the authority of other men throughout the film, such as rejecting Sam's offer to be together longer, and frequently deny any problems to the officer.
In the beginning, from the dialogue, we can tell that Norman is the dominant character because he the one offering to eat in the Parlour, where Marion is the one being questioned. This is repeated when Norman tells Marion to sit down. The dominance of Norman, suggest the natural authority of a 'host', and this disregards the traditional views of males holding authority through money and status becomes norman has neither of these.
The use of birds is very significent in this scene. Birds can symbolize many things. Such as freedom, woman, and passiveness. Furthmore, Marion's last name is "Crane", i think that this is purposly done by Hitchcock to emphasis Marion has a free character. Marion can be compared to birds because in the film, she is represented as a free character. This is against the traditional stereotypes in society, because woman are supposed to stay at home, and are therefore "trapped". Whilst men leave the home and are "free". These gender roles are reversed because Marion is refered to as a bird, furthermore unlike most woman at the time, she had a job and left the house, also she is free in the sense that she can do whatever she wants. On the other hand, Norman is not a free character because he is "trapped" in the house. We can see that his character is more feministic because he admits to doing household work for his mom, and he rarely goes out.
The idea of birds being passive, connects with another theme in this scene, Taxidermy. Norman says that birds are passive, this could suggests that woman in general are the passive members of the society. Also to prove the passiveness of birds and woman, Norman stuffs birds. We can see that the birds are being stuffed, and are under control of Norman.
One of the most scary looking birds is the one looking over Norman, hanging on the wall. We see the bird when the shot of Norman changes, when Norman begins to talk abt his mother. I believe that the bird can represent the mother in the sense that the mother is a woman too, and is as if 'over looking' her son. Furthermore, the opened wings seemed look like a gaurdian angle, similarily the mother is dead, and is protecting and guideing his son. This becomes true later on when Norman, with the mother being dominant kills Marion, the mother can be seen as protecting Norman because she is stopping Marion from reporting her and taking Norman away from her, and also Marion is a suspicisous character where the mother might feel threatened, and is guideing Norman away from her.
Marion attempts to regain control of the situation by initiating questions about Norman's mother. But Norman quickly reassures his position by correcting her. Norman is a character that follows tradition, by being submissive to his mother. Since he is a character that follows tradition, he also assures traditional authority over woman, even when the woman is trying to gain control. Although Norman may not be trying to do this delibritly, we can see that it may be a natural instinct for men to be in control.
Near the end, as Marion is standing up, she looks down at Norman, while Norman looks up to Marion. This symbolises that after the 'power struggle' Marion eventually wins and gains authority over Norman. Even when Norman suggests that she say longer, she rejects him and leaves. this suggests that men in general are in control on the short term, but woman end up in control on the long term. I think this is quite true because in real life because woman eventually reach motherhood, and supposably, authority through motherhood over children is more powerful.
In this scene Marion is eating, another colloquial way to say eating, is stuffing. The word stuffing can therefore have two meanings. Like above, Norman is in control of the birds, and he is the one stuffing them, similarily if Marion is eating Norman's food, then Norman can be said to be stuffing her, and is the authoritive character in this scene. However, we notice that Marion never actually takes a finishes the small piece of bread. This symbolizes that Marion is not getting "stuffed", but just eating a little and tehrefore she is repelling against Norman's control. This is quite true in Marion's character, as she tends to repel the authority of other men throughout the film, such as rejecting Sam's offer to be together longer, and frequently deny any problems to the officer.
posted by augi at
10:32 AM
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