How Does Only Bates Get A Little Voyeurism

Only Bates Can Get A Little Voyeuristic At Times:
An Analysis on Robert Bloch’s “Psycho” When it comes to Gothic Literature, there are various conventions that could come into play, to define a work as such. In the “Glossary of Literary Gothic Terms”, Douglass H. Thomson notes that in such a genre there is a gap of difference that separates works that evoke terror and those that ignite horror as he says: “Works of horror are constructed from a maze of alarmingly concrete imagery designed to induce fear, shock, revulsion, and disgust. Horror appeals to lower mental faculties, such as curiosity and voyeurism. Elements of horror render the reader incapable of resolution and subject the reader’s mind to a state of inescapable confusion and chaos. …show more content…
Bates being deceased throughout the entire novel. Bloch doesn’t place this image in an obvious manner, but knowing the jealousy he experienced when he witnessed his mother and his uncle acting on their incestuous relationship in bed, it was evident that this was not a normal mother-son relationship. Yet, the “creepy factor” continued to increase as he poisoned the two lovers, only to regret taking the life of his own mother, so he dug her up from her grave and kept her in the house with him for all these years. I believe that Bloch added to this relationship when Norman took on the identity of Mother after her death and whenever the secrecy of their relationship was to be revealed, Mother acted in a jealous raged, especially when it came to the murder of Mary who Bates saw naked and eyed with such underlying sexual desire while he drank himself to “sleep”. It’s vital to remember that Bates utilized his taxidermy hobby to preserve the physical nature of his mother, so he could have her, the only picture Bloch doesn’t provide is what else this character did with the body of his mother, for that I assume many readers, including myself are grateful …show more content…
As readers we use our eyes to experience a writer’s work from page to page, this included the undressing of Mary, the crimes committed by Mother and the Norma’s final monologue at the novel’s end. We are the eyes that witnessed different characters in their most vulnerable states, naked physically, emotionally and mentally. In a terrifying way, Bloch makes his readers identify as peeping-toms, putting us on a similar ground as the confusing, complex and insane Normal Bates, who always witnessed the lives of others and never truly lived a life of his own suffered at the hands of Norma, “the mother who could not be allowed to die” while she continued to exert her power over him, knowing that he would never be unfaithful to his mother. After all, Mother was the “only left, and she was real” in every sense of the word