The Shower Scene In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

Register to read the introduction… The instruments present all belong to the String family; Cello, Violin, Viola and the Double Bass are all present in the Scene. This creates a very peculiar sound, no Brass instruments to create the usual ‘Noise’ affiliated with action and no Woodwind to soften the sound and calm things down. The sound is very rough, the high, screeching Violins create excitement as the action becomes more frenzied, so do the Violins. Each knife blow is accompanied by ‘screams’ by the high violins. This goes on for the duration of the attack, there is no relent until Marion is dead. This leaves the Audience lost, confused as to what exactly is going on in front of their eyes. The screaming emitted from Marion and the Violins is almost in-sync. The excitement is carried very well, the Strings are consistently battering the Audience’s eardrums with incredibly high notes, and the Strings come in fast with the knife strokes allowing no rest by the Audience. As the attacker departs and Marion slowly slides down the wall and into the bath in her dying moments, heavy Cello and Double Bass movements seem to drag her body down. The serene sound of a Shower opens and closes the Scene. This makes the Audience uneasy. It makes the Audience realise that all of this action is taking place in the most normal of places, the Bathroom. The drain gurgles at the end of the Scene; Marion’s life is effectively “going down the drain”. This is one factor of how the Excitement of the …show more content…
This leaves the Audience without an ‘anchor’ in the Plot and we’re forced to search for another to see where the story will lead us next. We’re later introduced to Norman Bates’ point of view in the story and he replaces Marion as our ‘anchor’ in Psycho. However, the Audience remains suspicious of Norman so he does not take on the role of protagonist like