The Second Shade Character Analysis

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First Shade
The off-white color is descriptive of Psycho’s opening scene where Marion Crane, the protagonist, is seen preparing herself for work after a nooner with Sam. Marion’s strong objection against Sam’s company in public sets a guileful tone and one that predates her actions later on.

Second Shade
The second shade is reminiscent of Marion’s hesitancy as she puts the money in her bag. She contemplates her decision to compromise her position of trust.

Third Shade
The third shade encompasses Marion’s uneasiness as she drives to meet Sam. Her nervousness was most visible as she was pulled over by an officer on the highway whose shadow was present for most of her journey.

Fourth Shade
The fourth shade encapsulates the arbitrariness of
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Everything comes to light after her death and an investigation quickly leads to an encounter with Norman Bates— a man who is still wary of his recent plight and proves he would rather keep his situation under wraps than go to the authorities.

Seventh Shade
The seventh shade is descriptive of unsolved murders that now surrounds Bates Motel. After the private detector becomes unresponsive, Sam and Lila Crane, Marion’s sister, takes matter into their own hands and sets the stage for a potential murder.

Eighth Shade
The eight shade reflects what the viewers speculated all along: Norman Bates is the murderer. Lila’s investigation lead to this revelation as she was “nearly” killed by Norman before Sam stopped him.

Ninth Shade
The ninth shade reveals that Norman Bates has a split personality. Besides being Norman Bates, Norman’s other character is his mother. He embodies her to the fullest. He wears her clothes, sleeps in her bed and converses with himself by speaking as his mother and Norman. Norman can go from sweet and flirtatious as we saw with his encounter with Marion, to threatening and tempestuous in seconds. One could say that the true psycho is actually Norman, notwithstanding his split personality

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