In the opening scene of Psycho, we span the city of Phoenix, Arizona, and are given the date and time of day. We are given a good idea of the first two characters we are introduced to, Marion and Sam, through the exposition. During this, we find out that they are dating, but have an odd relationship in where Sam commutes from the town he works in, to see Marion. They meet up on lunch breaks, and he complains that they cannot actually be together because he doesn’t have the money to get her out of this shabby lifestyle they live and into a secure and stable life together, because all his money is wasted to alimony checks. Whether the viewer is aware or not, this single scene is setting us up for the rest of the film. An enigma that I recognized was whether or not money can buy you happiness. I gathered this through the opening scene, and the scene that follows. Marion is begging Sam to come stay with her, and for them to just get married. However, money is the issue that he continually brings up. If only this could be solved, in a quick, easy way, their problems would be solved and they could be together. Or can they? The following scene shows Marion in her place of business, where a customer, Tom Cassidy, comes in to purchase through the business, a house for his daughter who is getting married. The man is paying $40,000 in cash, and comments that he isn’t buying happiness, but rather “buying unhappiness”. This scene is dripping with the threat of money becoming a common theme. The way that Marion interacts with the man on the topic of money and happiness, and her attitude when she is handling the money allows the audience to suspect that she has something on her mind, and doesn’t plan on going straight to the bank with the cash as her boss asks. Marion is very calm when speaking with the man who is clearly trying to buy his way into a date with her, but by the look in her eye, you can see that she is affected by this conversation, because it deals directly with her situation with Sam, as we saw in the previous scene. Once she is assigned the task to deliver the money, her eyes and quick move to ask to leave directly after she deposits the money. Her urgency is also sensed as soon as she leaves the office, and we are not even made aware of her plan yet. The non-diegetic music, that keeps a racing pace and sharp, shrill notes parallels Marion’s anxiety and the rush in her agenda. The question of whether or not money can buy you happiness continues through the first part of the film, until the murder of Marion. We are along for Marion’s ride, and her attempt to skip town, find Sam, and run away with the money to a “private island”, her idea of a perfect, carefree life. Marion’s driving scene, once she is far from town, her boss and Tom Cassidy, is one where the audience is quite unsure of her fate, and whether she can truly get away with this crime. However, once she escapes, we are met with a little relief, that just maybe she would. This scene, where she is escaping town, found in her car on the side of the road, and for a brief time followed by the cop, is one in which the enigma is met with a delay. The equivocation, or mixture of fraud and truth, creates a nerve racking mood, putting the audience on the edge of their seat. Marion is out of town, away from those who knew she had money, and should be home free. But then, she is met by a suspicious cop who has no reason to suspect her of any wrong-doing, aside from the fact that she is acting suspicious. This creates a conflict in our feeling as we watch the scenes unfold. She is let go by the cop, and we think she will be able to leave without getting caught. But wait, then she is being followed, and we once again are thinking that it is over for her, and her plan is foiled. We are once again thinking maybe she has a chance when she loses the cop as he turns off the main road, and we are sure it was just coincidence and her mind that was creating the fact that he was following her. Just as soon as we calm down, we are shocked to find him once again watching her, across the street from the auto store. At this point in the story line, we cannot be sure whether these are all incidents to fool us and play with our emotion, or if will become truth, and she will either be caught or go free. This is a mixture of fraud and truth because she never reaches happiness, but it isn’t due to the cop or anyone catching her for her crime. The effect of this delay is that the audience is already well into the plot, and still completely undecided as to what is going to happen, whether or not she is finding happiness, or who exactly the cop character is going to develop into. The true narrative is not all the way understandable, and it is able to keep the audience still so involved and anxious to see more, because some things are revealed without giving away too much, or becoming too predictable. Unfortunately, the enigma I recognized was never answered. Although Marion died, and some could see this as a definite ending, that money clearly does not buy you happiness, but rather horrible events, possibly death, it isn’t. The money was stolen, which automatically put a different effect on the situation. This wasn’t earned money where she could ever let her guard down about it. Also, the money was not the reason she was killed, but simply a parallel narrative to Marion’s story, and it created a smooth fade into this new story.
My opinion on whether this film could be considered a readerly or writerly text changed dramatically from the beginning of the film, all the way to the last five minutes. In the beginning of the story, I was constantly making predictions of who the cop would become, when we would see him next, or whether or not the Mother was real or imagined. I caught on to the fact that I was pretty sure that when they discussed with the sheriff that Norman’s mother poisoned her boyfriend and herself, that Norman himself was somehow responsible. But then how could she still be alive? I read into different characters and created my own ideas for why they did things, like why Norman had so many stuffed birds, and why he was so obedient to his mother. Until the last scene of the movie, when Norman is caught and the doctor comes out to inform everyone on his findings, I had created most of the movie for myself, and was intrigued. Then, the doctor explains to everyone that Norman is leading a double life in his own mind, and was living life through his mother’s mind. The doctor explains every detail, and gives an explanation for each event. Every murder, why he is dressed up, why his mother’s corpse is still there, and why she and her boyfriend are dead. I felt that as soon as the doctor explained everything, the movie immediately became a readerly text. There was now no need to frame different scenes for yourself, or to try and created an explanation for yourself. He gave it to you. Point blank, this is why everything happened, and that is that. I really enjoyed this style however, because you had all the enjoyment of a writerly text in the sense that you were kept guessing, and trying to solve it for yourself. It intrigued me and allowed me to stay connected to the plot. However, it has a definite resolve at the end of the film. It did not leave you wondering or in need of some type of closure. Overall, I would consider this film a readerly text, with writerly qualities in the beginning.
