Post by DSkillz on Jun 7, 2014 6:35:36 GMT
Norman Bates
Norman Bates is a fictional character created by writer Robert Bloch as the main character in his novel Psycho, and portrayed by Anthony Perkins as the primary antagonist of the 1960 film of the same name directed by Alfred Hitchcock and its sequels. The character was inspired by murderer Ed Gein.
Both the novel and Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film adaptation explain that Bates suffered severe emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, Norma, who preached to him that sexual intercourse is sinful and that all women (except herself) are whores. After Bates' father dies, Bates and his mother lived alone together until Bates reached adolescence, when his mother took a lover, Joe Considine (named Chet Rudolph in Psycho IV: The Beginning). Driven over the edge with jealousy, Bates murdered both of them with strychnine (rat poison). After committing the murders, Bates forged a suicide note to make it look as if Norma had killed her lover and then herself. After a brief hospitalization for shock, he developed dissociative identity disorder, assuming her personality to repress his awareness of her death and to escape the feelings of guilt for murdering her. He inherited his mother's house — where he kept her corpse — and the family motel in fictional Fairvale, California.
Bloch sums up Bates' multiple personalities in his stylistic form of puns: "Norman", a child dependent on his mother; "Norma", a possessive mother who kills anyone who threatens the illusion of her existence; and "Normal", a functional adult who goes through the motions of day-to-day life as the manager of his motor court (albeit barely so). "Norma" dominates "Norman" much as she had when she was alive, forbidding him to have any friends and flying into violent rages whenever he feels attracted to a woman. "Norma" and "Norman" carry on conversations through Bates talking to himself in his mother's voice, and Bates dresses in his mother's clothes whenever "Norma" takes hold completely.
In Bloch's novel, Mary Crane (called Marion in the film), a young woman on the run after stealing from her employer, checks into the motel one night. Bates is smitten with her, and shyly asks her to have dinner with him in the house, provoking "Mother's" jealousy; she flies into a rage and threatens to kill her if he lets her in the house. Bates defies her and eats dinner with Mary anyway, but lashes out at her when she suggests that he institutionalize his mother. When Mary goes to her room to shower, Bates spies on her through a peephole he drilled in the wall, and drinks until he passes out. While he is unconscious, "Mother" takes control and beheads Mary (she stabs her to death in the film). When Bates awakes to discover what he believes his mother has done, he sinks Mary's car — with her corpse in the trunk — into a nearby swamp. As "Mother", he also murders Milton Arbogast, a private detective hired by Mary's employer, days later.
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Both the novel and Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film adaptation explain that Bates suffered severe emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, Norma, who preached to him that sexual intercourse is sinful and that all women (except herself) are whores. After Bates' father dies, Bates and his mother lived alone together until Bates reached adolescence, when his mother took a lover, Joe Considine (named Chet Rudolph in Psycho IV: The Beginning). Driven over the edge with jealousy, Bates murdered both of them with strychnine (rat poison). After committing the murders, Bates forged a suicide note to make it look as if Norma had killed her lover and then herself. After a brief hospitalization for shock, he developed dissociative identity disorder, assuming her personality to repress his awareness of her death and to escape the feelings of guilt for murdering her. He inherited his mother's house — where he kept her corpse — and the family motel in fictional Fairvale, California.
Bloch sums up Bates' multiple personalities in his stylistic form of puns: "Norman", a child dependent on his mother; "Norma", a possessive mother who kills anyone who threatens the illusion of her existence; and "Normal", a functional adult who goes through the motions of day-to-day life as the manager of his motor court (albeit barely so). "Norma" dominates "Norman" much as she had when she was alive, forbidding him to have any friends and flying into violent rages whenever he feels attracted to a woman. "Norma" and "Norman" carry on conversations through Bates talking to himself in his mother's voice, and Bates dresses in his mother's clothes whenever "Norma" takes hold completely.
In Bloch's novel, Mary Crane (called Marion in the film), a young woman on the run after stealing from her employer, checks into the motel one night. Bates is smitten with her, and shyly asks her to have dinner with him in the house, provoking "Mother's" jealousy; she flies into a rage and threatens to kill her if he lets her in the house. Bates defies her and eats dinner with Mary anyway, but lashes out at her when she suggests that he institutionalize his mother. When Mary goes to her room to shower, Bates spies on her through a peephole he drilled in the wall, and drinks until he passes out. While he is unconscious, "Mother" takes control and beheads Mary (she stabs her to death in the film). When Bates awakes to discover what he believes his mother has done, he sinks Mary's car — with her corpse in the trunk — into a nearby swamp. As "Mother", he also murders Milton Arbogast, a private detective hired by Mary's employer, days later.
Links:
Wikipedia
Villains Wiki
Horror Film Wiki
Record:
W:
L:
