For this post I'll be briefly discussing the nature of the narrative in Psycho and the relationship between the audience and the characters.
The film moves along according to the Marion’s progress and later, after her death, the characters’ attempts to discover her fate and Norman Bates's efforts in concealing it. The plot moves according to the passage of time, and while events occurring in scenes with Bate’s may not be happening at the same time as other characters, it is reasonable to assume that they are around the same time.
Throughout the film we are influenced to feel sympathy for most of the characters, especially Norman Bates, who we see as an awkward man, who is trapped at the Motel with his mother, having no freedom of his own. His dialogue and Marion’s reaction to him elicits these feelings of sympathy, even when it’s discovered that he is actually a psychopath. You get a feeling that what he’s doing isn’t being doing out of sadism or some sick desire but because he has no choice, that the mother side of his personality is oppressing him. On a lesser scale we have Marion Crane, who only commits thievery in order to purchase a better life for her and the man she's having an affair with.
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