THE HOUSE

Introduction
◦ The introduction of the house and the symbolization about it.
◦ Where Hitchcock got inspired to make the Bates mansion and what it represents.

◦ How the house reflects Norman as a character and contrasts him in the film.
 House
◦ a foreboding Victorian-style

◦ Norman Bates’ abode was never a real house

“…… it was merely a front and left façade …… the right side
of the Bates mansion was only added in 1964, when it was used
in the western Invitation to a Gunfighter (Kelly,2016)

Fig1. Edward Hopper‘s The House by the

Railroad inspired the Bates mansion
design (2016)

“ The Psycho house was constructed in an interesting way,

something akin to using Lego to build a home.” (Kelly,2016)
 Fig3. 1963 Life magazine
aerial photo by John
Dominis 2

Fig2. 1963 Life magazine aerial

photo by John Dominis 1
Fig4. The set for Psycho's
Bates home in the early
1960's
 The symbolism of houses in Psycho

• an ominous reminder of tales of a terrifying past

The Bates family mansion in Psycho is virtually a parody of a haunted house. But for Hitchcock, all houses
were gloomy and oppressive, silent, lonely, threatening presences that usually overwhelm the poor human
beings foolish enough to enter them. (Vanneman,2003)
The symbolism of houses in Psycho

◦ Shaky House vs Split personality

“The contrast between Norman bate's motel

building and his mother's ramshackle gothic
house on the hill symbolizes his split personality,
but only gradually. This sequence reveals the
extent of Hitchcock's mastery of the film, which is
established by deliberately keeping dialogue to a
minimum, rather than by gradually revealing Fig5. Bates home (with 'Mother' in the window)
information and events, but this is determined by
the layout of the building itself.” (Yishajun,2018)
 The House in Psycho
“We were delighted to learn
that Hitchcock credited the
idea for the house in his
film Psycho to looking
◦ Hitchcock’s Bates’ Mansion was inspired by Hopper’s
painting ‘House by the Railroad’. at House by the Railroad.”
(Hopper, s.d.)
◦ The ‘House By the Railroad’ was created in 1925 and
portrayed a changing America, one where old houses
were left out of context when railroads moved in, or when
“progress” altered the surroundings dramatically.
◦ This is why even though it’s a beautifully coloured painting,
it still gives off a feeling of abandonment.
◦ It was inspired by the Haverstraw Home located in New
York.
◦ This idea of progress as an isolating factor still existed in
1960, when the film Psycho brought in the story of a man
whose madness was allowed to flourish in a secluded
environment, with only the occasional motor traveller
“keeping him company”.
Fig. 6. The House by the Railroad (1925)
 The House in Psycho
Hopper's Victorian house is
◦ Hitchcock used Hopper’s painting as the basis for
skinny, awkward, self-
the Bates’ Mansion, creating a house with dark
conscious, not quite
colours but keeping many of the Victorian
comfortable in its own skin.
decorations and the imposing nature of the
Ashamed of its nakedness in
positioning of the house.
this barren landscape.
◦ In Hitchcock’s film, a newly constructed interstate (Gunz, 2009)
highway isolates the Bates’ Motel and Mansion,
driving Norman Bates to his psychosis.
◦ The Bates’ House in Psycho captures the fading
elegance of this Victorian-style home. Its
composition shows a solitary structure, cut off from
the world by a set of railroad tracks.

Fig. 7. The Bates’ Mansion (1960)

 The House in Psycho Some have described hopper’s scenes as
lonely, but there’s another air to them. The
empty homes and lots we played in as kids
◦ During the 18th and 19th century, the location of railroad
lines and highways would pick the wealthy and the poor. inspired all manner of stories and pretend
If you didn’t have a train stop or off ramp, businesses and scenarios, just as this isolated house could
families would relocate to towns more connected to be abandoned and waiting to be
regional transportation. Hopper’s painting and
Hitchcock’s film reflect on how these abrupt disruption explored. Or it could be someone’s pride
impact the human personality. and joy, a place they refused to leave just
◦ The Bates’ Mansion, left behind by the modern world and because of some railroad coming through.
looming over the motel’s cabins, is the most potent (Heichelbech, s.d)
symbol in the film: it is an avatar of Norman Bates.
Tellingly, we don’t experience domestic scenes until the
climax of the film, when the home turns out to be the
very seat of terror.
◦ As evidenced by the railroad tracks running in front of it,
it's also been left behind by progress, just as the Bates’
Estate has been bypassed by the new Interstate
highway, which Marion Crane turned off of on that
fateful rainy night.

Fig. 8. The Haverstraw House (s.d)

 How it plays in Psycho
The house acts as a looming figure within the film, a The house tells the audience not only the
character of the mother, through the old
time capsule to the past as well as the form of his
furniture and clothes, but also of Norman’s
mother. It’s the place he can hold her and sustain possession of his mother, as it lingers in the
the illusion of her. backdrop of the film, always there as Norman’s
mother is within the context of the film and in
But in that sense the house is also a personality in the Normans mind.
film and alive. Its Victorian style and frozen rooms
give it an old and refined personality, contrasted
against Norman, the house can almost feel like a
substitute for the mother, but only in her memory and
not in her physical form.

“The lofty, yet menacing Victorian edifice,

with its colonial style is the most
disconcerting factor that foreshadows the
drama and that foreshadows the drama
and that, once the murder has been
committed, goes on unsettling actors and
audience alike” (Dufreigne, 2004, 118)

Fig 9, Bates Motel, 1960

 The House and Norman
• The house within the film seem s to act as a anchor to Norm an as a character,
it’s the place that he goes back and forth from , at first indicated to see his
m other, but as we eventually discovers, acts as a buffer between his two
personalities, his m other and him self.

• the house is also presented at first, it seem s to be a place of happiness for

Norm an, but eventually is discovered to also be a representation of of his guilt
Fig 10, Marion, Norman, and the Collision as it is the place his m other died in.
of Narratives in Psycho, 2010

• He uses the house to keep her m em ory alive, its rustic appearance and isolated
“Hitchcock’s camera stays with Norman as he surroundings supports the illusion of his m other still living, and spurs on his delusion
walks back to his house. The final shot in the
sequence is of Norman deep in the frame, and possession of her personality. The m ore Norm an visits the house, the m ore
confined between the two suffocating hallway im pact it and his m other have over him until it com pletely consum es him .
walls—a man who doesn’t fit comfortably
anywhere in this world” (Haggstrom, 2010)
• The house also presents at the end that Norm an doesn’t belong anywhere.
Isolated from the outside world, Norm an cannot see the ever changing world
beyond the declining m otel and yet he cannot stay in the old house, as it’s the
em bodim ent of his guilt, and a building m ore strongly fitted for his m other,
which is why he disguises him self as her, to adapt and belong som ewhere.

Fig 11, Norman Bates, 2013

 Freud: ID, Ego and Superego
Freud theorized that the psyche was split into three parts, the ID, the Ego and the
Superego. They are systems, not parts of the brain.

ID: the primitive and instinctual
side of the mind, contains
sexual and aggressive drives,
hidden memories. It’s the
biological components of the
personality at birth (sex instinct
and aggressive death instinct)
Its impulsive and and reacts
immediately to instincts- it
doesn't change as the person
gets older and operates in the
unconscienced part of the
mind
Ego: realistic, meditates
between the ID and the
Superego, it’s the decision
making component, the
ego works by reason
unlike the ID that works by
chaos, it uses realistic
ways to satisfy the ID’s
demands- so social norms,
being polite in society
and deciding behavior…
Superego: Moral consciousness,
incorporates the morals of society which
are learned from others around us, its
function is to control the ID’s impulses, it
also turns the Ego to moralistic goals
rather than just realistic ones. Has two
systems; the conscience and the ideal
self, conscience can push the ego
through causing feelings of guilt, the
ideal self is an imaginary image of how
you are suppose to be- how you want to
be perceived, career aspirations, how to
treat others.
Behavior that falls short of this may
become punished by the superego
through guilt, or if we do well rewards us
with the feeling of proudness
 The House as Norman’s Mind
First Floor: Super Ego
The place that controls the desires and
adapts learnt behavior from others; it’s the “The first floor indicates his superego,
place where he stores his mother and where he keeps his mother corpse, the
impersonates her, its where she controlled
him from lashing out and also punished ground floor indicates his ego and the
him with guilt- acting as the conscience to cellar goes for his id.” (Grib, 2013)
Normans ideal self that gets shattered
when he moves his mother into the
basement.
Base Floor: Ego
The midpoint between the cellar
“Bates carries the body from the first floor to the and the first floor, its where
basement, according to Zizek, “transporting her
mother in his own mind as the psychic agency from
Norman contemplates between
superego to id” and with this transformation he
his primitive behavior or the
believes that the director is trying to deliver the controlled one, acting as the
idea that superego is an obscene agency rather as
in Zizek words “Superego is always bombarding us
anchor between his two choices
with impossible orders, laughing at us when we
throughout the film, its where
cannot every fufill” (Grib, 2013) Norman and his mothers
personality collide.

Cellar: ID
the primitive part of the brain, in moving his mother
down there, he’s ignoring the controls of the his
mother; the ones that keep him active in society
and conforming to primitive behaviors of desire
and death, its where he takes control of his mother,
Fig 13, Freud, 1921
while she also possesses him to ease the guilt. Fig 12, Floor Plan, 2018
 Conclusion
◦ The architecture makes a good tone for the story, foreshadowing later events of the
story.
◦ Bates mansion shows the dark personality of the people who live in it, and that its cut
off from the rest of the world.
◦ The house can also act as a reflection of Norman as a character, it reflects his state
within the film and also his progression, through his movement of his mother from the
top, his superego, to the cellar his ID.
 Illustrative Bibliography
Fig 1 Edward Hopper‘s The House by the Railroad inspired the Bates mansion [Photo]https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/The-
House-by-the-Railroad.jpg(Accessed on 24 Jan 2019)
Fig 2 1963 Life magazine aerial photo by John Dominis 1 [Photo]http://www.thestudiotour.com/wp/wp-content/gallery/ush-backlot-psycho-1/6.jpg (Accessed
on 24 Jan 2019)
Fig 3 1963 Life magazine aerial photo by John Dominis 2 [Photo] http://www.thestudiotour.com/wp/wp-content/gallery/ush-backlot-psycho-1/5.jpg (Accessed
on 24 Jan 2019)
Fig 4 The set for Psycho's Bates home in the early 1960's [Photo] http://www.retroweb.com/universal/univ_psycho_house_set_early_1960s_bison_450.jpg
(Accessed on 24 Jan 2019)
Fig 5 Bates home (with 'Mother' in the window) [Photo] http://www.retroweb.com/universal/univ_psycho_frame_a.jpg (Accessed on 24 Jan 2019)
Figure 6. The House by the Railroad (1925) [online image] At: https://d1dd4ethwnlwo2.cloudfront.net/wp-
content/uploads/2017/10/hopper1.jpg (Accessed on 24.01.19)
Figure 7. The Haverstraw House (s.d) [online image] At: https://www.edwardhopper.net/images/paintings/house-by-the-railroad.jpg

Figure 8. The Bates’ Mansion (1960) [online image] At: http://www.retroweb.com/universal/univ_psycho_frame_c.jpg

Fig 9, Bates Motel, (1960), [Online Image], URL: http://www.retroweb.com/universal_psycho.html, (Accessed: 24/01/19)
Fig 10, Marion, Norman, and the Collision of Narratives in Psycho, (2010), [Online image], URL: http://reel3.com/marion-norman-and-the-
collision-of-narratives-in-psycho/, (Accessed: 24/01/19)
Fig 11, Norman Bates, (2013), [Online Image], URL: http://reel3.com/marion-norman-and-the-collision-of-narratives-in-psycho/,
(Accessed: 24/01/19)
Fig 12, Floor Plan, (2018), [Online Image], URL: https://www.alfahmikonveksi.com/bates-motel-house-floor-plan/bates-motel-house-floor-
plan-and-pinterest-•-ein-katalog-unendlich-vieler-ideen/, (Accessed: 24/01/19)
Fig 13, Freud, (1921), [Online Image], URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud, (Accessed: 24/01/19)
 Bibliography
Dufreigne, Jean-Pierre, (2004), Hitchcock Style, New York, Assouline Publishing.

Haggstrom , J, (2010), M arion, Norm an, and the Collision of Narratives in Psycho, URL: http://reel3.com /m arion-
norm an-and-the-collision-of-narratives-in-psycho/, (Accessed: 24/01/19)
G rib, S, (2013), Norm an Bates from Psycho(1960): A psychoanalytic approach, URL:
https://shonkhogrib.wordpress.com /2013/06/03/personality-of-norm an-bates-from -psycho1960-a-psychoanalytic-
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Bill Batson (2014) In Haverstraw, The House Tha Inspired Hitchcock [onlineblog] In: newyorkhistoryblog.org At:
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Bryan (s.d) ‘Psycho: Hitchcock and Hopper’ In: weareoca.com (s.d) [online] At:
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Vannem an, A (2013) Alfred Hitchcock: A Hank of Hair and a Piece of Bone: A Photo Essay on the M aster’s Visual M otifs [Online]
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