How does Hitchcock use binary opposites to create suspense in the 1960’s Thriller, Psycho?

Hitchcock uses binary opposites throughout the film Psycho.  Binary opposites, in this context, are things that are opposites and also have other connotations.  In some cases, they are used to represent morals such as right and wrong.  Another example is wealth and poverty.  They are also used to emphasise points or situations.  Hitchcock uses them extensively and effectively in the film Psycho to create suspense.

Immediately in the opening we see a wide open long shot panorama of Phoenix, Arizona.  The shot eventually cranes in towards an open window where the camera enters a dark room.  This in its self presents an opposition from the outside world and the public as opposed to the secretive darkness that fills the apartment.  Inside the apartment there is a couple who are having an affair.  This is yet another binary opposite of morality against love.  Also, the couple discuss their relationship.  This creates an opposition between the respectability of a relationship in marriage and family against the affair that they are having.  This in turn creates suspense as Marion is struggling between right and wrong.  She is not happy about her situation but does not know how to get out of it.

When Marion is at work at her office there is a distinct opposite between the wealth of the outgoing customer and the much lesser wealth of the workers, Marion and the other staff member.  In the same scene there is another opposite of the intellects and desires between Marion and the other office worker who seems simple and content with her life whereas Marion is not because of her affair and struggling relationship.  This opposite emphasises how Marion is not content with how her life is.  She does not want to spend the rest of her life with little money, an unhappy relationship and the guilt caused by her affair.

Another binary opposite used by Hitchcock is white versus black.  In the initial apartment scene we see that Marion is wearing a white bra.  White is a colour that represents goodness and purity and this encourages the audience to see Marion as an essentially ‘good’ person.  This changes later on, after the office scene where she is faced with a moral dilemma.  Should she put the money in the bank or just keep it for herself? Having been given money, £40,000, to put in the bank, she takes it home instead.  There is then a scene where she changes her clothes and moves the money into her bag which she takes with her as she sets off to make her escape.  When she is shown changing, she wears a black bra which signifies how she has changed and how she is now a criminal who has lost her morals, respect and goodness as a woman.  This builds suspense as she leaves the city, as does the hurried manner in which she changes at her place.

Marion leaves the busyness of the city and heads for isolation.  This opposite represents the transfer from good to evil that she has made.  The isolation connotes that she has done wrong and that people in the city she lived and worked with were good.  This also suggests that Norman, the man who runs the motel where she stops off, is also on the wrong side of life and may be evil.  The character of Norman Bates is also representative of the binary opposite that is connoted by the stuffed birds of prey.  This is the concept of predator and prey.  Marion, although this does not appear so to begin with, is prey to Norman being the predator.  This is also true on another level within Normans mind.  His split personality suggests that his personality is prey to his Mothers personality.  Most of the time he appears to be a nice person, but the darker side of his personality is perhaps caused by his mother.  This creates further suspense because we fear for Marion, now that she is in the company of Norman.

In conclusion, all of the binary opposites that Hitchcock uses move from safety, security and goodness to opposites which imply danger and vulnerability, for example when Marion leaves her family and job for isolation and a less certain future. The police man emphasises the increasing vulnerability Marion faces as he follows her when she leaves the city.  This builds an atmosphere of suspense which makes the intense murder scene sinister and gruesome.