Peephole Obsession
...e character’s state of mind. When we are first introduced to Norman, we do not have any doubts about him, as we think that he is a nice, sweet, innocent young man. Later, after his conversation with a young lady, Marion, Hitchcock shows us the horrifying side of Norman. As she leaves his office, he walks up to the wall, and takes off a picture frame hanging loosely. Right then, one of Norman’s deepest secrets is revealed and is shown to us through a voyeuristic, point-of-view shot. We find that Norman was hiding a head sized hole on one side of the wall, and another, a much smaller hole, which gives him a view into the Room #1, the room where the young lady was staying. As he brings his head closer and closer to the peephole, his eyes never blink, instead he strenuously concentrates on Marion as she takes off her dress and gently throws in on to the bed, next to her. For a split second, the camera inserts an extreme close-up shot of Norman’s eye as he looks at her calmly, without blinking. The camera reenters the point-of-view shot, barely missing Marion taking off her under clothes, and shows her putting on a bathing-robe as she enters the shower. During the entire scene, except for the extreme close-up shot, the camera never moves and sits motionless. With such tranquility, the audience is put into the state of mind of Norman, who is vigorously spying on Marion. At the time of the extreme close-up shot, the audience is feeling the same...