Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller "Psycho" offers up many characters faced with the prospect of loneliness: Marion Crane, played by Janet Leigh, being without her lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin) because of his money problems, Norman Bates, expertly portrayed by Anthony Perkins, tucked away with only his “mother” in a gargantuan house running a decaying motel, and finally Lila Crane (Vera Miles) scared at the prospect of being alone without her sister. However, through the set and prop design, Hitchcock creates the greatest sense of desolation in Norman Bates throughout the film.
Through the hazy downfall of rain, the audience first sees the Bates Motel, the illuminating sign a beacon of its isolation from seemingly the rest of the world with its vacancy wording lit up clearly. This first shot of the Bates Motel being off the beaten path of the highway is an introduction to the idea of not only the motel’s remoteness from the rest of the world but also it’s owner, Norman Bates, isolation of the world.
Hitchcock further uses Norman’s mansion of a house next to the hotel to create in him the greatest sense of desolation from any character in the film. The audience is shown Norman’s house as Marion looks out of the window of her room on her first and only night. The shot of the house is set at a low-angle having the audience look up at the house with the trees next to the house looking almost dead, each branch hanging down as if they themselves have given up on growing.
This first shot of the house establishes it’s creepy nature and alluding the audience to its almost ora of death, these reasons being exactly why Hitchcock would use the set design of such a ludicrously huge mansion be Norman’s place of inhabitance. This set design shows Norman’s isolation from the rest of civilization.
However, Hitchcock’s use of set and prop design when unveiling Norman’s bedroom to the audience truly portrays Norman as the character with the greatest sense of desolation in the film. The audience enters Norman’s childhood bedroom with Lila Crane, the first shot of the room showcasing little but just enough to give the audience a sense of unease.
It is a long shot of Lila entering the room, the lighting is dim but not dim enough that circus themed wallpaper cannot be seen along with a rocking chair and various toy’s placed throughout the room, thanks to Hitchcock’s prop design. Hitchcock then goes on to use various close-up shots of the different toys in Norman’s room: a baby doll, a stuffed rabbit, then finally ending with a medium-shot of an unkempt bed, Norman’s bed to prove that he is in fact still sleeping in his childhood room.
Hitchcock effectively uses the set and prop design on Norman to show that he is so desolated not only from the rest of the world because of his motel’s remoteness but also desolated from reality so much that as a fully grown man in his mid-30’s he sleeps in the room of a small child.
