The Schrodinger’s cat principle is the idea of putting a cat in a box with a radioactive isotope. Any normal person would believe the cat would be dead within minutes, yet according to Schrodinger’s principle the cat is not dead until you open the box. Norman Bates applied this same principle to his mother.
To any normal person a dead decaying corpse is no longer living. To Norman Bates it is a problem for Schrodinger’s cat. After Bates’ mother died he was unable to cope and decided to keep his mother “alive” for as long as possible. Bates attempted to keep his mom alive by slowing the decaying process and keep his mom locked in a room. By having his mom locked in a room he could tell anyone what he wanted about her. After all if she is locked in a room who knows if she is dead or alive?
The rooms in themselves also represent many of the ideas Norman keeps locked inside his head. His house is built in three levels much like Dante’s Divine Comedy. The highest level of his house represents heaven and that’s where he places the light of his life his mother. His ground level area is very normal and dull because it represents purgatory and the earthly plane we as humans live on. And finally the fruit cellar represents Hell because no light shines there.
The journey of mother’s body through these three layers of the house represents Norman’s failing sanity. The mother’s large lustrous rooms is far superior to Norman’s small childish room. The mother’s large room represents the over powering personality of Mother and how Norman’s small weak personality was no match for her. This is truly seen when Norman leaves his room and carries Mother down to the fruit cellar. It is this scene that shows how mother turned Norman from an innocent child, represented by the open door leading into Norman’s room, to hermit living in an old motel, shown by the ground floor of the house. And finally it shows how Norman became a deranged killer as his mother enters hell.
Hell in Norman’s house is clearly displayed by the fruit cellar which has no mirrors. Throughout Psycho mirrors are used to depict the living. A mirror has a reflection of detective Arbogast before his death and during Arbogast’s dramatic death scene there is no person present in the mirror. Lillian Crane is shown in the mirror in the top floor of the house. Yet when everyone enters the bottom level there are no mirrors since no one lives in hell. It also ends the journey of Mother as she has finally destroyed her son’s sanity and turned him into a ruthless killer.
This dramatic scene also beautifully portrays this shared mind of mother and son as Norman arrives through a narrow doorway and reveals himself to be the killer, in doing so he knocks a ceiling light and it moves back and forth between him and his mother. The light flashing between the two characters reveals no difference in hair, clothing, or even facial structure. At this final moment Norman has become his mother and entered hell in doing so.
The dark walls are old and ruined and have the same black look as hell. The narrow staircase is much like the narrow bridges Dante passed over in his Inferno. Over all the blatant references to hell and the end of sanity give Psycho a fitting climax as any horror movie should drag its audience to hell. In a sudden turn of events the audience (and poor Lillian Crane) is rescued from a terrible demise at the hands of Norman as the stunning figure of John Gavin (playing Sam Loomis) rushes through the door and incapacitates the killer. This climatic scene is well done and truly creates a hell on earth.
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