Does Mother Cut Norman's Hair?

There's a lot to muse about in Psycho. Its the "gift that keeps on giving" in our minds after we see it.

One thing to ponder is: before Marion Crane showed up and really got Norman going -- he tries to be "Norman Bates" with her even as Mother rages within and eventually strikes back -- what was day to day life LIKE for Norman Bates with Mother's personality inside of him.

Most of Norman's days were spent likely alone. No guests came by to stay at the motel. He woke up in the morning(we saw his sad , rumpled little childhood bed) and started his day.

And he started it, likely, with Mother RIGHT THERE. To have breakfast with him. To order him about on chores(the one's Mother thinks Norman might be CAPABLE of doing.)

We see that Norman's a reader -- he's reading when Arbogast drives up. Robert Bloch's novel begins with Norman reading some pretty gruesome book with a chapter about Aztec warriors making a "drum out of the outstretched skin of a dead enemy's belly." And then Mother comes in to argue with him about being lazy and not minding the motel.

Hitchcock's film -- with the "crutch" of Bloch's book -- suggests that perhaps when he gets to read, Norman can just be Norman. But Mother is always there, always ready to rise up and assert herself against him.

Shifting the question: how does Norman LIVE as a hermit? Its probably pretty low maintenance. Figure he goes into Fairvale every three months or so "for provisions." Maybe driving a car we don't see(Norman can drive; he drives Marion's car to the swamp.) Maybe walking to a bus stop, like the prarie stop in NXNW.

Deliveries are likely made. A "motel service" probably brings fresh sheets and towels. Mail order could be used for the delivery of other things. To the motel, never to the house.

Norman's outfits are simple. The same pair of pants, the same white shirt. Sometimes a jacket. He probably washes them by hand, hangs them out to dry -- Mother likely doesn't help at all.

And he has a nice, short clean, sharp haircut. A Hollywood haircut. Who does that?

Well NORMAN does it but..maybe Mother deigns to help? Maybe Norman has a nice vision of Mother cutting his hair for him, even when he does it himself (except we get no inkling that THIS mean Mother EVER does ANYTHING for her son.)

There is also this, and I find it rather fascinating: when Marion first looks up and sees Mother gliding by the window, we realize at the end, that was Norman of course. And he thought he was all alone. Or Mother thought SHE was all alone.

Sometimes Mother is just in Norman's mind, but sometimes Norman dresses up as Mother. The shrink told us that. In Psycho as we have it, Norman dresses up when"danger or desire threatens." Which means -- he dresses to kill. Marion(desire.) Arbogast (danger.)

But what about those times when danger or desire ISN'T present? The shrink again: "He'd dress up. He's dress in her clothes, speak in her voice, sit in her chair. He tried to BE his Mother."

That's what he was doing when Marion first saw him. And perhaps -- had he committed no murders at all -- eventually Norman simply indeed would have BECOME his Mother. Probably for all time.

Note in passing: one of the reasons I never much liked the rather well-reviewed, somewhat of a hit "Bates Motel" is that it made manifest what was left to our imagination in Psycho. Using "A Beautiful Mind" and Russell Crowe's hallucinations as its inspiration, Bates Motel shows Norman "seeing" Mother(in the form of actress Vera Farmiga) around him ALL THE TIME, sitting at the breakfast table, sitting next to him in a car, standing near him when he talked to women. Everything was SHOWN, everything was EXPLAINED.

I much prefer Hitchcock's Psycho, which kept us imaginging...and wondering...for years after we saw it.