Psycho & The Landlady: Appearance vs. Reality in Horror Stories - Essay Sample

Introduction

In Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock and The Landlady by Roald Dahl, the authors created the short story and the film which have some connection. The two explore the issue of appearance and reality. Also, both stories are created for an audience in darkness, and that is the reason behind their presentation as horror. Alfred Hitchcock already had his audience built-in from people who watched his TV anthology. Particularly, in Psycho, the author targeted to a youth audience, which this reason connected to the purpose of using a black-white theme (Hitchcock et al., 1960). The reason for using black-white color is to mirror the dual of all human beings; for example, he places Marion in the flame with her reflection several times. Whereas, the purpose of The Landlady is to make the readers learn that things may seem to be different from the way people see them (Dahl, 2012). Although the two stories are similar in the way they are created and their nature of having horrifying events, they are different since the Psycho explores the dual nature of humans while The Landlady investigates appearance versus reality.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Theme/ Setting

The story and film are set in different but similar places. While Psycho is set in a hotel, The Landlady is set in Guesthouse. The Guest House compelled Billy Weaver since it had the option of bed and breakfast. On the other hand, in Psycho, it is in that motel that Norman killed different women while posing as his mother who, in a real sense, had died over ten years ago (Hitchcock et al., 1960). Furthermore, it is the location of the hotel that attracted Maron to drive into it since it was out of the way. The reason that Billy chose The Landlady but not the one that the Porter recommend is because the amount of what he had been willing to pay, and The Landlady was less than half different. So, he thinks it would help save a lot of money if he stays at the Landlady.

On the other hand, in some way, a hotel and a guest house are almost the same. The main reason behind the similar location is to establish a sense of humor. Furthermore, the protagonists are both drawn into the hotel for the same reasons. The author has created a foreshadowing technique to create a sense of horror that help support the theme in the movie. For instance, from the movie, it evident that Norman has lots of stuff animals around him. Consequently, in the Landlady, short story Taxidermy also stuffs her animals as well (Dahl, 2012).

The stories have a connection between them, such as Marion the main character in Psycho needs a place to stay which makes her drive in the hotel and Billy also needs a place to stay as he comes to the new town in search of a job (Hitchcock et al., 1960). Although they have different reasons behind staying in the hotels, the places they went to seek to stay turn to be a nightmare. They both try to find a place to stay for different reasons, but both places are a nightmare for them. In Psycho, Norman kills Marion while she is on the shower while having dinner. On the other hand, The Landlady turned out to be a nightmare since Billy realized that the names of Gregory W. Temple and Christopher Mulholland were familiar, and the disappearance of one of them had been announced in newspapers (Dahl, 2012). Moreover, Norman and the Landlady also have a stuffed animal that they made around them. The stuffed animal is used by the authors in foreshadowing techniques to make the readers prepare for what will come later using the animals in conveying the message.

The story The Landlady is basically about a 17-year-old businessman named Billy Weaver, who came from London to a city called Bath to work (Dahl, 2012). However, during his stay in the Landlady's house, he was poisoned by her as she desired to stuff Billy Weaver like her parrot and dachshund (Dahl, 2012). The story was not clear enough in the end. However, the readers had argued about what would happen after that. There are lots of perspectives from the readers in a lot of different ways of thinking. The main character in The Landlady is Billy Weaver. Based on what I can refer to from the story, I would say that Billy Weaver is a very thrifty and gullible that he even trusts strangers without knowing their background. On the other hand, in Psycho, Marion is the main character, and Norman kills her and takes everything that she had while the sister and Sam look for her (Hitchcock et al., 1960). At the hotel, when Norman tries to kill Marion's sister, it is at that time that Sam saves her that they realize it is not Norman's mother, but it is Norman who commits the crimes.

In the film, Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock makes scenes of everything that happened and even the end where Norman is jailed at the police station while he still has the voice of his mother in his head (Hitchcock et al., 1960). Norman and his ‘mother’ are still arguing about the real murderer. Conversely, in the Landlady, the readers are left in suspense as they are unsure about what happened next in the short story. The audience is unsure whether Billy died or survived the incident.

The idea of hiding, deception, duality

In Psycho, the duality theme is evident in the way Norman diverged psyche. The author further uses mirrors several times in the underlining dual nature of humans. He does this by putting Marion in the frame, plus her reflection many times (Hitchcock et al., 1960). While both at home and at the hotel, Marion thinks of herself with Sam. Unfortunately, things change after stealing money as she does not regard her image even when standing in front of a mirror in Cabin and Bates Motel Office (Hitchcock et al., 1960). It means that she does not believe that she would do something like stealing money from a customer in the company where she has been working with the aim of helping his boyfriend settle debts.

The way Marion feels about herself signifies that she is experiencing something which is emotionally painful, and she does not want to be responsible for her actions. Also, she does not want to detach herself, and it is through Norman that she realized of her wrongdoings. Conversely, while Lila Marion's sister explores Bates's house, she sees and is scared of the mirror’s reflection. The director’s idea of casting Norman Bates, John Garvin, Janet Leigh, and Vera Miles confirms the issue of duality in which females and males resemble each other.

In Psycho, things are not the way they seem. Almost all the characters have something that they are hiding (Hitchcock et al., 1960). For instance, Cassidy is not paying taxes; Marion lies and steals, Norman kills and portrays the identity of another person, Caroline’s purse has tranquilizers (Hitchcock et al., 1960). As darkness comes, the characters in Psycho desperately hide like the way Marion ran away while lying in hiding her true nature in maintaining an innocent self. Norman also seems to be a nice person, but in the real sense, he kills and cleans the place well while waiting for the next victim.

In the Landlady, the theme of appearance versus reality is established with a naivety motif. The author demonstrates the way the judgment of Billy is undermined and clouded due to his first good impression of Bed and Breakfast. Landlady's allegorical message implies that individuals should not always judge a book by its cover (Dahl, 2012). Moreover, in contrasting reality and appearance, the author shows the way truth is normally hidden by the superficial outward look. Conversely, Billy saw a well-illuminated window, piano, parrot, dog, and comfortable furniture (Dahl, 2012). In the juxtaposition between the message of Bed and Breakfast and melancholy evening, the author empathized on the way the Landlady's house was appealing and its superficial charm. It is a show that the message of Bed and Breakfast was created with the intention of enticing the customers while hiding true identity.

The moral of the story and film that I can refer will be that one should not be so gullible to trust others so fast. Another thing that I learned from The Landlady is that one should be thrifty but not to the extent where he sacrifices his life. As if he had not saved his money and lived in a hotel, he would not have gone through so much. In Psycho, the lesson learned is that people usually hide their real identities. Thus, we should be careful when dealing with people.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both Psycho and The Landlady are horror stories. Also, they have some similarities, including the setting. However, they are different in some ways like The Landlady leaves readers in suspense, but Psycho seems to be complete since, in the end, Norman is jailed. Furthermore, while the main themes are the nature of humans and internal darkness, the theme of Landlady is appearance versus reality.

References

Dahl, R. (2012). The Landlady (A Roald Dahl Short Story). Penguin UK.

Hitchcock, A., Leigh, J., Perkins, A., Bloch, R., Shamley Productions., & Paramount Pictures Corporation. (1960). Psycho. Shamley Productions.