The Ruse of Norman Bates: A Mini-Essay

     In his analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary Psycho (1960), cinema scholar William Rothman proposes a unique interpretation of the famed film. After Norman Bates is arrested following the discovery of his mother’s corpse, the occurrences at the Bates Motel are revealed: Norman, who lived alone with his overbearing mother, jealously poisoned her and her boyfriend, preserved her body, and, suffering from a psychotic break, impersonated her. This information, as depicted in the movie, is divulged by the “mother” portion of Norman’s personality to the court psychiatrist who, subsequently, explains it to the main characters and the audience. It is here that Rothman’s interpretation begins. Because the psychiatrist did not witness the incidents firsthand and his understanding derives from what “mother” informs him, the psychiatrist’s explication, Rothman maintains, possesses a level of uncertainty.[1] Everything the psychiatrist learns depends on the validity of what “mother” has told him and, because only Norman knows the truth, the credibility of the account will never be wholly known. Hence, as Rothman argues, the main characters’ knowledge of the occurrences rest in their faith in the psychiatrist’s ability to discern fact from fiction and, furthermore, the psychiatrist’s knowledge rests in his faith in “mother” and her integrity.[2] Due to this factor, Norman’s story can be subject to skepticism, which is where Rothman makes his claim. Because no one will ever know the truth, Norman’s tale could be a complete fabrication invented by the young man in an effort to convince the psychiatrist and court that he is mentally unstable and unfit to stand trial.[3] As Rothman argues, the “mother” personality, the psychotic break, and other details of the strained relationship between mother and son never fully existed, but were inventions by Norman to fool the mental health expert into a plea of insanity. The fact that the psychiatrist believes the deception and passes it along to others as actuality only proves, the scholar reasons, that he has “been taken in by a performance, as were Marion, Arbogast, Sherriff Chambers, Sam, and Lila before him…perhaps we [the audience] too have been taken in by Norman.”[4]

Works Referenced

Rothman, William. Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze. Cambridge: MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.
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[1] Rothman, 332.
[2] Rothman, 332-333.
[3] Rothman, 333.
[4] Rothman, 333.

Clown Doll

$10 - $15 (based on 2017 prices)

Makes one doll

2017’s haunt explored the legend of La Llorona. To expand on the element of prolicide prevalent in the folklore, I drew inspiration from La Isla de las Muñecas and filled the haunt with dolls to represent the specter’s drowned children. Although the process of transforming dozens of dolls into macabre monsters eventually became rather tiring, the final result was well worth the time and effort.

• One twelve-inch vinyl doll
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in cocoa*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in brown spice*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in gray*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in steel gray*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in red*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in yellow*
• One 0.44 oz. bottle of clear nail polish*
• One dozen pom poms in various colors and sizes
  

1. Disrobe the doll and, on a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, give it three even coats of gray paint. The number of coats, of course, depends on your desired coverage, so you may apply more or less.

2. Use a brush with splayed bristles to create a stippling effect around the doll’s joints and the features of the face. I found that working from light to dark (i.e. cocoa to brown spice to black) produces the best results. Also, create contrast along the body by smudging steel gray over the gray surface.

3. Detail the doll by fabricating a clown-like face with black, red, and yellow. You could create a frown like the one pictured or fashion a sinister sneer. To complete the look, paint the eyes a lifeless black and use clear nail polish to give them a glossy appearance.

4. Modify the doll’s original oufit by gluing pom poms to the clothing. You could use one specific size and color to achieve a unified look or vary both the dimensions and hues for a more chaotic appearance. Likewise, you can apply the pom poms in a random pattern or create an intricate design.

5. Smear the dress’ surface with black and brown paint to create the illusion of dirt and use a pair of sharp scissors to shred the fabric. Concentrate your actions around the edges of the collar, skirt, and sleeves.

6. Clothe the doll and, if you want, apply further details, such as additional tears and holes to the dress, a tattered bow in her hair, and a mangled tutu around her waist or repurposed as a ruff about her neck.

7. If you want an additional level of grime, muddy the hair with black, brown, and gray paint. If you don’t mind the mess, spread the paint onto the palms of your hands and use your fingers to brush it into the tuffs. Do not worry too much if the hair becomes matted and tangled during this process (it will only enhance the appearance).

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

“Indian Woman’s Death-Song” (A Poem)

Felicia Heman’s “Indian Woman’s Death-Song,” originally published in 1828, is a somber portrait of love. At the start of the poem, the narrator explains how a jilted wife, abandoned by her husband for another woman, rows herself and their child down the Mississippi River toward their inevitable doom. As the narrative progresses, the text shifts to the wife’s own words, where she laments on the plight of women and justifies to her daughter that, by killing her as well, she will save the youngling from the same eventual pain.[1] Interestingly, the woman’s melodic reference to the rolling river mirrors the same poetic technique used in Lord Byron’s epic Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage published sixteen years earlier: “roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean – roll!”[2] 

Down a broad river of the western wilds,
Piercing thick forest glooms, a light canoe
Swept with the current: fearful was the speed
Of the frail bark, as by a tempest's wing
Borne leaf-like on to where the mist of spray
Rose with the cataract's thunder. – Yet within,
Proudly, and dauntlessly, and all alone,
Save that a babe lay sleeping at her breast,
A woman stood: upon her Indian brow

Sat a strange gladness, and her dark hair wav'd
As if triumphantly. She press'd her child,
In its bright slumber, to her beating heart,
And lifted her sweet voice, that rose awhile
Above the sound of waters, high and clear,
Wafting a wild proud strain, her song of death.

“Roll swiftly to the Spirit's land, thou mighty stream and free!
Father of ancient waters, roll! and bear our lives with thee!
The weary bird that storms have toss'd, would seek the sunshine's calm,
And the deer that hath the arrow's hurt, flies to the woods of balm.

“Roll on! – my warrior's eye hath look'd upon another's face,
And mine hath faded from his soul, as fades a moonbeam's trace;

My shadow comes not o'er his path, my whisper to his dream,
He flings away the broken reed – roll swifter yet, thou stream!

“The voice that spoke of other days is hush'd within his breast,
But mine its lonely music haunts, and will not let me rest;
It sings a low and mournful song of gladness that is gone,
I cannot live without that light – Father of waves! roll on!

“Will he not miss the bounding step that met him from the chase?
The heart of love that made his home an ever sunny place?

The hand that spread the hunter's board, and deck'd his couch of yore? –
He will not! – roll, dark foaming stream, on to the better shore!

“Some blessed fount amidst the woods of that bright land must flow,
Whose waters from my soul may lave the memory of this wo;
Some gentle wind must whisper there, whose breath may waft away
The burden of the heavy night, the sadness of the day.

“And thou, my babe! tho' born, like me, for woman's weary lot,
Smile! – to that wasting of the heart, my own! I leave thee not;

Too bright a thing art thou to pine in aching love away,
Thy mother bears thee far, young Fawn! from sorrow and decay.

“She bears thee to the glorious bowers where none are heard to weep,
And where th' unkind one hath no power again to trouble sleep;
And where the soul shall find its youth, as wakening from a dream, –
One moment, and that realm is ours – On, on, dark rolling stream!”[3]

Works Referenced

Byron. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. 1812. New Zealand: The Floating Press, 2009.

Damrosch, David, ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol. 2. 2^nd ed. New York: Longman, 2003.

Hemans, Felicia. “Indian Woman’s Death-Song.” Records of Woman, Songs of the Affections, and Songs and Lyrics. Philadelphia: E.H. Butler and Company, 1853. 57-59.

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[1] Damrosch, 829.
[2] Byron, 250.

[3] Hemans, 57-59.

Sugar Skull Wreath

$10 - $15 (based on 2017 prices)

Makes one wreath

The Dia de Los Muertos portion of 2017’s haunted house required dozens of wreaths and flowers for an intricate funeral scene. To prevent myself from using the same design for each prop, I did variations on the sugar skull motif. For this version, I chose to contrast bright flowers with a black-and-gray skull. To help unify the haunt’s overall theme, I also incorporated leftover ribbon from the day of the dead ribbon wreath into this item.

• One six-inch grapevine wreath
• One three-inch wooden skull cutout
• One sheet of decorative paper (8 ½” x 11”)
• One 4 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue*
• Sixty artificial carnations in various colors
• One yard of Halloween-themed ribbon
  

1. Trace the outline of the skull onto the decorative paper and cut it out. For aesthetic purposes, make the outline slightly larger than the skull to allow for excess to cover the edges. Once the outline is sized to your liking, glue it to the cutout. You may need to use the edge of a card or ruler to smooth the surface and remove any bubbles. To streamline this process, consider using shelving paper with an adhesive backing.

2. Cover a large portion of the wreath in a dense arrangement of carnations. You want the covering to be thick enough to blanket the entire area. You can use a random placement like the one pictured to create an arresting asymmetry or an alternating pattern for balance. Also, you can achieve varying levels of visual interest by either selecting multiple colors or one single color.

3. To create the bow, cut the ribbon into two fourteen-inch sections, one twelve-inch section, and one four-inch section. Use one fourteen-inch section and the twelve-inch section to fashion the loops, the second fourteen-inch section to fabricate the tails, and the four-inch section to bind the bow together. For the time-pressed haunter, it might be easier to purchase a premade item for this project.

4. Glue the bow and the skull to the open portion of the wreath. Although I used hot glue, you can utilize superglue for a sturdier hold, especially if you plan to display this item in windy outdoor conditions for an extended period.

5. If the wreath did not come with hanging loops, you can fashion one with steel wire.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.