Portrayal Of Female Roles in Robert Bloch’s Psycho

Throughout history the roles of males and females have changed drastically, but it is evident that gender role flexibility hasn’t always existed. Society has laid ideas revolving the proper behaviors assigned to gender roles, and if an individual does not fit those expectations they are deemed abnormal. There has always been the gender gap and idea that men are superior to women, but there is also a revolution including many individuals who desire to live in a world to be equal without boundaries.

These divergent ideas have always caused uproar in society, and it has always been a controversial topic. Robert Bloch presents some of these issues in his novel Psycho. His characters both male and female hold characteristics that are outside of the norm, which disrupts the reader’s expectations. Several characters in Psycho destroy the idea of gender roles; alternately, they are complex and ambiguous characters. Bloch challenges socially constructed gender roles of female and male figures in the story in order to depict misogyny, objectification, and also to subvert the readers expectations as to what a women should be.

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With the perception and treatment of women by characters like Norman and his mother the reader is able to catch a glimpse of misogyny. Throughout the novel Norman and his mother’s references towards women are degrading in a sense where it even leads to violence. Through Norman’s remarks and through his mother’s brutal actions, a sense of hatred and prejudice is depicted. Norman says, “That’s what the bitches do to you, they perverted you, and she was a bitch, they were all bitches, Mother was a-”.

Norma has had a huge influence on the way that Norman interacts with women, and in the book it depicts how Norman has never had an intimate relationship with anyone but his mother. His mother suffered from the relationship she had with his father, and she ultimately wants to protect him from being put into a situation like that. By doing so she becomes an abusive mother, and she is a very dominating woman who creates a misogynist man. Due to her being this way, Norman is not able to hold a proper relationship with women, and he views them as some devious type of creatures. Norma’s murder actions are protected since Norman thinks to himself, “She’d come once to protect him from the bitches. Yes that was it. She’d come to protect him”. Norman blames Mary for his cause of disobedience and for his dirty thinking. Her provocativeness made her at fault for being killed, and in Norman’s mind Norma was only saving him from this “bitch”. Norman is also highly influenced by the literature that he reads, and it also immensely influences his way of thinking. Throughout the book we discover that Norman has pornographic pictures that degrade women and depict women as instruments for men’s sexual pleasure. These images of women objectify them as being something unrealistic; objectified women creates the concept that women do not have rights, and it’s about what the object serves. According to research, “By viewing women as exclusively sexual beings whose purpose is to sexually arouse and gratify men, a power differential is created in which women are generally subordinate. This power hierarchy may support development of perceptions of women as appropriate targets for sexually aggressive behaviors”.

From this we can also infer that Norman’s aggressive behaviors towards women are influenced by the pornographic pictures he views. Norman’s conflicted feelings towards women are due to his inadequate development as a man. Mary is dehumanized and objectified by men who feel a sense of entitlement over her body; hence her resentment causes her to act out of the social norm. Mary’s devious act is provoked by Tom Cassidy who fails to view her with respect and treats her as if she has no worth. He offers her money in exchange for her body, and although Mary is angry he is able to get away with such sickening behavior. Mary is aware of the privileges of the rich: “And she never forgot that this world belonged to the Tom Cassidy’s. They owned the property and they set the prices. Forty thousand to a daughter for a wedding gift; a hundred dollars tossed carelessly on a desk for three days’ rental privileges of the body of Mary Crane”.

Mary compares her body to property, which allows the reader to view how she’s starting to view herself as an object. Money could buy her body just like money could buy any other object. The man who offers her the money feels a sense of entitlement since he’s rich he feels that he could buy her like any other property. Eventually this causes Mary to act so carelessly because she feels resentment on the inside while having nothing to lose. Mary’s body is sexualized in many scenes throughout the book, Norman thinks to himself, “And now he remembered why she was there; it was because she has been killed, and she had been killed because she was evil. She had flaunted herself before him, she had deliberately tempted him with the perversion of her nakedness”. Her body often classifies Mary, and in the book it is what provokes her to get in so much trouble.

Objectification throughout the novel is what causes Mary to lash out, and it also causes her to get killed. The classification of Mary as an object deteriorates her to a great extent. It is a form of discrete abuse that is depicted several times in the book, and unfortunately one rich male sets her off to act so devious. Societal expectations for women have existed for many years, and Bloch challenges these expectations by removing women from their social pedestal and making them capable of both power and evil actions. The women in the novel are frequently making decisions and taking action in several situations. Lila takes initiative while the men in the novel are always busy thinking. Norman says, “But she has a mind of her own. Remember what she wanted to do? She wanted to take a look at the house. And that’s what she did do. That’s where she is now”.

Lila’s impulsive emotions drive her to investigate so thoroughly for her sister, which shows how mentally strong women can be. This also illustrates how Lila is capable of having power, and she ends up discovering what really happened to her sister. Without her inquisitiveness and demanding personality the psychotic character Norman would have not been discovered by the delusional men who were just sitting around. Mary crane also plays a big factor in having power when she steals the money to try and create an ideal future for her family. She doesn’t think about her actions twice; she sees an opportunity and she doesn’t take it for granted. The narrator states, “That’s the way the old gag went, but this hadn’t been a gag. She did take the money, and subconsciously she must have been daydreaming about just an opportunity for a long, long time”.

Mary is determined to reach her goal, and it shows how she takes more initiative than her soon to be husband. These women also reveal that everyone is capable of evil, and women all hold some type of monstrous creature inside. Women are often dehumanized and due to their gender they’re given specific behaviors; Bloch emphasizes that the shadow exists within anyone despite your gender status. According to the shadow every human being is capable of committing horrendous acts and horror can reside in anyone. Carl Jung attributes Mary’s devious behavior to her shadow since she is not aware of it nor has she learned how to control it. In his excerpt The Shadow, he declares that “Affects occur where adaptation is weakest, and at the same time they reveal the reason for it weakness, namely a certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a low level of personality…one behaves more or less like a primitive, who is not only the passive victim of his affects but also singularly incapable of moral judgment” Jung argues that one must recognize their capability of doing unpleasant things in order to become the best version of themselves. If one resists their shadow and represses these thoughts eventually he’ll become his shadow. That is what happens to many characters throughout the novel. Marry suppresses her darkest thoughts, and unconsciously she commits such a dishonorable act. Bloch depicted his characters in such a unique way to highlight the treatment of women, and also to psychologically bring women to life instead of dehumanizing them.

Women are often misinterpreted, and they are given standards to live by when they are just human beings despite their gender status. They too are capable of having feelings, power, and psychological trauma just like men. It is often objectification and misogyny that can lead a woman to lose her place in society and act so immoral. Bloch is able to give the female characters a meaning while destructing the masculinity that exists in men. The novel Psycho took a critical turn and vanished gender roles to highlight a monstrosity found in every human being.