Psycho

Bloch builds tension for Sam and Lila in this section as they await Arbogast’s call, revealing his grisly fate between scenes of ordinary waiting. Arbogast’s apparent canniness and law enforcement-related position inspire confidence in him, setting up an expectation that he will resolve Mary’s disappearance. Though Arbogast demonstrates his prowess at reading human behavior, however, he critically underestimates ordinary-seeming Norman’s potential threat level, not seeing his violent delusions and impulses. Arbogast’s murder subverts the expectations Bloch set up and reinforces the theme of The Duality of Human Nature. As Sam and Lila wait for Arbogast, Bloch also gives a clear description of the town of Fairvale, which does not seem like the sort of place where crimes like Norman’s would take place. For example, Sam knows his small town so well he can tell what day it is just by the sounds outside his store, implying that nothing out-of-the-ordinary happens there. The town has a park full of memorials for the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World Wars I and II. The memorial park illustrates duality as well, juxtaposing the peace of a public park on a Sunday with the mass casualties of these bloody wars: “The late afternoon sun cast slanting shadows. As they stood there the black tip of the Civil War veteran’s bayonet grazed Lila’s throat […] For a moment, it looked as though somebody had just cut off Lila’s head” (134). This mirrors Mary’s death and decapitation. Bloch further builds tension with Lila’s suspicion that Arbogast saw Mary, rather than Norma, in the window; though the reader knows that this is not the case, they do not know who, in fact, it is.

Much of Bloch’s narrative directs the reader, like Norman, to examine and reexamine what they know about Norman and his relationship with Norma. Chambers’s revelation that Norma has been dead for two decades represents a major shift in the story and casts the narrator’s reliability into question, pushing the reader to revisit what they know. Bloch never gives Norma a physical description, and she enters the narrative from the periphery, never directly in focus. Bloch makes it clear in sections from Norman’s perspective that Norma does have a physical presence: Someone is in Norma’s bed when Norman returns from disposing of Arbogast; Norman carries someone down into the fruit cellar. Whether this person is actually Norma Bates, however, becomes a question in these chapters, and Bloch invites the reader to continue Psychoanalyzing Norman Bates to find out. When Norman reminds his mother she’d be in a psychiatric hospital without his help, she replies, “Yes, Norman, I suppose you’re right. That’s where I’d probably be. But I wouldn’t be there alone” (116). This foreshadows the novel’s ending, which has Norman, as Norma, locked in a room at the state mental health hospital, assimilated with his other two identities.

Norman must again clean up his mother’s mess in this section. However, as her behavior becomes more erratic and unstable, Norman must confront the nature of their relationship. He has spent his life completely reliant on her to make decisions and protect him from the world outside their house. Now, it is his turn to protect them both. Norman’s taking Norma to the fruit cellar diminishes her usual vitriolic attitude somewhat, suggesting that if he had had the gumption to stand up to her, he might not have had to lead such a life of Shame and Repression. As Bloch moves closer to the reveal of Norman’s dissociative identity disorder, it becomes clear that Norman represses his personality in addition to his interests and sexuality.