How does Hitchcock use binary opposites to create suspense in Psycho?

In the thriller 'Psycho' Alfred Hitchcock uses binary oppositions to create suspense. The film starts with a binary opposite - wide open spaces versus claustrophobic confined spaces. There is a wide aerial shot of Phoenix, Arizona and then there is a crane shot which moves in through Venetian blinds into a small, dark, confined hotel room. When there is a wide panning shot of the city it gives the feeling of freedom but as soon as the shot changes it makes the audience feel trapped and claustrophobic in a room that is barely the size of a cupboard. It creates suspense because whilst we know the rest of the city is going along with their everyday business, there are people such as Marion and Sam who are doing things that we know they shouldn't be doing. Tension is caused because we know that something is bound to happen to one of them because of the feeling of being trapped.

In Psycho another binary opposite is wedded bliss versus extramarital misery. Marion wants security and a respectable marriage to Sam instead of what she has now and she is unhappy with the situation that her and Sam are in. Unfortunately because Sam is still married he can't have any of that and the couple in love have to sneak around behind peoples backs and it's not what she wants to do anymore. This creates suspense because they talk about needing money for the divorce and so that they can have a life together and then ironically when Marion gets back to her office there is a man with £40,000 cash and Marion has the opportunity to take it and we are made to question whether she takes it for the right reasons but it is obvious she still in the wrong. The audience feel tense because they want to know whether she gets caught and what will happen.  

The next obvious binary opposite that we see is Marion's underwear. Before the money was stolen she was wearing white underwear, this connotes the innocence and purity she has. Although what she is doing with Sam is wrong she knows that and wants to have dinner with him and her sister, with a photo of her mum on the mantle piece so that they are no longer doing wrong. This all changes after she takes the money, her underwear is now black and as she looks longingly at the money she knows she is wrong to take it but doesn't care. The black underwear connotes the wrong she is doing and that she has gone over to the dark side by committing this crime. There is two binary opposites within this because although there is the obvious one of black underwear versus white underwear, there is also good versus evil. This creates suspense because we want to know whether she ever gets caught or whether she lives happily ever after. The genre of the film makes it a little more obvious that she will get caught, but it creates suspense because we want to know who by and what could happen to her in the meantime.

A well known binary opposite in Psycho is the predator versus its prey. When Marion pulls up at Bates motel she is greeted by Norman, the owner of the motel and by what the audience can see he is also the carer for his mother. To Marion he just seems like a very normal man, but from what the audience watches they can tell that Norman is stalking Marion when we see him watch her getting changed for a shower, just before the very famous shower scene. It builds suspense because the audience don't know if he is planning to kill her for his prey or if he is just simply watching her - we want to know what he has planned for her fate! Also it builds tension because the audience can see that if Marion was in danger, she would be helpless because she is on her own in the middle of nowhere without anyone she knows.

Norman Bates is a binary opposite in himself, his internal personality versus his external personality. On the outside he seems like a very charming man who wants to help a woman who has been travelling a long way and is hungry and tired. But juxtaposed with this on the inside he is evil, it is as though he is stalking his prey ready to kill which is what he does in the very famous shower scene. Norman has dual personalities. He was abused by his mother and never got on with her, but once she had died he couldn't bare to be alone so one of is his personalities is the real Norman Bates and the other is that of his mother. This create suspense because to start with we think that Norman is a very nice character and we feel sorry for him because of the way his 'mother' shouts at him when he hasn't done anything wrong but really it isn't his mother at all. We think throughout the film that it is his mother who is the murderer and he is trying to protect her, but it is him all along and this creates tension because when we find out that it is him who is the murder Marion's sister and Sam are with Norman.

All these binary opposites fill Psycho with suspense and leave the audience on the edge of their seats.