Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Marion/Arbogast/Lila/Dr. Fred Richman

Psycho is best known for its multiple-personality antagonist. But it's also famous, and famously tricky, for the way in which it switches protagonists.

You start with Marion Crane as the hero… but then she gets killed. So you switch to Arbogast as the hero. But then he gets killed. So you move on to Lila Crane. And then, at the end, you stop paying attention to Lila, and instead get a sum up by Fred Richman, the psychiatrist who explains everything.

Hitchcock switches protagonists to throw you off balance. But he's able to do that, in part, because the real hero of the film is the antagonist, not the protagonist. The film is about Norman Bates and his madness. The protagonists are just convenient lenses through which to view, and confront Norman. So Hitchcock can cheerfully kill them off; his main focus is elsewhere.