Double or nothing? Director Alfred Hitchcock believed that having a split personality in his films made them doubly suspenseful. The motif of doubling characters is common in Hitchcock's films Psycho, North by Northwest, and Vertigo; each film uses the doppelganger technique of portraying the figures in the film as a double or second self. In literature, the doppelganger character is often presented as a twin, shadow, or mirror image of the central character. The doppelganger figure typically appears as a very similar identical to the protagonist. By transforming two characters into his films, Hitchcock doubled the thrill factor for his viewers. Hitchcock's famous film Psycho depicts a meeting between a traveling secretary, Marion Crane, and troubled motel owner Norman Bates. Crane, frustrated with her life and unable to marry her lover due to financial problems, seeks refuge in the isolated motel after embezzling money from her employer. Tired after a long night of travel, she leaves the main highway and enters the Bates Motel. Bates, a shy and reserved young man whose life is dominated by his useless mother, welcomes Crane to the hotel. Psycho uses the split personalities of two distinct characters combined into a single male figure. Throughout the film, viewers are led to believe that Bates lives with his mother in the house across the street from the motel. Later in the film, after Crane is killed during his stay at the Bates Motel, Bates' mother is first suspected as the killer. We watch as Norman Bates cleans up after the murder, perhaps to protect his mother. During the investigation a new discovery is made. The detectives discover that Norman's mother died years ago and Norman is immediately identified as the middle... Aldes and Madeline. The second and main double is between Madeline and Judy. While Judy pretended to be Madeline, Elster made her act like a ghost, Carlotta Valdes, took control of her mind and body. The figure of the doppelganger in Vertigo takes over the film, distorting the plot in an unexpected way. Some doppelgangers or doubles are real characters in their own right; others are mysterious projections of the protagonist's inner psyche. In these films, the doppelganger technique is used by the director to make visual a conflict that would otherwise be internal. As you've read, Hitchcock's films highlight doubles in extraordinary ways. The double trait is intertwined in Psycho, North by Northwest, and Vertigo, influencing both the characters and the outcome of each story. From the thrill of the plot to the unexpected endings, the doubling motif really elevates these films.