A Look at the Meaning & Underpinnings of The Shining
The Shining by Stephen King is something of a modern classic. Who doesn’t know something about it, or at least some clip from the movie (“Here’s Johnny!”)? So it may surprise you to hear that I had never seen the entire movie until this last week. I’ve read the book, of course. But the movie? Never got around to it. And I had heard that King didn’t like what Kubrick did with the novel, so I was in no hurry to see the film. However, now that I have seen it, it feels like it’s time to talk about why this book is gothic.
Keep in mind, this isn’t exactly a book review. I’ve done that before in case you’d like to read it: here. Instead, we’re going to take a deeper look at the gothic nature of the work and how King uses gothic tropes to bring a very gothic theme to life.
Quick Recap
Just to catch all of us up on the book/ movie, the story features an ex-teacher and current writer, Jack Torrance who, after having been suspended from his teaching job takes a winter caretaker position for The Overlook Hotel in Colorado. He moves to the remote hotel, high in the mountains, with his wife, Wendy, and son, Danny, in time for the staff to clear out for the season. The family of three is left alone in the immense lodge to weather the storms without and those within.
As you might guess, the isolation and the stormy weather act as something of a medium, calling forth Jack’s demons and setting him in a war with both himself and his family. The only question is whether they’ll make it out alive.
The movie doesn’t highlight some of the key things in Jack’s past, things that give us a much better glimpse into who he is and what he’s battling within himself. So, I will be speaking from the perspective of the novel. If I highlight something from the movie, I’ll specify as much.
The Shining
But first, what is the shining? That’s a key question because, as authors, we title our novels to reflect the theme(s) we’re presenting.
The shining is essentially a paranormal capacity that’s akin to a merger of telepathy, psychic abilities, and prophecy. A person with this gift can communicate with others who also have the gift via just their thoughts, can sense and even communicate with the dead and can sometimes see what will happen in the future.
Both Danny and Jack have this ability and both experience it unwittingly. However, it manifests in different ways.
Danny
Most of Danny’s experiences with the shining relate to his ability to know what is happening with his parents, particularly his father, Jack. He has a strong sense for what Jack is doing or intends to do in the near future. Danny also sees the souls of those who have been murdered or have committed suicide (those who died violent deaths) at The Overlook Hotel. Lastly, he communicates with Dick Hallorann, the chef of the Overlook Hotel, who has gone home to his house in Miami, but who also has the gift and has promised to be there for Danny.
What do all of Danny’s shining experiences have in common? Danny is something of an intermediary between the unseen suffering of others and the present, seen world. I would liken him to something of a paranormal empath.
Jack
In contrast, Jack’s shining experiences are all related to his own demons. Jack has three strikes against him before the story opens: he has a long history of alcoholism, which he had battled and overcome before the family arrives at The Overlook; he had an affair with a coworker; and he has a history of violence.
Readers learn that one night prior to the story, Jack came home drunk, saw Danny in his office messing up his papers, and, in a fit of rage, broke his arm. We also learn the history of Jack’s employment problems: he seriously injured a student. (The whys in that part of the story are complex and interesting. I won’t give it away in case you’re looking forward to reading it.)
All that to say that the demons of The Overlook have a lot of material to work with when it comes to Jack.
There’s the satanic bartender, Lloyd, who’s preying on Jack’s struggles not to return to drinking. There’s the naked woman in the bathtub (in the film) who appears to be young and virile only to turn into a decaying hag in his arms. And lastly, there’s the former caretaker, Delbert Grady, who wants Jack and Danny to join him…through murder/ suicide of course, as Grady did when he killed his two daughters, his wife, and then himself.
What Does it Mean?
There are many theories about the meaning of this book and the corresponding movie. Everything from a commentary on the slaughter of the Native American people, to it being a metaphor for hell, to a portrayal of child abuse. There’s some truth to most interpretations, but many of these pertain more to the movie and to the various elements that Kubrick added to it. The book itself is more straightforward. Especially when you consider that this book is a Gothic book.
I’ll show you how I can see that that’s true.
Gothic Tropes
If you’ve read about what makes a book Gothic and how the tropes make the unseen theme more tangible, you’ll understand why we’re going to start with the tropes themselves. There are several traditionally Gothic tropes in this story:
- Haunted Hotel/ Ghosts
- Madness
- Isolation
- Stormy Weather
But these, in and of themselves, wouldn’t necessarily make the story Gothic. Rather, it’s what King has done with them that proves that they are.
Haunted Hotel/ Ghosts
The hotel itself is plagued with a dark history. Jack digs into this history via the crates of newspapers and other papers that are in the basement near the boiler. He learns of various past murders and other instances in which evil people stayed at The Overlook.
This parallels Jack’s violent nature. Though he hasn’t murdered anyone in the past, he has been very ruthless and has harmed both his son and his student. King uses the hotel as if it’s a character in and of itself. Through the hotel, we see into the mind of Jack. We see his anger, his grudges, and his struggle not to be violent. In this way, King uses the hotel as if it were Jack’s inner rage made manifest.
Both the hotel and the ghost of Delbert Grady, in specific, act as a mirror of Jack’s true character. Grady shows us Jack’s bitterness towards his family, his circumstances, and much of the world.
Madness
Madness features very prominently in The Shining. So much so that it’s possibly the most well-known aspect of the story.
The use of various types of mental impairment in writing is fascinating. So much so that I wrote an article on the various ways that writers have used it to contribute to plot, character and theme. If you’re interested, you can find that article here.
In The Shining, it’s Jack’s war within himself that drives him mad. If you have to pause to consider that for a minute, that’s a good thing. It would be easy to take the struggling-to-be-a-recovering-alcoholic thing at face value. Lots of people struggle with current or past addictions.
But that’s not enough to understand Jack’s actions as the story progresses. Instead, we have to add Jack’s anger into the equation. What is he angry about?
His wife is loving and faithful and, in the book (not the movie), is a strong, capable woman. His son is a sweet, obedient child who doesn’t cause any problems other than typical childhood ones. Jack had a great teaching job, but he ruined it through his actions with his student, George Hatfield.
Why does he do this? What is really driving his underlying anger?
The cheap answer is that it stems from his father’s abusive behavior when Jack was a child. And that certainly had a role in forming Jack’s anger. We even see the early evidences of that in Jack’s abusive behavior towards animals and other children. But that answer still doesn’t hold enough water to explain Jack’s very extreme actions at The Overlook.
Rather, consider the number one, most important thing to Jack: his writing.
Like many English teachers, Jack writes on the side. His primary objective over the winter season at The Overlook is to write a play. In the book, though King implies that Jack has written in the past, it’s clear to readers that his writing has never garnered much success or acclaim.
Isolation
King places Jack in a place in which he has no distractions. No other people besides his wife and son. No work colleagues. No day job other than the infrequent repairs and daily boiler maintenance that the hotel requires. Nothing to quiet the self-doubt and condemnation he already feels.
Jack is the caretaker at The Overlook because that’s exactly what he believes about himself. He has been overlooked, dismissed, rendered inconsequential. He internalized that message in his father’s abuse and then turned that on others – animals and children. Thus, when his life’s work – his attempts to make something of his writing – continually falls apart, he can no longer deny that he isn’t able to be what he wants to be, or do what he wants to do in life.
Some speculate that the story is one about writers block, but that’s merely the tip of the iceberg. Writers block is frustrating, but not disastrous. On the other hand, an aspiring writer whose only measure of success is renown through his writing, but who discovers that he doesn’t have the ideas, ability, talent…whatever the case may be…that’s a different matter.
For Jack, the isolation leaves him face-to-face with this belief he has and his inability to counter it by producing a play. He knows, just as Wendy soon does, that all he writes all day, every day, is the sentence:
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
Jack’s madness stems from his isolation. An isolation that amplifies his knowledge that he is unable to accomplish the one thing he wants in life.
Stormy Weather
This knowledge culminates in a violent showdown within himself (between Jack and the hotel), but tangibly between Jack and his family as he pursues them through the hotel. Readers see this coming. King has already established that Jack has a history of turning his anger and frustration on others. And now, as he faces his own shortcomings, his actions are practically a given.
What makes this book interesting though is that, unlike in Kubrick’s film version, Jack struggles very hard to rise above himself. He wants to be a loving husband and father. He wants to avoid drinking. He wants to be something other than what his nature and circumstances are driving him towards. But he can’t reconcile his goals with his reality.
The weather mirrors this beautifully. The howling wind shows us the rising scream of frustration and desperation and rage within Jack’s soul. His growing confrontation with the knowledge that he has given himself only one benchmark for success – through his writing – and that that outlet isn’t working for him parallels the rising snow, burying him from the outside world. From any other, external hope.
As the story crescendos, readers see the inevitable conclusion, the only solution for the characters, including Jack. And, of course, we aren’t disappointed.
Conclusion
Hopefully you can see it as I outlined it above. King’s use of these tropes is so clearly meant to make an unseen theme – Jack’s war against his belief that he is overlooked and his inability to contradict that through his writing – visible to readers. Through the haunted hotel and its ghosts, the madness, isolation and weather, we see the struggle that he’s undergoing in an attempt to war with himself.
Jack is the overlook hotel. The only question is: who will win?
If you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends!