Recall from part 9 of the analysis, that there is Freudian symbolism in The Shining pointing to the idea of castration anxiety. In this post, we will be further discussing Freudian symbolism in the film; all quoted material in the below is from the Strachey translation of Freud's classic work, The Interpretation of Dreams.[a]
Beginning with the dream symbolism of the Overlook hotel's rooms, and especially that of room 237, "Rooms in dreams are usually women...; if the various ways in and out of them are represented, this interpretation is scarcely open to doubt...In this connection interest in whether the room is open or locked is easily intelligible. ..."
We see the interior of room 237 (shown at left) from Jack's point of view, as he moves toward its bathroom. Note that the room is laid out like a suite. "A dream of going through a suite of rooms is a brothel or harem dream."
The Overlook hotel is located on a forested mountain: "[M]any landscapes in dreams, especially any containing bridges or wooded hills, may clearly be recognized as descriptions of the genitals."
Freud says that, "To represent castration symbolically, the dream-work makes use of baldness, hair-cutting, falling out of teeth and decapitation." Jack is starting to grow bald (above left), and Delbert Grady has only a relatively small amount of hair on his head (above right). As indicated above, castration anxiety symbolism in the film is also discussed in part 9 of the analysis.
Shown in the two screencaps above is Danny navigating the hotel's corridors on his tricycle, turning right and left: "According to Stekel, 'right' and 'left' in dreams have an ethical sense. 'The right-hand path always means the path of righteousness and the left-hand one that of crime. Thus 'left' may represent homosexuality, incest or perversion, and 'right' may represent marriage, intercourse with a prostitute, and so on, always looked at from the subject's individual moral standpoint' (Stekel, 1909, p. 466 ff.)."
a. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Ed. and Trans. James Strachey, Trans. copyright 1955 James Strachey. Basic Books, 2010. pp. 367-368, 369, 370-371.
