[Image at left from the Wikipedia 'The Shining (film)' page; "The Shining poster",[a] licensed under fair use via Wikipedia.]Welcome to the analysis of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film, The Shining. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis. Regarding the appearance of possible anti-Semitism on this blog, please see the 'Disclaimers' section near the bottom of this page.
Some initial observations on the movie are listed below.
Although the TV newscast is part of Susan's dream, it refers to the real-life event whereby Susan intentionally wandered away from her husband, while the two of them were on a hunting trip, with her idea having been to escape from the marriage. After walking away from her husband, Susan continued to wander in the wilderness, replenishing her body fluids by drinking from a canteen she had been using while hunting. However, she had little or no food with her, so over time, she became very hungry. She eventually made her way to a road, and began hitch-hiking.
At some point while hitch-hiking, Susan caught a ride from a family that was traveling in a red VW bug, on their way to the Overlook hotel. The family consisted of three people: a boy, 13 years of age; the boy's mother, who was in her early 30's; and her husband (the boy's father), a man in his 30's - mid 40's, who was driving. While in the car with the family, Susan began conversing with them, especially with the mother, and she learned information about the family which was later used in the construction of her dream.
Susan learned that the family had recently moved from Vermont to Colorado, and that the husband had already been to the Overlook hotel once, by himself, for an interview with hotel management, for him and his family to be winter caretakers for the hotel, and that he succeeded in getting his family the job. During the interview, the hotel manager ('Mr. Ullman' in Susan's dream) described to the husband an incident in which a former winter caretaker, Charles Grady, had murdered his own wife and two daughters and then killed himself, while they (the Grady family) were at the hotel. Also stated by the manager was that this incident had occurred in 1970. The mention of this event while Susan was traveling with the family, set off Susan's memory of it; for she had read about it in an article published in a newspaper, at the time that it happened, when she was 17 years old (as we will see, The Shining is set in the year 1977; since Susan is 24 in 1977, she was 17 in 1970). Susan knew what Charles Grady looked like from having seen a photo of him in the news article; this fact will come into play later in the analysis. (In Susan's dream, a newspaper article about a man named Grady murdering his family, is mentioned to Delbert Grady by Jack, during the two men's restroom conversation during the Gold Room party at the Overlook; though in the dream, Jack tells Delbert that it was a picture of him (Delbert) that he saw in the article. The connection between Delbert and Charles will be taken up later in the analysis, when we discuss the photograph shown at the movie's ending.) The family in the red VW became part of the basis for the Torrance family in Susan's dream, with Wendy representing the mother of the 13-year-old boy, Jack representing his father, and Danny representing the boy himself. To be discussed below is why Danny looks only 6 years old in the dream, instead of 13.
Shown at left is the Torrance family on their way to the Overlook hotel. Everything that happens in this scene, as well all of the other events of The Shining, taken together, constitute the contents of Susan Robertson's dream.
Above left: Jack's interview with Stuart Ullman (the man with his back to us), with Bill Watson, a member of hotel staff, sitting at far right. This is Susan's 'dream-version' of the real-life interview that took place, between the man driving the red VW and hotel management. As indicated above, Susan knew of this interview from speaking with the man and his family while traveling with them in their car. Above right: Recall that during the restroom conversation between Jack and Delbert Grady, Jack mentions a newspaper article about Grady murdering his own family. This part of Susan's dream is, in part, a representation of the fact that she knew about the 1970 Charles Grady murders, from reading a story about them in the papers when she was 17 years old.
The part of Susan's dream mentioned above, in which a TV newscaster mentions the snowstorm that is headed into the area, not only refers to the storm the Torrances experience while at the Overlook (in the dream), but it is also a reference to a real-life storm that moved in while Susan and the (real-life) family were traveling in the red VW. At some point during this storm the father, who was driving, lost control of the car, and it was partially crushed under a large truck, when the truck overturned due to its driver trying to avoid the car while snow was on the road. As a result, the car was disabled, stranding Susan and the family. The drivers of the few other cars that were on the road, did not bother to stop to help the occupants of the VW, due to the severity of the storm; however, someone must have seen the accident, or at least its aftermath, and then pulled into an auto repair establishment (as represented by Durkin's garage in Susan's dream), which was located further up the road, and was open even during the storm. This person notified the staff at the garage of the accident, and then, one of these staff contacted the police or fire emergency department.
The real-life accident in which the red VW was partially crushed by an overturned truck, is represented in Susan's dream by Dick Hallorann seeing the aftermath of such an accident on his way to Durkin's garage.
Above left: The red VW partially crushed under an overturned truck. Above right: Durkin's garage. The reason the garage is depicted in such detail in the movie, is because Susan was familiar with it - she had been there before.
If the red VW had not crashed, Susan would have continued on with the Torrances to the real-life city in which the (fictional) Overlook hotel is located: Estes Park, Colorado (it will be described how we can know that this is the Overlook's location, later in the analysis).
At some point while Susan and the family were stranded in the snowstorm, Susan and the mother began to converse. It is in this manner that Susan found out the following additional details from which she constructed her dream.
a) The 13-year-old's mother described her plans for her husband had the family made it to the hotel: The woman told Susan that she had recently begun poisoning her husband with mercury, and that she planned for him to eventually die from the effects of chronic mercury poisoning, during the time period the family would have been at the hotel. Susan's knowledge of the woman's plan to poison her husband is reflected in her dream by, in part, the fact that Wendy does all of the meal preparation and serving - she's putting some form of mercury in a hot liquid that she's been serving Jack - and by the fact that Jack 'goes crazy' while at the hotel, and dies; for these latter eventualities are ultimately a result of his being poisoned with mercury. (The poisoning of Jack will be discussed in detail, later in the analysis).
b) The 13-year-old's mother divulged to Susan that she had been sexually abusing her own son, and that she ultimately planned on having a child with him. Being 13, this boy was far enough into puberty to be able to ejaculate. His mother told Susan that she intended to use erotic asphyxiation in order to increase her son's state of arousal during sex with him, to increase the chances that she could conceive a child with him, while they were at the hotel (had they made it there). This explains the bruises we see on Danny's neck in the dream (as shown in the screencap below; click image to enlarge): Wendy choked him to increase his state of arousal, while having sex with him.
Danny's neck bruising, due to Wendy choking him (click image to enlarge).
The reason the boy in the dream (Danny) looks 6 years old rather than 13, is because in addition to representing the boy in the VW, he also represents Susan's own (real-life) 6-year-old son, who must have been left with a baby-sitter while Susan and her husband were on their hunting trip. However, in Susan's dream, this 6-year-old boy, in accordance with the fantasy aspect of the dream, 'incorporates' one or more characteristics of a 13-year-old, for example, he is physiologically capable of ejaculating. For the basic underlying reason that Susan substituted her own son for the older woman's in the dream, is that in reality, Susan had been sexually abusing her own son; this is one reason she wanted to leave her husband: She was worried because he had recently discovered the sexual abuse, or because she thought that he was about to do so. The fact that both women were sexually abusing their own sons, is the necessary link between the two women; it is the main reason Susan identified with the older woman, and 'became' this woman in the dream (via becoming Wendy, i.e., in the dream, Wendy not only represents the woman in the red VW, but she also represents Susan herself). Note that Wendy looks about 31 years old, whereas as mentioned above, Susan is only 24. The reason for this 'discrepancy' will be explained later in the analysis.
The older woman told Susan the facts listed in 'a' and 'b' above, while the two women were conversing at a distance from the woman's husband and her son, such that they could not hear the conversation.
As indicated above, Susan had not eaten for quite a while, and had become very hungry. Since she had been on a hunting trip, she was in possession of a gun. In order to survive then, she decided to resort to cannibalism, so at some point after her conversation with the mother at the accident site, Susan shot all three members of the family, and then partially cannibalized the mother. This is why in part of Susan's dream, cannibalism and the Donner party are mentioned while the Torrances are traveling to the hotel. Susan had to shoot the father and boy in addition to the mother, so that there would be no witnesses. Susan was careful enough so that neither the driver of the truck that hit the VW, nor anyone else who was on or near the highway, saw her shoot the members of the family.
Although the gun Susan was carrying must have been a rifle (since she had been using it for hunting), she must have had it in a sleeve or pack strung over her back while she was hitch-hiking, and therefore, the family was not hesitant to give her a ride in their car. This lack of hesitation was also due to the fact that the location at which the family picked up Susan, was next to an area that was relatively popular with hunters. Later, when the VW crashed, the site of the crash was itself very close to such an area. This is why Susan was not worried that anyone who may have heard the gunshots from her shooting the family members, would become suspicious.
At one point in Susan's dream (i.e., at a later point than the newscast mentioned above), we hear another TV newscast about three people having died in Colorado due to exposure to freezing weather. This part of the dream is a representation of the fact that when the real-life media reported on the three family members Susan had killed, they, at the request of the authorities, did not reveal that the three people who had died were members of a family who were found shot dead, with one being partially cannibalized. The reason the authorities didn't want this information to be revealed, was to avoid panicking the public.
The fact that the VW driven by Jack Torrance is yellow (as shown here), instead of red as was that of the (real-life) family with which Susan was travelling, is another indication that from the very beginning of the movie, we are witnessing a dream.
The father (the driver of the red VW) lost control of his car, while driving during the snowstorm, not only due to the storm itself, but also because of momentary lack of coordination due to the aforementioned mercury poisoning (the symptoms of mercury poisoning will be gone into in more detail, later in the analysis). The man's wife, presumably being inexperienced in this area, must have started her husband off with too high a dose or concentration of mercury. Her husband's loss of coordination while driving, is represented in Susan's dream by certain things that we see while Jack is driving alone to the Overlook for his interview, as described below.
Above left: While Jack is driving his VW up the long two-lane mountain road leading to the Overlook hotel, we see views of the surrounding mountain scenery, some of which are from a perspective which is alongside the car. It is at one point while viewing the surroundings from this perspective, that we see the scenery abruptly change, as if to indicate that the car has started to leave the roadway (as shown here). This is a hint about the fact that the man driving the red VW lost control of his car just prior to the crash with the truck (while the rest of the man's family, and Susan, were in the car with him). Above right: When Jack exits this tunnel, his car is in the oncoming lane (click image to enlarge); this is another hint about the real-life loss of control and the resulting accident.
Mercury poisoning can also cause irritability, which explains why, in Susan's dream, Jack is a little irritable while driving his family to the hotel: recall his annoyed, sarcastic tone of voice when responding to Danny's statement regarding how he (Danny) learned about cannibalism: "See? It's okay - he saw it on the television."
The woman in the red VW started poisoning her husband before his first trip to the hotel, i.e., before his interview. She hoped that this would make him, while at the hotel for the interview, behave in a fashion other than completely mild-mannered, i.e., so that there would at least be an 'edge' to his behavior. For if the hotel staff got the idea that he was normally a calm and collected individual, and the authorities later (after the husband's death at the hotel, and the woman and her son's subsequent return to civilization) interviewed any staff and determined that the man was normally mild-mannered, this might weigh against the later claim the woman planned on making, that her husband became abusive and tried to kill her and her son, while the family was at the hotel.
The fact that the movie depicts a dream, accounts for its anomalies, such as Jack's escape from the storeroom; for in reality, there would have been no one to let him out. In fact, this event constitutes a hint from Kubrick that the movie depicts a dream.
Top left: Wendy slides open the storeroom's upper lock with her left hand, in preparation for dragging Jack into the room. Top right: Wendy drags Jack into the room. Note that she has released the lower handle lock, as indicated by its locking pin having been removed from the handle (the pin is shown inside the circle, at the end of its chain). Above left: Once Jack is inside the storeroom, Wendy places the pin back in the handle lock to lock it. Note that she has already re-locked the sliding bolt lock (the upper lock). Above right: Even if Jack could successfully operate the release handle inside the room, to cause the outside handle lock to become unlocked, he still wouldn't be able to get out of the room, because Wendy also locked the upper lock. The point is that he couldn't have physically forced his way out of the room.
Above left: After Jack has been locked in the storeroom for a while, we hear him and Delbert Grady, who is supposedly outside the storeroom near its entrance, having a conversation. However, we only hear Grady's voice - we do not see him. If The Shining depicted reality instead of a dream, there would be no Delbert Grady physically present, because Ullmann would have told Jack during his interview if someone like Grady, or anyone else besides the Torrances, would be in the hotel during the winter. Above right: It couldn't have been Danny who let Jack out of the room, because his reach wouldn't be quite long enough to operate the upper lock (after Wendy locked it). Note that the sliding lock and the handle lock are unlocked in this earlier scene, in which Hallorann is showing Wendy and Danny around the kitchen; but nevertheless, Wendy had to unlock both locks prior to putting Jack inside the storeroom - someone (i.e., Hallorann or one of the other hotel staff) must have locked the room prior to leaving for the winter.
Susan experienced her dream after passing into a state of semi-consciousness due to freezing and exhaustion, at some point after having killed the members of the family and partially eating the mother.
The reason Wendy looks so surprised and saddened (above left) when she discovers Jack's useless book manuscript (above right - the manuscript consists only of pages and pages containing the sentence "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"), is because she had hoped to use the proceeds from any novel Jack might write while at the hotel, to help support her and Danny once the two of them returned to civilization. Wendy was too careless and stupid with the mercury poisoning to have done enough research on the effects of it beforehand, for if she had, she would have known that it can lower a person's cognitive functioning, and thus, she would have realized that Jack would not be able to write a coherent novel while being poisoned.
The fact that in the dream, Jack is suffering from mercury poisoning, explains not only his lowered cognitive functioning, but it also explains his hallucinations (e.g., Lloyd), vivid dreams, irritability, mood swings, and certain other symptoms. As already stated, the poisoning of Jack will be discussed in greater detail later in the analysis.
That Wendy is poisoning Jack fits with the fact that she has to make things appear such that he dies in a scenario whereby the authorities will not suspect her as the perpetrator of a murder, and that they will, in fact, believe that Jack's death was the end result of threatening behavior directed by him, toward her and Danny. It's true that earlier in the movie, after Jack investigates Wendy's claim that Danny says he was choked by a crazy woman in room 237, Wendy suggests they need to get Danny out of the hotel, to seek help for him. But Wendy makes this suggestion with the idea in her mind, that Jack will respond by volunteering to stay in the hotel by himself, and continue writing, while she and Danny go down the mountain. Jack responds to Wendy's suggestion by getting angry, and making statements indicating that he has been making progress in his writing; the point is that if he thought about it, he would, in fact, rather stay at the hotel and write, than go with Wendy to seek help for Danny. At this point, Wendy wants to leave Jack alone in the hotel, where he is to die from the cumulative effects of the mercury poisoning. As things turn out, Wendy and Danny do not leave the hotel at this point, and the next time we see Jack, he's on his way to the Gold Room bar. However, as described below, Wendy does eventually get the upper hand with Jack.
Top left: After drawing Jack up a flight of stairs, Wendy strikes him over the head with a baseball bat, and he falls down the stairs, severely injuring himself. Top right: Wendy then drags an injured Jack into the storeroom, and locks him inside it (as already described). Above left: Wendy next discovers that the hotel's snowcat has been disabled. Above right: Later, after Wendy has locked herself and Danny in the bathroom of the Torrance's hotel suite, in order to get away from Jack, Wendy lets Danny out of the bathroom window; then, after realizing that she herself cannot fit through the window opening (below left), she yells at Danny to run (below right). Wendy knows that Danny can escape from an injured Jack on foot, especially since the cumulative effects of the mercury poisoning on Jack, have become so strong by this point.
Next, Wendy and Danny leave the Overlook in Hallorann's snowcat (below left; this snowcat is the one Hallorann used to get to the hotel from Durkin's garage, while Jack was menacing Wendy and Danny in the hotel. As already indicated, the hotel snowcat, which is smaller than the one shown here, had earlier been disabled by Jack). The screencap at below right shows Jack near the movie's ending, frozen to death in the snow.
In the end, Wendy has taken advantage of the entire scenario of watching over the hotel, to do away with Jack so that she can be alone with Danny. All of this corresponds with what was said above about the plans the woman Susan spoke with, had for her own husband and son. Basically, what's going on is that this woman's plans became Susan's wish for her own husband and son, had she stayed with them (instead of wandering away from her husband during the hunting trip the two of them were on). This wish then became fulfilled in Susan's dream, to the extent that Jack, representing Susan's husband in the dream (in addition to representing the man in the red VW), dies from mercury poisoning, with Wendy (as noted above, representing Susan, in addition to the woman in the red VW) retaining possession of Danny in the end.
The fact that Kubrick chose actors (Jack Nicholson and Danny Lloyd, as shown in the films's ending credits at left), with their real first names matching those of their respective characters (Jack Torrance and Danny Torrance), is to get across to audiences of The Shining the fact that some of the things that take place in the movie, i.e., the secret poisoning of men by their wives, and the sexual abuse of boys by their mothers, happen in real life with a frequency greater than is commonly acknowledged; their occurrences are typically not brought to light.
2. See below
Above left and right: Throughout much of the movie, Wendy wears clothing that incorporates American Indian themes, and Jack wears clothing somewhat like what we would expect a rancher to wear. The point is that Jack represents the white European settlers of the early American West (who often took up livestock ranching as an occupation), while Wendy represents the American Indians of the same period. Therefore, Jack's bad treatment of Wendy in Susan's dream, is an 'allegory' for the settlers treating the Indians badly, and in specific, it is an allegory for a (supposed) massacre of Indians by whites: the Sand Creek massacre, which is recorded as having taken place in Colorado in 1864. However, in accordance with what was said above (the mercury poisoning, etc.), it's really Jack (representing ranchers/white settlers) who is the victim in The Shining, whereas Wendy (Indians) is the perpetrator - this is Kubrick's allegory for a true massacre that happened in Colorado in 1864, shortly after the events at Sand Creek: a massacre of settlers by Indians, at a settlement (in Colorado) called Julesberg. It must be the case that Kubrick thoroughly researched records of the events at Sand Creek (and Julesberg) prior to making The Shining, such as by looking at archived records in Colorado, and/or by having people who worked for him look at them, and that he became convinced that what took place at Sand Creek was, in fact, not the massacre it is commonly depicted as having been (and that Julesberg was an actual massacre - again, of settlers by Indians).
3. See below.
Danny's red, white, and blue shirt in this scene in the Torrance apartment in Boulder, Colorado (near Denver), has the number '42' on it.
Above left: Danny and Wendy watch Summer of '42, while at the Overlook. Summer of '42 is a 1971 film about a love affair between an adolescent boy and an older woman. Above right: A scene from Summer of '42 as shown in The Shining.
As stated, the 42's in The Shining are references to the Wannsee Conference and the Holocaust. However, the supposed massacre of American Indians being allegorically depicted in The Shining is, in turn, a 'surface' allegory for the Holocaust: Just as Kubrick believed that the public has been given an inaccurate version of the events at Sand Creek, he also believed that the public has been given a largely inaccurate version of history, insofar as what took place between the Nazis and Jews before and during World War II. This includes our being given false data regarding the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust - this number has historically been being stated as much higher than it was in reality.
Kubrick has reportedly said that, "The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. 'Schindler's List' is about 600 who don't." (--A.J. Goldmann, Haaretz, "Eyes wide open", 21 Aug 2005, Web, URL = http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/eyes-wide-open-1.167674.) But, Kubrick was here using the word "about" in the sense, that this is the popular perception of what the Holocaust was, not what it was in reality.
The hexagonal (six-sided) patterns in the carpeting of the Overlook hotel's corridors (above left) are based on the hexagonally-shaped interior region of the Jewish Star of David (above right, outlined in black),[c] and thus, they indicate the metaphorical 'presence' of Jews in the hotel.
In Hermetic tradition, the interior hexagonal region of the Star of David was associated with gold;[d] the implication is that the name of the Gold Room, and the golden color of its interior (shown at left), also indicate the 'presence' of Jews in the hotel. As will be seen later in the analysis, the hints in The Shining of a 'Jewish presence' ultimately refer to the existence of modern-day, real-life evil elite Jews.
4. See below.
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Wendy, along with the doctor she called to come over (to the Torrance apartment in Boulder) and examine Danny, after he experienced a frightening auto-hypnosis episode, exit Danny's bedroom. Note that Wendy is wearing a red top and leotards, blue dress, and yellow shoes. The red of Wendy's clothing represents the fires of Hell, and thus, it represents 'Satanic' forces. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung says that the color blue represents the feminine,[e] and since Wendy is evil, her blue represents an 'evil feminine' presence. The yellow of her shoes represents deception.[f]
The red and blue in the red, white, and blue clothing worn by Danny and Mr. Ullman, represent things other than what have here been indicated that they represent by their being worn by Wendy. The color symbolism of the clothing worn by these two male characters, will be explored later in the analysis.
Ullman wears red, white, and blue during the interview scene.
5. See below.
The 'river of blood' shown at various points in the movie (shown at left) represents the river Phlegethon, which is a mythical underworld river in the seventh circle of Dante's Inferno. The seventh circle is where those who were violent in life are punished, by being immersed in the flowing, boiling blood of the Phlegethon. The entrance to the seventh circle is guarded by the Minotaur.
The blood flow also indicates that Wendy was menstruating during one or more of her sex 'sessions' with Danny.
6. Reflection (such as by use of mirrors) and doubling (the twins, shown at left, the two boiler furnaces side by side, the two sets of elevator doors) are used in the movie to suggest the idea of duality, and the related ideas of tension of opposites and unresolved inner contradictions. These concepts (duality, etc.) will come up again, later in the analysis.
Top left: A reflection of Jack opening his mouth wide just before he eats breakfast, in his and Wendy's bedroom at the Overlook. Top right: Jack's reflection can be seen in the mirror sitting atop the vanity table. Above left: The matching set of elevator doors at the Overlook. Above right: The Overlook's two near-identical boilers.
7. See below.
Above left and right: Some of the women in the Good Room 'party' scene are wearing feathers in their hair (click images to enlarge), indicating that the women in this scene represent American Indian women. The men who are with the women represent evil elite Jews and certain evil high-ranking Mormons and Freemasons; and that the Gold Room atmosphere here has somewhat of the feel of a brothel to it, indicates that these men are 'in bed' with certain American Indian tribes (the idea being that the women in the Gold Room are also metaphorical whores), insofar as the establishment of a modern-day New Jerusalem, i.e., a utopia. The details of the establishment of this utopia by the evil parties (evil elite Jews, certain high-ranking Freemasons and Mormons, members of certain American Indian tribes, and other parties), will be discussed later in this analysis.
8. As will be discussed later, Dick Hallorann represents the Holy Spirit, and his flight from Florida to Denver represents movement of the Holy Spirit.
Above left and right: Dick Hallorann flies from Miami to Denver, so that he can go to the Overlook while the Torrances are there.
a. Poster for The Shining: The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, Warner Bros., the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
b. "Wannsee Conference and the 'Final Solution'." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia. Web. 8 Dec. 2015. URL = http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005477.
c. Image from the Wikipedia 'Star of David' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; edited for clarity.
d. "[I]n Hermetic tradition, the Star of David...encompasses the seven basic metals, that is the totality of metal, as well as the seven planets which epitomize the totality of the Heavens. The centre...is occupied by gold (Sun); ..." (--Dictionary of Symbols, Ed. Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, Trans. John Buchanan-Brown, London: Penguin Group, 1996, pp. 930-931.)
e. Jung, C.G. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 12. Princeton University Press, 1968. paras. 320-321.
f. "[The colour yellow] was originally associated with deception, as [many customs] bear witness, such as that of painting the doors of traitors yellow in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to draw the attention of passers-by." (--Dictionary of Symbols, p. 1139.)
