Top left and right: Screencaps of the photo of the hotel caretaker ('Jack') and friends shown at the end of the movie. Note the position of Jack's arms in the top left screencap (click image to enlarge). Above left and right: Close-ups of the photo as shown in the movie, show Jack's face and the date the photo was taken.
Note that in the top left screencap above, Jack's arms are in the same position as Baphomet's arms in the figure below.
When we go deeper into the symbolism of Lévi's image, what we find is that it points to a theme of male/female 'combined evil', i.e., the evil of (real-life) hermaphroditic persons (i.e., persons with ambiguous genitalia and related medical conditions). The pentagram (i.e., the five-pointed star) on Baphomet's forehead represents hermaphroditism (the Dictionary of Symbols, under the entry for pentagrams, says that the number five symbolizes the union of the number three (the male principle) with the number two (the female principle), and thus symbolizes hermaphroditism).[b] Also, note that Baphomet has relatively well-developed breasts, like we would see in a woman - he has physiological characteristics of both a man and a woman, so he is hermaphroditic. Ultimately, Baphomet can be taken to represent a combination of the worst in both men and women.
To see why it is that the man ('Jack') standing at the front of the crowd in the 1921 photo (above left), has the same (though younger) facial appearance as the man we know as Jack Torrance throughout the movie (above right), we first note that our Jack looks like he's in his mid-40's in age, say, 46. The man in the left-hand screencap looks late-30's, say, 39 (in 1921). However, this younger man has the face of Charles Grady, which Susan Robertson, the dreamer, saw in a photograph in a newspaper article about him murdering his own family, and then shooting himself, in (as Stuart Ullman tells Jack) the year 1970. In Susan's dream, the existence of the news article is signified by Jack telling Delbert Grady, during the two men's restroom conversation, that he saw Delbert's picture in the paper accompanying such an article. (The actual tie-in with Delbert is discussed further below.) When the woman in the red VW mentioned to Susan that the Charles Grady murders were brought up in her husband's interview at the Overlook, Susan recalled the news story and Grady's face, and later, in her dream, she used Grady's face for that of Jack Torrance: Not only did Susan place Charles Grady's face over that of the man in the 1921 photo, but also, throughout the movie, the man we know as Jack Torrance is 'wearing' Charles Grady's face (aged by 7 years), so to speak. This is why Jack and the man in the photo (as we see it) have the same face - they both have the face of Charles Grady. (Jack's face only looks the same as that of Charles to Susan, and to the members of the audience of The Shining, who are seeing everything in Susan's dream just as she does.) Charles Grady's face (in the 1921 photo) is as Susan remembers his face from the photo in the news article (i.e., in 1970, when Charles was 39 years old). Since 46 (the 'age' of Grady's face as being worn by Jack in the movie) minus 39 equals 7, The Shining is set in the year (1970 + 7 =) 1977. Susan Robertson is 24 years old in 1977, so she was 17 when she saw Charles' photo in the newspaper article. The fact that Susan placed Charles' face over that of 'our' Jack (i.e., Wendy's husband) in her dream, signifies that she 'equates' Jack with Charles Grady; this is further signified by the fact that late in the dream, Jack is out to kill his family, which is what Charles actually did to his own family. Note that the 7 year difference in age described above (46 minus 39) is the same as the difference in age between the son of the woman in the red VW (13), and Susan's own son (6).
To see why it is that Susan 'set' Charles Grady's face in a photograph from the early 1900's, we first observe that the song we hear being played during the Gold Room party (while Delbert and Jack are inside the party area), Midnight, the Stars, and You, came out in 1934, so this must be the year of the (live) Gold Room party scene itself. In this scene, Delbert Grady, the butler, looks like he's 52 years old (in 1934), so he would have been born in (1934 minus 52 =) 1882. Taking the man whose face we see in the photo (Charles Grady) to have been 39 in 1921, then this 'version' of Charles was born in 1882, so due to the birth year match, there is a correspondence between the man in the photo, and Delbert Grady. Note that here, we have not yet calculated the true age of the actual man in the photo; but Susan is 'making him out' to be 39, as we see him, by placing Charles Grady's face over that of his, and this is what matters within the context of this part of our discussion.
Since Kubrick has said in an interview that Delbert is "the ghost of the former caretaker",[c] what we must do is take Delbert as the 'ghost' of the actual man in the photo (again, whose face is covered over by that of Charles Grady). The fact is that the real name of this man was Jack Torrance, and thus, it makes sense that Delbert tells our Jack (i.e., Jack as we know him throughout the movie), that he's "always been the caretaker." It also means that this is where Susan got the idea for the name used in the dream, 'Jack Torrance'; how Susan knew that this was the name of the original caretaker, is explained below. Furthermore, since the photo was taken in July, a summer month, it must be the case that the actual man in the photo, whose real name was Jack Torrance (as we just said), must have been the year-round caretaker, from the year the hotel opened up until at least 1921 (see below for the reason we are not using the year 1934 here).
Top left: In Jack's interview, Stuart Ullman tells Jack that the previous winter caretaker, Charles Grady, murdered his own wife, and two daughters, ages 8 and 10, with an ax, then killed himself with a shotgun. Ullman states that this incident occurred in 1970. Ullman indicates that the police later speculated that Charles was driven to do this, due to his suffering from being cooped up in the hotel for a lengthy period. Top right: As stated above, the live Gold Room party scene is set in the year 1934. Here, Delbert Grady, the butler, accidentally spills a tray of food and drink onto Jack. Above left: In the Gold Room restroom, after Delbert has cleaned off Jack's clothing, Jack tells Delbert that he (Delbert) used to be the caretaker at the Overlook. Jack, referring to Delbert as "Mr. Grady", then claims that he saw Grady's picture in a news article about him murdering his own wife and two daughters. Jack says this in spite of the fact that Delbert has just made a statement implying that his wife and two daughters are alive - that they are currently "somewhere around" the hotel. Above right: Delbert's facial appearance places him at 52 years old (in 1934).[d]
Delbert also tells our Jack, during the restroom conversation, that he "corrected" his two daughters, after one of them stole a pack of matches and tried to burn down the hotel; and, he also says that he corrected his wife. It's evident that Delbert is overly-strict to the point of being abusive.
The 'metaphorical' father-son relationship between Delbert and Charles is a reflection of Susan's knowledge that the sons (Charles) of overly-strict fathers (Delbert), sometimes grow up to be men who, when placed in high-stress situations (e.g., confinement in a closed space for a lengthy period of time), commit murder and then suicide. Note that none of this implies that Delbert's two daughters represent siblings of Charles, because the relationship between the two men is only metaphorical, as just indicated. The real Charles Grady (who murdered his own family and committed suicide, in 1970), existed at a much later time period than Delbert existed (even though Delbert is a 'ghost', he exists, within the context of Susan's dream). Susan's unconscious 'chose' the name 'Delbert' at least partly in order to obtain the 'murder trebled' anagram, that was mentioned in part 1 of the analysis.
Prohibition is the term used to refer to the United States government's outlawing of alcoholic beverages, from 1920 through 1933. Top left: The presence of glasses containing alcoholic beverages (indicated by the arrows in the screencap), at the beginning of the bathroom scene, indicates that at this point in the scene, the year is 1934, which, as we said above, is the year of the live party scene; note that 1934 is one year after the year in which prohibition ended. Top right: A little further into the scene, while Delbert Grady is wiping off Jack's clothing, we are still in 1934 (for both men), since the stain on Jack's clothing is partly from alcohol, and since Delbert is handling the white towel, which has alcohol on it (since it's being used to clean the stain). However, the fact that we no longer see the drinks that were set down by the men, indicates that a 'shift' in time is about to occur, that is, to a time in which no alcohol at all would be present. (Kubrick framed this part of the scene as he did, with the drinks not being visible, so as to convey the idea that they are no longer present.) Above left: At the moment shown here, Jack has taken the towel from Delbert with his right hand, and he begins to question Delbert in detail about the Grady murders. The shift in time is imminent. Above right: By the time Jack has taken complete possession of the towel from Delbert, a shift (or 'flip') in time has occurred whereby Delbert now exists in the year 1921; this is one year after Prohibition began. One thing that symbolizes this fact (in addition to the drinks not being visible) is that the towel is now only being used by Jack, as if it is a hand towel. Since Delbert is no longer holding the alcohol-dampened towel, Delbert himself now exists in a time in which no alcohol would be present. However, Jack is still in 1934, so during the remainder of the restroom conversation, the two men are effectively speaking to each other 'across' a 13-year time span. The fact that the year doesn't shift for Jack, means that we don't need to consider Charles, or our Jack (again, Jack as we know him throughout the movie), as having been 46 years old in 1921 - this doesn't enter into our calculations.
Now that we know more about the 'relationship' between Delbert Grady and Charles Grady, we can see that the 'discrepancy' mentioned above (i.e., the possibility of the real Jack Torrance having been too young to have been the original caretaker of the Overlook), is resolved: Since Delbert can be taken to have been born in 1869, and since, again, he is the 'ghost' of the original caretaker, then the real Jack Torrance, the original caretaker (whose face is covered over by that of Charles Grady in the 1921 photo), was himself born in 1869, making him either 39 or 40 years old in 1909, the year the Overlook opened (we will take his age to have been 39 in this year). This is old enough to have been the caretaker of a place the size of the Overlook. Also, recall that the age of the 'version' of Charles in the 1921 photo is 39; this age matches that of the original caretaker (again, the real Jack Torrance) in the year the hotel opened. This match is a result of Susan having placed Charles' face (i.e., his face as it appeared in the 1970 news article) over the real Jack's face in the photo; in other words, the match results from Susan having made the real Jack out to be 39 in 1921.
Furthermore, when we look at Delbert Grady's face, what we are actually seeing is the face of the real Jack Torrance (the first caretaker of the Overlook) - this is the original face from the July 4th party photograph, that was covered over by that of Charles Grady in Susan's dream. One implication of this is that Susan, in real life, has seen the actual 1921 party photo, with the real Jack Torrance standing in front of the other guests: The photo appeared in the news article she read, about Charles murdering his family. She remembers the caretaker's face as it appeared in 1921, i.e., as the face of the 52-year-old Delbert that we see, in the 1921 'portion' of the restroom scene. This is why we said above, that this man was the caretaker from the year the hotel opened, up until 1921, instead of saying that he fulfilled this role up until 1934.
Since Susan Robertson placed Charles Grady's face over that of the man in the photo (the real Jack Torrance), and over that of our Jack, and since Delbert has the relationship to Charles described above, we conclude that Susan sees (the 1970) Charles, and thus, our Jack, as 'just like' some of the men in their respective ancestries, in the sense that their fathers are overly-strict, physically abusive men. And, the fact that our Jack is, in part, a representation of Susan's husband, means that the part of Susan's dream in which Delbert and Jack are conversing in the restroom, is not only a reflection of Susan's own knowledge that there is a pattern of abuse by the men in her husband's ancestry, going back at least a couple of generations, but it also means that she recognizes that the male descendants of overly-strict fathers tend to become substance abusers (Jack is an alcoholic), and in certain cases, they end up not only committing murder and suicide, but sometimes they murder their own families. The fact that our Jack gets confused during the restroom conversation, means that Susan's husband himself is confused, in the sense that he has failed to recognize the abuse lineage for what it is.
What we've said above about abusive parents only addresses the 'fatherly' part of the equation, whereas we know that Danny is being sexually abused by his mother; so it stands to reason that he, too, will have problems later in life. We need to see if there is any repeating pattern of abuse by the mothers, going back in the lineage of Susan's husband.
As indicated above, Mr. Ullman tells our Jack, in his interview, that Charles' daughters were about 8 and 10 years old (in 1970, when Charles killed them). Also mentioned above was that Delbert tells Jack that he himself has two daughters, and that one of them stole a pack of matches and tried to burn down the hotel. The use of the word "matches" by Delbert is a clue about the fact that his two girls are represented in Susan's dream by the twins; for twins 'match'. However, since Delbert is the 'ghost' of the original caretaker, what we are supposed to do is consider this caretaker himself (i.e., the real Jack Torrance) as having had two such daughters. Since Charles was 39 years old when he committed his murders, then he was 29 years older than his older daughter, and 31 years older than the younger one. If we apply these same age differences to the original caretaker (as stated, the real Jack Torrance), and his own two girls, then since this caretaker was born in 1882, his girls must have been born in the years 1911 and 1913, respectively. These birth years make their clothing style (the style of their blue dresses) appropriate. (We are here using 1882 as the birth year of the original caretaker (the real Jack Torrance), instead of 1869, his actual birth year, because the 'version' of Jack that we are now dealing with is the one 'based on' Charles Grady's face - recall that we said Susan is making the real Jack out to be 39 in 1921 by placing Grady's face over his in the July 4th party photo; 1921 minus 39 equals 1882).
As stated, Susan is 24 (in 1977) and her son is 6, so she is 18 years older than her son. If we add this 18 years to 1913, the year the younger daughter of the original caretaker was born in, we get 1931, the same year in which Charles (and our Jack) were born. [(1970 minus 39) and (1977 minus 46) both give 1931.] Thus, within the context of age difference between parent and child, we can take the original caretaker's younger daughter as the cross-generational 'equivalent' of Charles' (and thus, our Jack's) mother. And, within the context that Susan is sexually abusing her own son, this younger girl also 'represents' a 'previous version' of Susan, the implication being that this girl herself became a sexually abusive mother, once she became an adult and had one or more male children. At least part of the reason she became sexually abusive, was because she had an overly-strict father (as represented by the overly-strict Delbert; the foregoing should not be taken to imply that the real Jack Torrance, or either of the Gradys, is in Susan's actual lineage).
What we are supposed to realize is that Susan abusing her own 6-year-old son, suggests the fact that our Jack's own mother sexually abused him. Since our Jack is, in part, a representation of Susan's husband, as stated above, the implication is that he was sexually abused as a child, by his own mother. The fact that our Jack is an ill-tempered alcoholic indicates that Susan's husband is the same, and at least part of the reason he is the same, is because of the sexual abuse by his mother. Thus, the pattern: Overly-strict, physically abusive fathers sometimes have daughters who, when they grow up, form relationships with men who are substance abusers, and, sometimes these daughters become sexually abusive of their own sons; and these sons, in turn, may exhibit symptoms of psychosis (which, as indicated earlier in the analysis, Danny suffers from). In combination with what was said above about the male descendants of overly-strict fathers, we see that the worst psychological outcomes for a child who is a boy, tend to occur when both his mother and his father come from families in which the father was overly-strict.
As we will see later in the analysis, within the context of Susan's psychology, the 'twins' represent an imbalanced dualism within Susan. Within the context of the above discussion, this imbalance is indicated by the fact that in Susan's dream, she is, within a certain context, 'represented' (cross-generationally) by the original caretaker's younger daughter, instead of by a hypothetical girl whose age would have been between the two daughters' ages (i.e., by a girl born in 1912).
a. Wikipedia, 'Baphomet'. Web, n.d. URL = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet.
b. Dictionary of Symbols. Ed. Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, Trans. John Buchanan-Brown. London: Penguin Group, 1996. p. 747.
c. Kubrick on The Shining, An Interview with Michel Ciment. Web. URL = http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.ts.html.
d. As noted, Midnight, the Stars, and You, released in 1934, plays while Delbert and Jack are in the Gold Room party area. The very ending of this song can be heard when the two men first step into the restroom. The other two songs we hear, while the two men are in the restroom, are It's All Forgotten Now, released in 1934, followed by Home (When Shadows Fall), which was written in 1931. The song heard coming from the Gold Room, before Jack enters it (but prior to the cut to Dick Hallorann speaking on a phone at his Florida home), is Masquerade; this song was recorded in 1932 on the Decca label.
