During an interview in 1980 with Stanley Kubrick, the director was asked a question regarding the “genre laws” he engaged for the The Shining. In typical Kubrick fashion he responded, “About the only law that I think relates to the genre is that you should not try to explain, to find neat explanations for what happens, and that the object of the thing is to produce a sense of the uncanny. Freud in his essay on the uncanny wrote that the sense of the uncanny is the only emotion which is more powerfully expressed in art than in life, which I found very illuminating.”
In terms of enigmatic or ambiguity, The Shining has plenty for audiences to discuss. For this post I will first give a little guidance toward some symbols and imagery that need to be untangled for a deeper discussion, Tuesday, in class.
One of the strongest visual and narrative metaphors throughout the film is that of mirror images or “doubling.” This Gothic trend we have seen several times throughout the semester, but it is employ constantly throughout the film; not just narrative doubling, such as the story that is related to Jack in regards to Grady murdering his family, which is enacted again by Jack, but visual doubling. For instance, below I have placed two objective/subjective camera shots between Danny and Jack. Paired together, the sequences are “mirror images” of one another only from a different narrative standpoint: one is Danny’s experience, the other Jack’s:
Compare to Jack’s encounter with the woman in Room 237:
The sequences are constructed as mirrors to one another. It begins with a subjective shot of the subject (females), followed by an objective shot of the character looking (Danny/Jack) followed by a subjective shot of the females. Jack’s vision is literally surrounded by mirrors, whereas Danny is surrounded by doors. It is also interesting to note that in these two scenes both Jack and Danny are wearing red sweatshirts with patterned shirts underneath (mirror images), and Jack–whose identity is split–is the only one surrounded by mirrors, whereas Danny is simply within a hall of closed doorways.
Jack’s sequence in Room 237 is also mirrored in his sequence with Grady in the red bathroom:
These scenes are examples of Kubrick’s combining of visual and narrative mirroring. The scenes are visually similar (also, note that the Grady bathroom scene breaks the 180-degree rule), but they also are building a deeper allegorical stance of Jack’s fractured identity and his connection to Danny or Danny’s abuse. Danny’s encounter with the twins also is indicative of his own psychological trauma, in that the first instance the audience sees Danny he is complaining to Wendy that there are no children his age “to play with.” Alternately, the twins beckon Danny to “Come and play with us, for ever and ever and ever.” The following scene between Jack and Danny features Danny asking Jack if he “feels sick” (referencing his past alcoholism) and Jack responding to Danny that he wants them to stay in the hotel “for ever and ever and ever.” The question is, how would Jack have known the twins had beckoned Danny in this instance and it further mirrors the phrasing that was given to Danny first by ghosts, or psychical projections, of murdered children, and second by his father who will later try to murder him in a similar fashion. Following the “play us motif,” Danny wanders into Room 237 after a spectral tennis ball rolls at him down the hexagonal-patterned hallways. This ball was seen earlier in the film as Jack violently throws it against the Native-American inspired motifs of the hotel. Once again, the ball is attached to Jack’s mounting violence, and is used to beckon Danny into the room where he is violently attacked.
This is only one example of how deep The Shining truly is. It makes sense that Kubrick was inspired by Freud’s The Uncanny with the innumerable pieces of bizarre imagery used to excite fear or unnerve the viewer. It also is key to remember that Stephen King was greatly inspired by Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Kubrick’s version does retain some elements of her Gothic tradition. On to your response.
Since there is no class today (Thursday) I am expecting a deeper level of engagement with this post. I would like you to comment at length on one of the questions I pose bellow. Also, if possible, try to read and comment on your classmate’s posts, even if it is only two or three sentences.
- In thinking about Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and the question that was posed in class in regards to “what is haunting Hill House?” I know am asking a similar question in regards to The Shining. Is the Overlook Hotel haunted? What or what is not haunting the hotel?
- Frued’s uncanny (paraphrased) states that: an emotional effect of any kind can turn into anxiety by means of repression and that there must be types of anxiety that are the result of something repressed that has resurfaced. Such a feeling of anxiety is the uncanny, which is something rediscovered only after repression has rendered it strange and unfamiliar – the uncanny, in other words, is something that should have been kept concealed but is discovered. How is “the uncanny” utilized in The Shining?
- For analyzing metaphors and allegories, a reader/audience must always pick up on certain recurrence or repetition of similar elements throughout a text; for instance, several times throughout the film Wendy and Danny are seen watching television. In another scene, Danny informs Jack he learned about cannibalism from television; later in the film after Jack has chopped a hole through the bathroom door he states, “Here’s Johnny,” a reference to Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show. What was Kubrick’s commentary on media and television throughout the film, if any, and how is he utilizing this motif/metaphor to instruct the overriding horror allegory of “terrifying domesticity”?
- There are theories abound in regards to Danny’s trauma that is repressed and briefly acknowledged by the characters in the film. How does his trauma affect the film, overall? Also, is there evidence that he may have been sexually abused? Why or why not (hint: this may have something to do with the dog-mask guy)?
- Wendy’s character has been criticized since the film’s release from multiple angles: Her acting is too over the top; she is too melodramatic; her character is misogynistic, etc. etc. On viewing the film, it does feel as though she is a “stereotyped” flat-horror character (a.k.a., the screaming, tortured woman). I maintain, however, her character is more developed than critics have given her credit for (also, she was mentally abused throughout the filming by Kubrick. He shot the stairway scene over 100 times, until she was physically exhausted in order for her to seem emotionally compromised). It is also interesting that she is the only character that is ever seen doing the actual care-taking of the hotel (Jack’s supposed job). How do you analyze Wendy? Does she fit the stereotyped “horror female” victim role, or is she more complex?
- How is the hedge maze important and how does it connect to narrative/visual mirroring?
- In Gothic-horror texts such as The Haunting of Hill House and The Shining there are always notions of past transgression and sins returning to–sometimes, literally–haunt the characters and audience. Beyond Jack’s alcoholism, were there deeper “cultural” sins that Kubrick was motioning toward (Hint: in the maze scene when Wendy and Danny first go in, she says, “Loser has to keep America clean;” this is a reference to a public service announcement commercial that featured a crying Native American on the shores of a polluted river. The commercial plead with the audience to “help keep America Clean”)?
- Try to “broadly” analyze Jack’s decent into madness. What is causing it? What is he repressing?
- Who is the protagonist of The Shining? Are there multiple? Is it fluid? What is some evidence toward this?
- Discuss the film’s view of domesticity.
- Also, if you would like, discuss some element of the film that I have not brought up here.
English 2001: American Gothic 