Room 237 contains the ghost of a dead woman, who emerges from the bathroom and tries to strangle Danny Torrance when he dares to enter. His father Jack later comes to investigate his claims of the mysterious woman in the room. In the book, he sees signs of her, but retreats before she can attack him.
Theories suggest that the woman in room 237 could be the mother of the Grady twins, Bob T. Watson's wife or sister, or represent sexual abuse within the story.
This change was made at the request of the Timberline Lodge, where the movie was filmed. According to the Timberline Lodge's website, "Kubrick was asked not to depict Room 217 (featured in the book) in The Shining, because future guests at the lodge might be afraid to stay there."
What is the significance of Room 217 in The Shining?
In The Shining, room 217 is the room that is focused on as having a dark history and being a haunted room due to the tragedy of Mrs. Massey. Danny is warned not to enter this room and anyone who enters the room has bizarre encounters.
Jack takes his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and their son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), with him, but little do they know, the Overlook has some dark secrets of its own. Triggered by Danny's psychic abilities, the hotel releases some dangerous supernatural forces that break Jack's sanity — and the safety of Wendy and Danny.
THE SHINING Ending Explained: The Final Shot's TRUE Meaning
What's so special about Room 237?
It serves as one of the focal points for Stephen King's novel The Shining as well as Stanley Kubrick's classic 1980 film adaptation. The ghost of a dead woman dwells in the bathroom, and pursues Danny Torrance even after he escapes the Overlook Hotel as recounted in the sequel, Doctor Sleep.
The family has to care for the hotel for the winter, but they cannot leave the mountainous area. In this isolation every day becomes the same for Jack as his writer's block becomes quotidian. The combination of isolation, monotony, creative frustration, and supernatural forces extract Jack's insanity.
Soon, after a winter storm leaves the family snowbound, the supernatural forces inhabiting the hotel influence Jack's sanity, leaving his wife and son in grave danger.
The ending of The Shining, particularly the photo of Jack in the 1921 ballroom, suggests that Jack is a reincarnation of a former hotel employee, although this explanation is not explicitly stated in the film.
Why didn't they use the Stanley Hotel in The Shining?
The Stanley Hotel Was Not Where "The Shining" Was Filmed, Contrary to Stephen King's Wishes. Although "The Shining" is a critically lauded film with a performance by Jack Nicholson that will go down in history, King wasn't happy with the way Stanley Kubrick directed the movie version of his book.
The Shining is partially based on a true story, as the supernatural elements of Jack Torrance's stay at the Overlook Hotel are inspired by a real haunting in Colorado and the Stanley Hotel where King stayed.
The hotel wanted young Danny to die inside its grounds so that it could feed on him, and after he unleashes the ghosts from their boxes, they start to feed on him as well.
In the book, the man dressed in a suit is actually Horace Derwent, the mysterious owner of the Overlook Hotel, and the man in the costume (which is a dog in the book) is Roger, a one-time lover of his. The novel provides Roger and Horace's story as an example of atrocities that have happened in the hotel.
What mental illness does Jack have in The Shining?
There are several types of schizophrenia experienced by Jack Torrance, including schizophrenic simplex, schizophrenic hebephrenic, schizophrenic catatonic and schizophrenic paranoid.
Jack tells Danny to run and remember how much he loves him, before the hotel's power takes over again and forces Jack to bash in his own face with the mallet. Jack had forgotten to dump the boiler, which grows too hot and causes the hotel to explode. Jack is killed, but Danny, Wendy and Hallorann get out just in time.
Moments later, he would improvise the “Here's Johnny!” line, which was a reference to the intro of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Interestingly, Kubrick originally shot the scene with a fake door, but Nicholson – who once trained as a fire marshal – chopped it down too quickly.
At the hotel, Jack begins to display the telltale signs of drinking that Wendy has come to know so well. He constantly wipes his mouth with a napkin and chews Excedrin one after another.
There seems to be no other logical explanation for how Jack could've escaped his frosty prison than Grady somehow using ghost powers to open the door. Jack was shown repeatedly struggling with it, and being unable to free himself.
Why does Jack appear in the picture at the end of The Shining?
This suggests that Jack has not only become part of the hotel's history but is destined to repeat his malevolent actions and mental decline over and over again. That decline itself is also central to the narrative of the film, and Jack's appearance in the photograph symbolises his loss of identity.
The room was inhabited in the past, by a Lorraine Massey who would usually seduce young bellboys who would visit her room. Danny Torrance visited this room after a ball strangely rolled to him from its open doors.
Where did he disappear to? “I once read that I had six kids and was a pig farmer,” he says, chuckling on the phone from his home. “That's not entirely accurate.” For the record, Lloyd – who goes by Dan rather than Danny these days – is a biology professor at a community college in Kentucky.
