The Shining explores themes of cyclical violence and abuse, and Kubrick's film is full of metaphors and symbolism that have led to countless interpretations of its true meaning, including theories about sexual abuse and the ghosts being representations of violence and abuse.
Stephen King's The Shining focuses on families and the way various forms of dysfunction—such as jealousy, insanity, abuse, and addiction—can rip them apart. At the center of the novel is the Torrance family—Jack, Wendy, and Danny—and they are fighting considerable odds.
King struggled with alcoholism in the early stages of his career. In the late 1970s King claimed that he was “drinking, like, a case of beer a night.” He worried that he would lose control of his addiction and in some way hurt his family. The Shining voices this concern.
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. The Shining explores themes of cyclical violence and abuse, and Kubrick's film is full...
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.
THE SHINING Ending Explained: The Final Shot's TRUE Meaning
Why does Jack say "Here's Johnny"?
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.
What mental illness does Jack have in The Shining?
The story presented Jack Torrance as a man who dislikes authority. He moved to an isolated hotel with his wife and his son in Colorado over the winter, hoping to improve and cure his poor writing. As the days passed, he began showing the symptoms of schizophrenia and attempted to kill his family.
The woman in King's novel is Lorraine Massey, who used to seduce bellboys and engage in sexual acts with them. Lorraine was the wife of a prominent New York lawyer, but during her stay at the Overlook, she was with a younger man.
This scene has been interpreted in many ways, and one of the most popular explanations is that it represents the hotel “absorbing” Jack's soul. Although this makes sense, Kubrick himself has said the photo actually suggests Jack being a reincarnation of an earlier official at the hotel.
The second and most likely, suggests that the film represents genocide of Native Americans. When the hotel manager gives the Torrance family a tour, he mentions that the Overlook sits atop an Indian burial ground.
Room 237 is basically a dream logic version of the Torrance apartment and the neck injuries inflicted upon Danny for having woken his father up. One of the biggest giveaway's that Jack strangled Danny is a shot in which Jack walks down a mustard coloured hallway before switching on the lights of the Gold Room.
As such, Grady has always been the butler, just as Jack has always been the caretaker insofar as they were both imprisoned in the future by the hotel, and their spirits became anachronistically part of history.
But the main problem lies with Jack Torrance. The Shining was meant to portray The Overlook Hotel's sinister effects on its inhabitants so that Jack descends into madness. He spirals out of control, loses touch with reality, and decides to kill his wife and child.
The supernatural elements in The Shining are inspired by a real haunting in Colorado, adding a sense of authenticity to the story. The Overlook Hotel in The Shining was inspired by the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, which has a haunted history and provided Stephen King with inspiration for the novel.
On a basic level The Shining is a cautionary tale about the dangers of addiction. When he arrives at the Overlook Hotel, Jack is a recovering alcoholic. The novel details Jack's drinking days during his brief tenure as an English teacher at Stovington Academy in Vermont.
The character of Jack illustrates the connection between alcoholism and abuse and simultaneously underscores the potentially devastating effects of isolation on mental health. Most of all, Jack represents the profound connection of family, which King implies can't be easily broken, by supernatural means or otherwise.
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.
Summary. The bear scene in The Shining, although strange and out of place, has a disturbing implication of sexual abuse, according to film scholar Rob Ager.
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.
The film's final shot zooms into an old picture hanging in the hotel's hallway, of guests attending a ball on July 4, 1921. Standing front and center is Jack, smiling right into the camera. Kubrick has explicitly stated that the photograph suggests the reincarnation of Jack, possibly of a guest or staff member.
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.
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.
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.
