The Reflection of Kubric's "The Shining"

The Reflection of Kubrick’s The Shining

Many people today have read Stephen King’s horror novel The Shining and enjoyed his use of literary devices, but what about the techniques that transferred into Stanley Kubrick’s film? First, The Shining is about an already dysfunctional family, that move into a hotel because the father, Jack Torrence, has gotten a job as the caretaker of the hotel. Before taking the job, Jack is informed that the previous caretaker got “cabin fever” and killed his entire family. His son, Danny Torrence, is psychic and telepathic and begins to see and be bothered by the spirits living in the hotel. These spirits eventually possess Jack and he too tries to kill his family, which also includes his wife, Wendy Torrence.

In the film, Kubrick makes better use of symbolism and the archetypical characters in the story than King did. Stanley Kubrick has taken advantage of the words written by King and turned them into a genius image. The film is loaded with copies and cycles, individuals existing in two time periods with clashing personas, which are constantly battling each other throughout the movie.

The use of archetypical characters is utilized in the film and also in the novel. Jack Torrance most definitely has his own individual opposing selves to manage. At first he seems, without a doubt, to be a reasonably steady father and spouse, yet this starts to crumble the longer he stays at the Overlook Hotel.

Wendy is also portrayed as the very caring mother, but very passive wife. This is also extremely distinctive, but not exactly from the start of the movie. It is said that Stephen King didn’t particularly like how Kubrick portrayed Wendy’s character. He claimed that the character he wrote about in his n...

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The Shining. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Perf. Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd. Warner Bros., 1980. DVD.

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