The Shining With Underlying Themes of Sex and Abuse
Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining has been reviewed time and time again, for multiple reasons including meanings, symbolism, and conspiracies. Though there are multiple themes throughout the movie, there seems to be one that is lacked, or not specifically touched on. Lack of sex, abuse, and molestation. It is very obvious from the getgo that Jack and Wendy are not very communicative or in love. To say that a director like Kubrick, who had many films that had to do with sex, or a lack of, and the dangers it would cause did not think to make it an underlying theme, is ridiculous, and is just lacking sensitivity to his creativity. Though it is easily overlooked since there are other themes that are considered much more prevalent, the theme of sex is huge when I look at this movie, and I believe the thoughts about it should be shared, as it gives a different insight to the movie or what Kubrick could have been trying to pursue. If you go back and try to find interviews where he explains the meaning of the film, there is not much to be found of him explaining in great detail, which is great: as a storyteller, your goal should be to make people question what you meant. If you don't achieve that, how else will creativity continue to develop? To finish, I would like to note that these thoughts are not to offend anyone, and simply just a theory I saw others pick up on. From what I noticed, I began to think about it more every time I watched the movie, beginning to notice the evidence that I clearly see.
The first thing that caught my attention is that Wendy in the book and Wendy in the movie are both drastically different when it comes to appearance. Wendy in the book is written as a blond bombshell with a voluptuous body that people turn to stare at, and in the movie, Shelley Duvall's gangling beauty is none of that. Stanley Kubrick infamously changed the story very heavily without very much consent from Stephen King, but a much more obvious change was that of Wendy's appearance. He de-sexualizes her look, by doing so, Kubrick is taking the whore and making the Madonna. If the idea is to show a normal American family, why not give the stereotypical housewife? The desexualization of Wendy is Kubrick's way of showing her as a homely, closed off mother. This movie was made in the 1980's time period, so society wasn't as open with having sexually free women unless they saw it on T.V. The Madonna and The Whore were both heavy in society. Either you were a respectable and quiet wife and mother, or you were the whore who was neither. The women, if older, would usually have a child and just be the mother in the home. To the child, and husband, cooking and cleaning. The things we usually think of when thinking about the role of women before the mid-1980's. So when we look at Duvall's Wendy, we can all see that she is a mother. To further the idea, if you take note, you will notice Wendy calls both Jack and Danny "hon," a term that is much more motherly than sexual. Usually, babe, baby, or a fully honey, is more sexualized than a hovering and motherly hon. And to add, she calls the both of them by the pet name, solidifying she is the motherly figure of both.
The other evidence we see is that Wendy and Jack do not touch. There are a few times, but it is only twice. The first is when Wendy and Jack leave Danny with Dick Halloran, they interlock with both of their arms crossing the others back. This is a very unifying hold, they are both equally there. The second is when Wendy is breaking down over Danny, and Jack grabs her back, but the placement is raised, and he is touching her in a dominating way. All this really does is show us the hold Jack believes he has gained over Wendy. But what about the lack of touch? We see that Jack and Wendy are already fairly estranged from the beginning, just in the beginning Jack and Wendy are not together. They begin the story apart, and never really get back together through their stay at the Overlook Hotel, and eventually split up again, with Wendy fleeing from her on-a-rampage husband. A lack of touch is very explicit with all characters, but Kubrick is showing it to show the lack of love and empathy this family has. A loving family would always hold each other, or hug, or signify the relationship. Not only does Jack and Wendy not touch, Jack and Danny also don't touch. Danny even seems to be intimidated and fearful of Jack, which is something I will bring up once more, but later on. A lack of touch, platonically, shows us that there must be a lack of touch intimately.
Jack Torrance is obviously abusive. He emotionally and mentally messes with Wendy, talks down to her, and his most blatant moment of showing how low he thinks of her is while he is locked in the food locker. Grady, who could very well not be a ghost, but just a figment of Jack's imagination tells him "your wife seems to be stronger than we imagined. Somewhat more resourceful." Not only is Grady's existence up for a question, but he also says 'we,' confirming Jack thought murdering his wife and child would be an easy and quick task. Jack believed his wife was weak, that she wouldn't be able to outsmart or outrun him. Kubrick may have very well used that line to insinuate the abuse Jack Torrance has lain upon his wife. With noting that Jack and Delbert Grady both believed Wendy to be weak, we know Jack has seen her at his weakest. When Wendy walks into the main room while Jack is typing, he bluntly insults her and tells her to get out. She is feeble to him, and he continues to abuse that with every rant, insult, and monologue that just breaks Wendy. Shelley Duvall clearly shows how scared and intimidated Wendy is of Jack with acting of the face, tone of her voice, and body language. Stanley Kubrick also infamously abused Duvall during filming. He prohibited other actors to talk to her, talked down on her appearance, and made her shoot until she was ill. Kubrick was abusing Duvall to put her in the mindset of an abused woman, because Jack, in Kubrick's mind, was clearly abusing her. This supports why Danny would have been so scared of his father as well, considering he was witnessing the abuse of his mom, and possibly being abused or molested himself.
The scene where Wendy walks into the office shows us another example of Jack's abuse, and commentary from Jack Nicholson himself shows us what mindset Jack Torrance was being acted in. Jack's entire monologue is belittling Wendy, calling her a nuisance, and he finished as he rudely told her to get out. Nicholson said he channeled his own divorce. "That's what I was like when I got my divorce. I was under pressure of being a family man with a daughter and one day I accepted a job to act in a movie in the daytime and I was writing a movie at night and I'm back in my little corner and my beloved wife Sandra, walked in on what was unbeknownst to her, this maniac- and I told Stanley about it and we wrote it into the scene." This quote solidifies how much Jack despised and wanted to leave Wendy because of how hovering and motherly she was. I believe the strain came only after Danny was born; her motherly instincts to protect her son from his father and her husband from the bottle both became too much for Jack. The only reason he probably ever stayed was that he knew he could use Wendy and Danny while weakening them.
Jack has a wandering eye. When he first arrives at the hotel, when employees bid their goodbye, in room 237, Jack displays how much he sees these other women in a sexual way. He never once looks at Wendy in a manner that really shows any positive emotions. The idea that he had a wandering eye shows the audience a few things including Jack does not have any sort of sexual relations with his wife, because after Danny was born she closed off, became homely, and lost her sexuality. Jack could possibly be having an affair, or trying to. The idea would not be far-fetched, especially considering the fragility of Wendy and Jack's marriage. Kubrick is obviously trying to show us all of these by even putting this detail into the film.
A smaller piece of evidence that is just supported by medical evidence and common knowledge really is that Jack is a recovering alcoholic, and while your body becomes used to the level of alcohol going down, your testosterone starts to violently rise and plummet. Like lava rising in a volcano. If not dealt with or helped with, the level of testosterone can cause extreme rage and irritability. Obviously, Kubrick showed us Jack and Wendy were not being physical as they both, though mainly Jack, appear to be very unhappy in their marriage to each other. After 5 months with not much else to help, of course, his fuse was bound to blow, with the isolation also helping take a toll.
The most concrete piece of evidence to this theory, the one thing that even started it really is a magazine, but we first we must ask ourselves why a magazine matters. He was staying at a hotel, of course, there were magazines, it's entertainment. Let's look at some of the details of Kubrick and his directing. He holds a record for forcing Shelley Duvall to perform the baseball bat scene 125 times, he is renowned as one of the most meticulous directors ever and has hidden and not-so-hidden messages in all of his films. Anything you see in his movie, whether it be a tissue in the corner of the floor foreshadowing a character about to become sick, or a red stain on the wall showing blood is about to be drawn, it is there for a very specific reason. Kubrick really never allowed mistakes in his movies. For this PlayGirl magazine and its articles to be present in a shot in the movie is to show us a small detail of what is really happening behind closed doors. The first thing to notice is, Playgirl is a bunch of nude men and is not as popular as its sister magazine, Playboy. So for Jack to be reading it in a lobby of a hotel is peculiar in all senses. Then for it to be all nude men instead of women is obviously a shot at Jack's possible homosexuality, and let's not forget to go back and ask ourselves how did the magazine even get there? The answer is simple and it is that Jack reads homosexual magazines and he brought the Playgirl to the hotel. And to move really into it, let's really look at the cover and it's articles.
(All Rights to This Photo Belong to PLAYGIRL)
The first thing that caught my attention is that Wendy in the book and Wendy in the movie are both drastically different when it comes to appearance. Wendy in the book is written as a blond bombshell with a voluptuous body that people turn to stare at, and in the movie, Shelley Duvall's gangling beauty is none of that. Stanley Kubrick infamously changed the story very heavily without very much consent from Stephen King, but a much more obvious change was that of Wendy's appearance. He de-sexualizes her look, by doing so, Kubrick is taking the whore and making the Madonna. If the idea is to show a normal American family, why not give the stereotypical housewife? The desexualization of Wendy is Kubrick's way of showing her as a homely, closed off mother. This movie was made in the 1980's time period, so society wasn't as open with having sexually free women unless they saw it on T.V. The Madonna and The Whore were both heavy in society. Either you were a respectable and quiet wife and mother, or you were the whore who was neither. The women, if older, would usually have a child and just be the mother in the home. To the child, and husband, cooking and cleaning. The things we usually think of when thinking about the role of women before the mid-1980's. So when we look at Duvall's Wendy, we can all see that she is a mother. To further the idea, if you take note, you will notice Wendy calls both Jack and Danny "hon," a term that is much more motherly than sexual. Usually, babe, baby, or a fully honey, is more sexualized than a hovering and motherly hon. And to add, she calls the both of them by the pet name, solidifying she is the motherly figure of both.
The other evidence we see is that Wendy and Jack do not touch. There are a few times, but it is only twice. The first is when Wendy and Jack leave Danny with Dick Halloran, they interlock with both of their arms crossing the others back. This is a very unifying hold, they are both equally there. The second is when Wendy is breaking down over Danny, and Jack grabs her back, but the placement is raised, and he is touching her in a dominating way. All this really does is show us the hold Jack believes he has gained over Wendy. But what about the lack of touch? We see that Jack and Wendy are already fairly estranged from the beginning, just in the beginning Jack and Wendy are not together. They begin the story apart, and never really get back together through their stay at the Overlook Hotel, and eventually split up again, with Wendy fleeing from her on-a-rampage husband. A lack of touch is very explicit with all characters, but Kubrick is showing it to show the lack of love and empathy this family has. A loving family would always hold each other, or hug, or signify the relationship. Not only does Jack and Wendy not touch, Jack and Danny also don't touch. Danny even seems to be intimidated and fearful of Jack, which is something I will bring up once more, but later on. A lack of touch, platonically, shows us that there must be a lack of touch intimately.
Jack Torrance is obviously abusive. He emotionally and mentally messes with Wendy, talks down to her, and his most blatant moment of showing how low he thinks of her is while he is locked in the food locker. Grady, who could very well not be a ghost, but just a figment of Jack's imagination tells him "your wife seems to be stronger than we imagined. Somewhat more resourceful." Not only is Grady's existence up for a question, but he also says 'we,' confirming Jack thought murdering his wife and child would be an easy and quick task. Jack believed his wife was weak, that she wouldn't be able to outsmart or outrun him. Kubrick may have very well used that line to insinuate the abuse Jack Torrance has lain upon his wife. With noting that Jack and Delbert Grady both believed Wendy to be weak, we know Jack has seen her at his weakest. When Wendy walks into the main room while Jack is typing, he bluntly insults her and tells her to get out. She is feeble to him, and he continues to abuse that with every rant, insult, and monologue that just breaks Wendy. Shelley Duvall clearly shows how scared and intimidated Wendy is of Jack with acting of the face, tone of her voice, and body language. Stanley Kubrick also infamously abused Duvall during filming. He prohibited other actors to talk to her, talked down on her appearance, and made her shoot until she was ill. Kubrick was abusing Duvall to put her in the mindset of an abused woman, because Jack, in Kubrick's mind, was clearly abusing her. This supports why Danny would have been so scared of his father as well, considering he was witnessing the abuse of his mom, and possibly being abused or molested himself.
The scene where Wendy walks into the office shows us another example of Jack's abuse, and commentary from Jack Nicholson himself shows us what mindset Jack Torrance was being acted in. Jack's entire monologue is belittling Wendy, calling her a nuisance, and he finished as he rudely told her to get out. Nicholson said he channeled his own divorce. "That's what I was like when I got my divorce. I was under pressure of being a family man with a daughter and one day I accepted a job to act in a movie in the daytime and I was writing a movie at night and I'm back in my little corner and my beloved wife Sandra, walked in on what was unbeknownst to her, this maniac- and I told Stanley about it and we wrote it into the scene." This quote solidifies how much Jack despised and wanted to leave Wendy because of how hovering and motherly she was. I believe the strain came only after Danny was born; her motherly instincts to protect her son from his father and her husband from the bottle both became too much for Jack. The only reason he probably ever stayed was that he knew he could use Wendy and Danny while weakening them.
Jack has a wandering eye. When he first arrives at the hotel, when employees bid their goodbye, in room 237, Jack displays how much he sees these other women in a sexual way. He never once looks at Wendy in a manner that really shows any positive emotions. The idea that he had a wandering eye shows the audience a few things including Jack does not have any sort of sexual relations with his wife, because after Danny was born she closed off, became homely, and lost her sexuality. Jack could possibly be having an affair, or trying to. The idea would not be far-fetched, especially considering the fragility of Wendy and Jack's marriage. Kubrick is obviously trying to show us all of these by even putting this detail into the film.
A smaller piece of evidence that is just supported by medical evidence and common knowledge really is that Jack is a recovering alcoholic, and while your body becomes used to the level of alcohol going down, your testosterone starts to violently rise and plummet. Like lava rising in a volcano. If not dealt with or helped with, the level of testosterone can cause extreme rage and irritability. Obviously, Kubrick showed us Jack and Wendy were not being physical as they both, though mainly Jack, appear to be very unhappy in their marriage to each other. After 5 months with not much else to help, of course, his fuse was bound to blow, with the isolation also helping take a toll.
The most concrete piece of evidence to this theory, the one thing that even started it really is a magazine, but we first we must ask ourselves why a magazine matters. He was staying at a hotel, of course, there were magazines, it's entertainment. Let's look at some of the details of Kubrick and his directing. He holds a record for forcing Shelley Duvall to perform the baseball bat scene 125 times, he is renowned as one of the most meticulous directors ever and has hidden and not-so-hidden messages in all of his films. Anything you see in his movie, whether it be a tissue in the corner of the floor foreshadowing a character about to become sick, or a red stain on the wall showing blood is about to be drawn, it is there for a very specific reason. Kubrick really never allowed mistakes in his movies. For this PlayGirl magazine and its articles to be present in a shot in the movie is to show us a small detail of what is really happening behind closed doors. The first thing to notice is, Playgirl is a bunch of nude men and is not as popular as its sister magazine, Playboy. So for Jack to be reading it in a lobby of a hotel is peculiar in all senses. Then for it to be all nude men instead of women is obviously a shot at Jack's possible homosexuality, and let's not forget to go back and ask ourselves how did the magazine even get there? The answer is simple and it is that Jack reads homosexual magazines and he brought the Playgirl to the hotel. And to move really into it, let's really look at the cover and it's articles.
(All Rights to This Photo Belong to PLAYGIRL)
There are two articles that caught my eye. First off, there is an article about incest, and this is what really drives the molestation theory. With all the weird things between Jack and Danny, the OBVIOUS lack of sex between Jack and Wendy, and Wendy's homely and unsexual appeal, we can conclude Danny was being molested by Jack. There is no way that Kubrick so many subtle hints and then included this little easter egg for the audience to not see that. Secondly, the article about communicating in bed. From the beginning Jack and Wendy do not communicate, we see this from the facial expressions, we feel it from the intensity of the camera shots, we hear the tension in any phrase they talk about. Wendy and Jack do not communicate and the article telling Jack to rate himself in bed shows us that they clearly are not doing anything so Jack has resorted to Danny.
To finish this blog off, what I believe Stanley Kubrick was trying to convey through the shining is the story of a man who found a woman he loved very deeply, married her, had a kid, and then she closed off. She became more of a motherly figure to her husband and her child and decided being sexual with her husband just was not something she was willing or able to do, so Jack began to resent Danny as he blamed him for the result of this, so Jack turned to the bottle, hurt Danny and stopped drinking. After that, he begins abusing Danny, and Wendy could probably tell, but just subtle hints throughout the film show us she may be in denial of what is happening. Once at the hotel, Danny fears his father and is attacked by him in the fatherly love scene, telling his mom it is a woman in room 237 to which she believes, showing her denial to what is really happening in her life. Obviously, there are plenty more theories, and many others are also heavily supported by support from the film, this is just one that does not get a lot of circulation and it is not hard to guess why it doesn't. Stanley Kubrick directed a handful of movies that heavily had themes of sex and abuse, and while this one does not show any explicitly, with evidence he was still showing it. For example, Lolita; Humbert Humbert and Jack are both writers for occupation, abuse their children, and despise their wives. Both of these are movies that Kubrick directed and had a hand in writing. To end, the themes of abuse and sex are all over Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, from subtle to large details. Perhaps he was trying to warn us of divorce, or alcoholism, or isolation with it, but he achieved his goal of showing us what the abuse eventually did to us. Perhaps the next time you watch it, you won't overlook the little details in the movie. Below are some links to other articles, videos, and facts that I also used to help me with this blog:
This post is not to offend or upset anyone, it is not a far reached theory as there are many other people who see what I have seen. If you are offended, I suggest you do not return to this blog instead of doing anything else. Thank you for reading.
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