The Shining - The Vulnerabilities (and self awareness?) of Jack Torrance
The Two Jacks
For decades, Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 psychological masterpiece The Shining has been subject to no shortage of elaborate interpretations and theoretical assessments, with some compelling and persuasive (Native American genocide allegory; commentary on the Gold Standard and America’s financial state) and others grasping the Kubrickian approach only as good as they are grasping at straws (The Holocaust allegory; moon landing hoax.) As new and fresh theories about the true meaning behind The Shining will no doubt continue to pour into Reddit posts and video essays updating the state of the predictive programming paradigm as the years go on, equally should there be continued contributions to existing theories. This Substack post serves as such a continued contribution, and specifically to the controversial theory that Jack Torrance in The Shining is sexually abusing his son, Danny. This post will not go into details justifying the legitimacy of this theory in the first place, and the bedrock of this can be found in various videos and posts online, namely in the work of Rob Ager aka ‘Collative Learning.’ But I’d like to speak to this theory here in a way I’ve yet to see spoken to - vis a vis the variable of Jack Torrance’s apparant bouts of vulnerability and even guilt-riddenness throughout the film.
Firstly, it should be clarified that by “vulnerabilities” I am not talking about physical ones a la Jack being knocked unconscious by Wendy, slashed in the hand with a knife, and, finally, freezing to death. Rather, the word “vulnerability” here is being used to represent occasions throughout the film in which Jack seemes to suddenly express either a kind of self aware fear, or self aware regret, that is out of character from his otherwise diabolical self.
There are a few of these peculiar instances. First is when Wendy is accosting Jack for apparantly choking Danny. As she is doing this, Jack’s response is very bizarre and of a nature that has never sat quite right with me rewatch after rewatch. Here, Jack appears to be trapped in something of a frozen/paralyzed state. As Wendy is shouting at him, he raises his eyebrows and slightly shakes his head and right hand in such a way that suggests he is desperately trying to communicate that he (or at least the real him) did not in fact do what he is being accused of. After Wendy storms out of the room with Danny, a very confused looking Jack just manages to utter the word “No.”
A second instance, and another which has never sat right with me, occurs when Jack is menacingly on the prowl toward a bat-wielding Wendy up the stairs. Shortly after terrifying her with quips that could only come from an unadulturated Jack Torrance (I said I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m just gonna bash your brains in. I’m gonna bash them right the fuck in), something odd happens. Jack suddenly stops taunting Wendy. His villianous expression tames. He drops his guard a bit. For a moment, even the distressing soundtrack briefly ceases. As all of this happens, Jack simply tells Wendy to “stop swinging the bat” in a very matter-of-fact manner. Here, too, everything indicates that Jack is experiencing temporary self-awareness. In this instance, he’s not telling her to stop swinging the bat as a trick or so that he can get the 1 up on her. He’s telling her to stop swinging the bat, because from the “real” Jack’s point of view, there is no reason she’d have to swing the bat; she has nothing to actually be afraid of. “Temporary,” however, is the key word. It’s just a moment later and “Jack” is already back to sticking his tongue out and growling “Wendyy” in a deep voice as if he’s finding the entire matter funny.
A third instance comes just shortly later in the film. Wendy has successfully incapacitated Jack and trapped him in the food storage room. Upon regaining consciousness, Jack bangs on the locked door and pleads with Wendy to let him out. There is a peculiar moment here where Jack states: “Wendy, listen, let me out of here and I’ll forget the whole goddamn thing. It’ll be just like nothing ever happened.” Jack’s vocal inflection on the word “happened” is fundamentally different from his uttering of any other word in this statement. He actually says it in an emotional way, as if he’s about to cry. Here too it seems a rare moment from “the real Jack” emerges. In the same nature as the last instance, this disperses quickly, and Jack’s next statement is one of trickery: “Wendy, baby, I think you hurt my head real bad. I’m dizzy. I need a doctor!” There seems to be a pattern of Jack expressing brief but real vulnerability and self awareness to then quickly be followed by deceptive and nefarious behavior.
These dynamics of abnormal occasions of self awareness, vulnerability, and guilt established as being present in the Jack Torrance character, I now wish to tie this to the Danny-abuse theory. There is one last instance of this “two Jacks” matter, and the most important instance at that: The woman in the bathtub in room 237 is meant to represent Danny Torrance. Jack, overwhelmed with sick, demented lust, sees something as beautiful at first, only to, during another brief moment of self awareness, see it for what it truly is - hideous and repulsive. This is even foreshadowed at the beginning of the film when Danny is talking to Tony in his house’s bathroom - a bathtub/shower clearly visible immediately behind him. It then just so happens to be in this bathroom where something causes Danny to suddenly pass out in a bout of unspecified trauma.
As always, Jack’s realization in the room 237 scene is only temporary.
Speaking of room 237, the ‘Room 237’ documentary comes to mind. As one of the commentators states in the 2012 film analysis, the carpeting in room 237 is clearly designed in such a way to depict sexual intercourse.
So these are just a few details to bounce around. I’m curious to hear what others’ thoughts are.
I’m equally curious to see where the popularity of the abuse theory goes from here; it’s very polarizing. If I were to sit here and defend it, I’d begin with a detail not often referred to by proponents of the theory.
It’s the beginning of the film. Jack is in Stuart Ullman’s office being interviewed for the position of caretaker.
ULLMAN: “Jack is a school teacher!”
JACK: “Uh…formerly a school teacher.”
As a teacher, Jack was once around many kids. Something took place. Then, he was no longer around them.