Isolation and Limnal Spaces inThe Shining

        In both the movie and novel by Stephen King, The Shining, the Overlook hotel is based heavily on a hotel from real life called The Stanley. The Shining is different than a house in that it is a liminal space, a place that is meant to be used as a transition. One with no memories of home, it is simply a big empty space you are meant to stay in to sleep and relax. 

Stephen King saw the potential in a place like that when he stayed at the Stanley hotel. In Stephen King’s own website, he says this about his experience, “We were the only guests as it turned out; the following day they were going to close the place down for the winter. Wandering through its corridors, I thought that it seemed the perfect—maybe the archetypical—setting for a ghost story.” In its Stephen King realizes this place is perfect to keep your characters isolated and alone. That is also why it is set during the coming of winter, when the heavy snow comes trapping the Torrance family in the vast space. Stephen King’s personal experience shows in the opening of The Shining. In Stephen King’s experience at the Stanley, him and his wife arrive during the time everyone is leaving the hotel for the season, just like when the Torrance family witnesses everyone leaving when they first arrive for the job at hand. 

The job at hand is a simple one, watch over the hotel, call if needed, and check the boiler occasionally. It is simple enough that Jack uses it to redeem himself in the eyes of his family and finally have a good life for himself. He even has all the time in the world to write his play. A play he believes will get him on the right track and be his big break. It’s a good goal to have, but when you have nothing to do all day but wander long empty hallways, write in an empty space, and forced to take care of maintenance such as the boiler day in and out, it wears on Jack.

Instead of what Jack originally intended, which is the hotel saving him, it instead feeds off him like parasite who just found its new host. It feeds on his past issues such as his alcohol addiction, which even caused him to break Danny’s arm. A part of his troubled past he deeply regrets and wants to move past, but Wendy won’t let him forget. Deep down he gets why, but at the same time it angers him, and the hotel feeds him off that anger. That anger grows and grows, that same anger that caused him to break his son’s arm. That same anger that caused him to get fired from his previous job. It’s coming out again, Jack knows it, he doesn’t like, but he is having a hard time fighting it. 

Through the movie and novel, he says how Wendy won’t let him forget the incident with his son, such as when Wendy blames the injuries on Danny’s neck on Jack. Another example is when Jack is talking to Lloyd and expresses how Wendy won’t let him forget even if it’s been years ago. The hotel loves him saying all this because it fuels his rage.

A house can’t accomplish this, because a house has pictures on the walls of your most cherished memories or of your family. Your own room with your favorite things. Even the color of the walls is up to you. It can ground you to reality. The Overlook has none of that. No pictures of memories or family to remind Jack of the life he has and the family he cares about. At the Overlook, all Jack has is an empty bar with nothing but his mind to express his thoughts. Worse when the snow comes crashing down, the hotel has them trapped with no way to escape and it won’t let go. 

As you expect, this liminal space fully has its parasitic influence in Jack’s mind. The hotel has won. Jack put up a good fight, but again, it’s an empty vast hotel and isolation wears on the mind, even with your family by your side. It’s a miracle Jack lasted a good couple of months, but now that his mind is the hotels, the fight is over, and the winner is decided. That winner is the lonely and liminal Overlook hotel. It goes to show, a home which you design and holds whatever is most dear to you can give you comfort, while a hotel has none of those things and is vastly bigger. 

It’s a liminal space after all. It’s meant to be a transition, not a residence. 

https://stephenking.com/works/novel/shining.html