Its been forty years since Stephen King wrote The Shining and thirty-seven years since the movie was released, and yet it is still a cultural monument. There are so many reasons why this novel has done well, but I’m most interested in the Gothic aspects. Specifically the Gothic readability and horror/terror produced on the page. I think that The Shining affects the reader on a psychological level. The novel transports the reader to a time and place where they are utterly vulnerable. One way that he does this is by using fairy tales. Yes, fairy tales.
King uses fairy tales and children’s stories to parallel the horrors that Danny experiences at the Overlook Hotel. Any reader of Grimm’s fairy tales will know that fairy tales have their own elements of the horrific. However, King uses these stories and pulls from these stories so that we, his readers, would be reminded of what we would have heard as children.
The important aspect of these stories, is that King shows that even watering these children’s stories down won’t save you from fear. The fear can still be experienced even when compared to something as “childish” as Alice in Wonderland. As Tony Magistrale states in Stephen King: The Second Decade “The Shining fairy tale references create an analogical bridge between the events taking place within the text itself and cultural and historical archetypes” (Magistrale 32). The fairy tales used in The Shining is used in a way of relating the textual horrors to an experience created in the reader’s life. The fairy tales intimately relate to something tangible in the reader’s mind.
King’s use of the fairy tale is twofold. One is the readability, fairy tales are alluring and fanciful, making it simple for anyone to pick up and read. Secondly fairy tales are used to remind the adult readers of their childhood.
The most evident fairy tale used would be “Bluebeard”. “Bluebeard” is the tale of a king that had had many wives, all of whom died shortly after marriage. Bluebeard’s new wife was given one instruction when he went off to war, and that was not to open the door at the end of the hallway. Of course, she opened the door to unveil the horrors of Bluebeard’s previous wives. All dead and hanging lifeless. When Bluebeard returns he learns of her disobedience, he then attempts to murder her. The fairy tale parallels to The Shining because the novel is about evading horrors. Death comes upon those that don’t follow the rules. Also towards the end of the novel Jack Torrance becomes like Bluebeard. A tyrannical and murderous man. He tries to control Wendy, and Danny, but they aren’t obedient to Jack Torrance. He then, unsuccessfully, goes on a murderous rampage. As Strengell states the story of “Bluebeard” “Allows Danny to write himself into the story and anticipates future events” (Strengell 169). Through the use of a fairy tale, King enables his main character to embed himself into the events, likewise, it is through fairy tales that King enables for the reader to embed himself into the story.
King uses this early childhood memory to bring the reader back to a time that the individual is both vulnerable and susceptible to horror. It is after the reader has embedded himself into the novel that King then strikes and brings out the real horror. Just as Bluebeard’s young wife discovered a room of dead bodies, so King unveils room 217 to the most graphic horror throughout the novel, for just “like the fairy tale the horror story relies upon primal phobias-the breakup of familial relationships, death, isolation, separation. In both genres the reader is forced to engage these issues, confront the and vicariously participate in attempts to resolve them.” (Magistrale 34).
Continuing with this thought, King chiefly employed another child’s story. The next story used is Alice in Wonderland. Tony, the discourse of the Other, brings Danny introduces him to the real horrors of the Overlook. Tony would be read as the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. For as the White Rabbit leads Alice down into the horrors in the rabbit hole, so Danny listens to Tony and is led into the horrors of the Overlook. Taking the quote, “in another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again” (Carroll 16) and placing it next to Danny’s experience where “he slumped further down… Then there was a dim, painless tug as part of him got up and ran after Tony into funneling darkness.” (King 45). Both show the child following a sign into the unknown.
Continuing to analyze characters in Alice in Wonderland then the Queen of Hearts would be the woman in 217, who is the actualized horror. She is the character that stops the reader, and characters involved, into a frozen state. Like Alice trapped in Wonderland, Danny was also trapped in the Overlook Hotel. At each setting there was naught which was normal, in the Overlook inanimate objects came to life, and in Wonderland animals spoke. The phrase the Cheshire Cat states “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” (Carrol 65) could very easily be applied to the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel. Lastly, the game croquet is played in Alice in Wonderland, in this tale Alice almost loses her life during the game. This is similar to Danny and Jack’s roque “game”, which consisted in Jack chasing Danny while he wildly swung the roque mallet.
King’s use of fairy tales forces his reader into a nostalgic frame of mind. Once there King flips the fairy tale and infuses horror and terror. It is this element that ensnares the reader into the same horror felt by the characters of the novel.
Sources:
Carrol, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. New York, N.Y.: Barnes and Noble , Inc. 2010.
King, Stephen. The Shining. Anchor Books: New York. 2013.
Magistrale, Tony. Stephen King: The Second Decade, Danse Macabre to The Dark Half. New
York: Twayne ;, 1992. Print.
Strengell, Heidi. Dissecting Stephen King: From the Gothic to Literary
Naturalism.University of Wisconsin Press: Madison, W.I,, 2005.
blogonlit 