Semiotic Interpretation of 'The Shining'

As Frank Capra suggested, “film is one of the three universal languages. The other two are mathematics and music” (Edgar, Rawle and Marland 2010). The distinctive language of film has its grammar which is composed of signs. Metz asserts that “film is hard to explain because it is so easy to understand” (Goldberg 1). Even though the majority of individuals believe that they are able to offer a critique on their own opinion, the true understanding of cinematic language is possible through semiotics, the study of signs. Following that, I will analyse how does the prominent American director, Stanley Kubrick, use semiotics to express the depth of detail and infer meaning in The Shining.

THE THEORY OF SEMIOTICS

Semiotics, also known as semiology, is best defined as the systematic study of signs and the production of meanings from sign-systems. The term was coined by the American philosopher C.S. Peirce and the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (Baldick, 232-33). The word semiotics originates from the Greek word sēmeîon, translated as a sign, describing the smallest unit of meaning. A sign is considered anything that can be used to communicate (Streeter, 2012). Film images are signs and the essence of the process of film making is the choice of the precise images for the particular story.

STANLEY KUBRICK

Stanley Kubrick’s best-known film and an all time masterpiece, The Shining, released in 1980, is after almost 40 years continually recognised for its ambiguity and mystery, while thousands of theorists and fans attempt to find its true meaning; making Kubrick a real expert in the field of semiotics but at the same time questioning its purpose, and (un)skillful usage. Most commonly the universal meaning of his movies was not agreed upon. His filmography is diverse regarding the film’s themes and his genres of choice which are mostly dealing with the “facets of human nature,” and emphasising hidden emotions (Abrams 2007). Even though most of his films seem to have an intended, mysterious, and didactic characteristics, Kubrick believes that writers or painters or filmmakers ”have something they particularly want to say. They have something that they feel. And they like the art form; they like words, or the smell of paint, or celluloid and photographic images and working with actors.” and that “any genuine artist has ever been oriented by some didactic point of view, even if he thought he was." (Kubrick IMDB Quotes)

It is evident that Kubrick uses both his strong passion for film-making when producing the motion picture narratives that are rich with detail, great soundtrack, and precise colour usage. He usually takes already written text and converts it into a screenplay. The Shining was originally written by Stephen King, for example. When he does that, he extracts his own ideas and vision into a written script-adaptation, making many philosophical allusion to different concepts and placing the story line into the context of cultural conventions. (many times going against them and trying to break them). His style is very unique and usually recognised by a tracking shot, a reverse zoom, and a painting technique. Kubrick introduced some of the new techniques in the field of cinematography and because of that he is also known as the inventor of a “new cinematic language” (Abrams 2007).

THE SHINING: PLOT SUMMARY

The main characters in The Shining are Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd). Jack Torrance is a writer, who was previously a teacher. He is given a job of the Overlook Hotel caretaker, which is positioned in a very isolated mountain place; Estes Park, Colorado. Wendy is an unemployed housewife, a “ghost story and horror film addict” (The Shining 1980) who takes care of their son, Danny while Jack is working. Jack has a problem with alcohol and 5 months ago, he broke Danny’s arm, claiming that it happened “by accident” (The Shining 1980). Since the beginning, the Torrence family does not seem very harmonic and ideal. Before they decide to spend their winter in the empty Overlook Hotel, Jack finds out how in 1917 the tragedy of a massacre happened there; Delbert Grady (Philip Stone) killed his wife, their two daughters, and himself while working as a caretaker. This fact does not scare him at all, which is very strange. Later, the fictional character of Tony is being introduced who is Danny’s imaginary friend. With his help, Danny sees visions of the twin sisters, blood coming from the elevator in the hotel, and the scenes of twin sisters being murdered even before he steps into the hotel. While working in the Overlook hotel Jack’s character goes through drastic personality changes. Gradually, he is becoming strange and isolated from his family. Danny’s visions are becoming more often, and a strange connection between him, and the employee of the hotel, Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) becomes visible; they both have the shining abilities, which Danny holds as a secret.

THE SHINING: RED

Kubrick foreshadows the events that are going to happen in the movie using the iconography of different colours. They control the subconscious of the audience because they can emphasise the focal point of the film image and boost the emphatic relationship with the characters. As Roger

Deakins said: "It’s easier to make a colour look good, but harder to make it service the story" (Marine 2015). At the beginning of The Shining, red colour appears most frequently in the surroundings; sofas in the hotel, Wendy's and Danny’s clothes have red values, blood in Danny’s visions, employees of the hotel wear red uniforms, Ullman (Barry Nelson) wears a red tie, etc. As the story progresses, Jack starts losing his mind. In the correlation with that, he starts wearing a red jacket. On the other hand, Danny and Wendy are wearing the same colours of clothes (red and blue) which can be a sign of a strong relationship between them, while Jack is an outsider in this family. Jack and Wendy never wear the same colour of their clothes the entire film. Therefore, red colour illustrates the relationship between the characters. At the beginning, the third character wearing red clothes is Dick Hallorann (Overlook Hotel employee), who is also connected to Danny because of the shining abilities and is opposition to Jack. At the same time, red follows supernatural occurrences; blood in the elevator, red darts before Danny’s second vision, red boxes surrounding Dick and Danny during their the shining... Red serves as a clue to the audience when following the narrative, and as such is a code for the interrelationships, signifier of supernatural occurrences, an index of the audience’s focal point, and a symbol of evil.

THE SHINING: SYMBOLISM

Symbols in cinematic language play a role of fulfilling the context of a film image and stress the inferred meaning. They also produce an imaginative Mise-en-scene (Signs & Symbols in Cinema & Films 2009).

Many theorists tried to explain the symbolism of The Shining. In the same way, different theories of conspiracy that can not be validly confirmed started showing up. Most of these theories are explored in the documentary movie Room 237, directed by Rodney Ascher. “The Shining raises more questions than it answers. It has no solid meaning and all interpretations hold some weight because the film is so subjective”(Foley 2014). Some of the different theories that are claimed to be true by theorists and fans of The Shining are: movie is actually about Holocaust, or that it is a Kubrick’s version of the legend about Theseus and the labyrinth, or Kubrick’s hidden secret being revealed about helping NASA fake the first moon-landing, the story about human nature and evil, the allegory of injustice and terror that was done to Native Americans, the story about history repeating itself and many others. (Brooks 2012) These theories arise from the depth of detail and ambiguity of the film., precisely its prompts, narrative, use of color, and setting. At the same time, there are many events in The Shining that are missing the explanation of their nature and meaning, such as the scene in which Wendy sees a hallucination of a relationship between the former owner of a hotel and a man in a dog/bear costume (a dog costume is described in Stephen King’s novel, while Kubrick decided to use a bear costume). Some of the questions that are brought up by this scene are: Why did Kubrick change a dog into a bear costume? What is the meaning of this hallucination? Is it really a hallucination or is the hotel starting to project its true nature and guests? Robert Ager proposed three thematic interpretations of this scene in his analysis of The Shining. He argues how the bear symbol appeared earlier in the film; in a scene when Danny is being examined by the doctor and is laying in his bed, having a bear pillow behind his head. Later in the movie, when Jack Torrance is checking if Danny is in his room, when he peeks inside there is a clear image of a bear above Danny’s bed hanging on the wall. According to the Native American symbolism, the bear symbolizes freedom, courage, and power, but at the same time also motherhood and protection. Native American references are often mentioned in the icon form; there is a food brand with a Native American on it, it is mentioned how the hotel was built at the Native American burial, the decor in the hotel is in Native American style etc. Some other interpretations may suggest that the bear symbolises Berlin and therefore holocaust and Nazi power during the World War II, along with the Jack’s typewriter which has a text on it saying Adler (German- eagle). It is a well known vintage German typewriter and the image of it can be understood as a symbol of Nazism and Holocaust with Jack being the representation of Hitler or a Nazi.

Moving over, probably the biggest mystery of the film is the room 237. Many strange and unexplained events happen there, but when we think about it, they do not contribute to the story line at all. It is clear that the room is connected to the supernatural events, but not why do they happen. The colour of a room in Jack’s dream with two women is green; the first one being young, and then the second one turning into an old lady with a horror appearance. It is a bathroom. We may remember that the bathroom in the home of the Torrence family was also green. Supernatural occurrences are present there too, because when Danny was in the bathroom and talking to Tony, he had his first visions. In this case the green colour and the bathroom play a role of an index that evoke the associations of supernatural occurrences. The similarities between these two scenes may offer an explanation that Danny and Jack are very similar. When Jack sees two different women in the room 237, they may play a role of illustrating his internal conflict; there are two personas inside him, one being a good father, a teacher and a husband, while other is being an insane writer who physically and mentally harassed his wife and son. At the end we find out how Jack was at the Hotel Ball in 1921, which is physically impossible. This would suggest that in the Overlook Hotel history is repeating itself and even though Jack is dead at the end, Danny, being his son is going to continue the endless cycle of a tragic murders in the Overlook hotel. The room 237 is the only timeless place in the hotel. When Danny peeks inside we can see that room is full of mirrors. Mirrors symbolise spiritual reflection that can reflect consequences of actions that are both negative and positive, following that in the room everyone faces his true self, which is sometimes not a good thing to see (References 2015).

THE SHINING: CODES

Sometimes symbols cannot function on their own and they need certain code systems to be fully understood. For example, many of things in The Shining do not make sense in a physical world. Huge ball room and corridors that are placed in the hotel can not fit there (Abbott 2012). The architecture of the Overlook Hotel is very labyrinth-like with many spatial impossibilities, such as: non existing window in the Ullman’s office, TV without power or antenna, in the beginning the maze cannot be seen around the hotel, the pattern of the carpet changes when Danny rolls a ball on it etc. When something as mentioned happens it is considered to be a continuity error, but in Kubrick’s case it is probably an intentional error. These “errors” can be seen differently taken as individual cases, and differently if they are interpreted through code systems. If taken as a whole these continuity “errors” can be understood as a representation of supernatural occurrences in the hotel, making it look alive and affecting the audience’s subconscious. Even though the viewer is not aware of most of these “errors” when watching the film for the first time, the subconscious may produce very unpleasant emotions and experiences because of the awareness of something being not how it is supposed to be in the reality without clearly knowing what is wrong about the movie. At the same time, these occurrences may be seen as enigmatic codes because they require an explanation. When the conscious awareness of these “errors” happens, the nature of human mind will start to look for different explanations; either that they are really just the “errors,” or the meaning behind them. In the documentary movie Room 237, almost all of the protagonists who are fans and theorists of this movie said how they did not like the movie at first, but something about it stayed with them and that is how they obsessively started to examine every little detail and came across the continuity “errors” that are continuously occurring. The movie stayed in their mind because Kubrick manipulated their subconscious with the depth of detail. Continuity “errors”can be also seen as cultural if they are considered to be Kubrick’s mocking towards the horror film genre. Kubrick is also breaking conventions of the genre through Wendy's character. Wendy is a strong opposition towards the common horror film women because she is not afraid, she is smart and she succeeds to save her son and herself from Jack Torrence’s madness. After all, in his interview, Jan Harlan stated that Kubrick planned every detail of the set design and therefore these “errors” are present with a still not explained intention (Abbott 2012). At the same time, Kubrick uses action codes created by colours.

Red and blue are present in many important aspects that were already discussed. The scene when Wendy is holding a knife is just an example of two patterns that Kubrick uses: red and blue colour switching from one scene to another and the placement of her knife, once being in a right hand, and after being in her left hand. Again, red and blue are essential colours of clothing and interior design of The Overlook Hotel, while a shift of a knife is one of the continuity “errors’’. Kubrick is creating a puzzle, leaving no directions to the audience, but its presence is already enough to call this film a masterpiece.

CONCLUSION

The Shining may have both thousands of interpretations and none, as no individual theory reveals the whole story. Signs and codes that are being used in the context of the production of The Shining are all successfully presented in their intended form. Kubrick did not want to offer the answers, instead he raised questions. Jan Harlan, Kubrick’s brother-in-law and the producer of The Shining mentioned how on the set Kubrick said: “never try to explain something you don't understand: the moment you do, you fall on your face” (Abbott 2012). The director is clearly breaking the usual form of film semiotics and semiotics in general which is expected to have a meaning and instead letting the audience to choose their own. We often tend to look for the meaning of everything, ignoring the fact that the meaning is not a solid element. Instead of always being the answer, meaning can be a question or an experience expressed through the depth of detail just like in Kubrick’s The Shining.

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