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Chapter 51
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shining, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fear, the Paranormal, and Reality
Precognition, Second Sight, and the Shining
Family
Isolation and Insanity
Alcoholism and Abuse
Time
Summary
Analysis
As Wendy climbs the stairs, she looks back at Jack. He is just six step behind her, threatening to kill her. Her fear intensifies, and by the time she reaches the top of the stairs, Jack has gained on her and is only four steps from the top. He is holding the roque mallet in one hand, pulling himself up the stairs with the other. He is right behind her, Jack says, and he has her “medicine.”
Again, Wendy is more afraid of Jack than she is of anything else. However, this figure climbing up after he isn’t entirely Jack. Given that the stab wound should have killed or at least incapacitated Jack, it seems that he is becoming a personification of the Overlook itself, and is now gaining strength instead of losing it.
Themes
Wendy turns and tries to run down the hall. A door to one of the guest rooms opens, and a man wearing a green mask steps out. He asks Wendy if she is enjoying the party and goes back in the room, slamming the door. Wendy loses her balance and falls forward, pain consuming her. She almost passes out and hears the elevator running between the floors. Jack comes up from behind and bludgeons Wendy in the middle of the back with the roque mallet. She hears a snap, and immense pain rushes through her body.
Jack likely broke Wendy’s spine by striking her in the back with the mallet, an incredibly serious injury that will take months to heal. The hotel, meanwhile, seems to be ganging up on Wendy. She is caught off guard and falls when the man in the green mask opens the door, which gives Jack time to catch up with her and strike her again.
Themes
The force of the blow knocks Jack off balance, and he pitches forward, blood spraying from his mouth. Jack is struggling to get up, and Wendy likewise tries to stand but can’t. She drags herself toward the door of their room, not able to see Jack or judge how close he is. The door to the room is open, and Wendy thinks about Danny. She pulls herself halfway up and stumbles through the door. She runs into the dresser just inside the room and turns to shut the door. Jack screams behind her, ordering her not to shut the door. She slams it and drives the bolt closed.
Again, it seems to be Danny who gives Wendy the strength to keep moving. Jack has broken her back and her ribs, and it is amazing that she is even alive. Wendy worried earlier in the novel that she was weak and would not be able to stand up to Jack; however, Wendy proves here that she is anything but weak, and she gets her strength from her love for Danny.
Themes
Jack breaks through the door and reaches in, grabbing the keys from the dresser. He unlocks the door and rages through the room, knocking over furniture and the television, as Wendy tears apart the bathroom, looking for something to use as a weapon. Jack goes to work on the bathroom door with the roque mallet, and inside Wendy finds a box of razor blades. She takes one out, cutting her thumb in the process, and stands back. The mallet comes through the bathroom door, too, and Jack reaches in. Jack tells Wendy she is trapped, in a voice that is not his own—it is the “raving” voice of the hotel.
Earlier in the novel, Danny had a vision of Jack and Wendy’s bedroom after Jack trashed it on his way through to knock the bathroom door down. Regardless of how beaten Wendy is, she doesn’t give up. A single razor blade isn’t exactly an ideal weapon, but Wendy is desperate to make anything work at this point. Jack’s “raving” voice implies that he no longer himself—again, he seems to be a personification of the Overlook itself.
Themes
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As Jack reaches through the door, Wendy slices him with the razor. He recoils but reaches again, and Wendy cuts him again. Suddenly, Wendy and Jack both hear a “high, insectile buzzing sound,” and Jack stops, distracted. Wendy hopes it is Hallorann—anybody—and Jack goes to investigate. Wendy unlocks the bathroom door. She has to find Danny. She goes to the closet and opens it, but Danny isn’t there either. She falls to the bed, nearly unconscious.
The “high, insectile buzzing sound” of Hallorann’s snowmobile hearkens to Jack’s description of the snowmobile in the equipment shed as a “mechanical wasp.” In keeping with the symbol of wasps as representative of danger, Hallorann himself represents a danger to Jack, just like the snowmobile in the shed, because he is there to save Danny and keep him from being absorbed by the hotel.
Themes
