The Shining: Chapter 55 Summary & Analysis

Wendy regains consciousness slowly and becomes aware of the intense pain taking over her body. Her fingers even hurt, and then she remembers the razor blade. Her blond hair is matted with blood, and there is blood sprayed all over the mattress, but she isn’t sure if it is hers or Jack’s. She doesn’t think she has been sleeping long, but she can’t remember why that matters. She remembers the “insectile buzzing” and thinks of Hallorann. It had to be him, Wendy thinks. Why else would Jack run off so quickly? Hallorann’s arrival means that Jack can no longer afford to take his time and kill them slowly. Jack has probably gone to find Danny and get it done.

Wendy finds Hallorann on the floor by the elevator. There is blood pouring from his mouth, his parka is singed and slashed in multiple places, but he is still breathing. Upstairs, Jack continues shouting for Danny. Wendy shakes Hallorann and imagines her broken ribs piercing her lungs with each movement. She has to get to Danny; Jack is sure to kill him if he finds him. She shakes Hallorann again, and he begins to open his eyes.

Danny stands against the wall on the third floor. He can hear the thing that looks like Jack periodically strike the walls with the roque mallet. Danny is almost relieved. This thing isn’t really his father. “The mask of face and body has been ripped and shredded and made into a bad joke,” Danny thinks. The thing wipes its lips. “You’re not my daddy!” Danny yells. The thing says that it is, but Danny says that it is only a mask. The thing threatens Danny. Danny lied to him, it says, and conspired against him with Wendy. “And you cheated! You copied that final exam!” the thing that looks like Jack screams. He says he will find “it” and knows it is in the basement somewhere. “They promised” that Jack could look as much as he wants.

“They promise,” Danny says to the thing that looks like Jack, “but they lie.” Danny thinks about what Tony said and wonders what Jack has forgotten. Danny again tells the thing that it isn’t his daddy. If any part of Jack remains, Danny says, he knows it is a lie, too. This thing that looks like Jack, is the hotel, not Danny’s father. The hotel made Jack drink the “Bad Stuff,” Danny continues, because that was the only way the hotel could make him so terrible. Jack says that Danny is lying, and Danny tells Jack to go ahead and kill him—he won’t give him what he wants. The thing raises the roque mallet, but drops it. Danny sees Jack in the thing’s eyes, and the thing tells Danny to run away. He tells Danny that he loves him and claims that this is nearly over.

Danny stands motionless. He knows that no one can help him but himself. He tells the thing that looks like Jack to leave. “It” reaches for the roque mallet, and Danny can see the knife still stuck in its back. With mallet in hand, the thing turns it on himself and begins to beat its own face, “destroying the last of Jack Torrance’s image.” Blood and bone splatter the walls, and Danny watches as his father disappears. When it stops beating itself, it isn’t Jack anymore, but a mixture of all the spirits in the hotel. “The boiler!” Danny suddenly yells, and realization dawns on the thing’s face. It moves down the hall and Danny hears the elevator start again.