The Shining

by

Stephen King

The Dogman/Roger Character Analysis

A guest at Horace Derwent’s masquerade ball at the Overlook Hotel in 1945. Roger is dressed in a dog costume, and he is very drunk. When Jack begins to go mad and hallucinate, he sees Roger in the Colorado Lounge, begging for alcohol like a dog begging for a bone. When Danny tries to go down to the hotel’s lobby to talk to Jack before he goes fully insane, Roger—whom Danny sees as a horrifying, bloody dogman—guards the stairs and elevator and won’t let Danny pass. The character of Roger illustrates how multiple eras unfold all at once at the Overlook Hotel, effectively obliterating time—and, as the dogman, he is an example of the paranormal occurrences at the hotel and the power they have to induce terror.
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The Dogman/Roger Character Timeline in The Shining

The timeline below shows where the character The Dogman/Roger appears in The Shining. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 41: Daylight
Fear, the Paranormal, and Reality Theme Icon
Family  Theme Icon
Isolation and Insanity Theme Icon
Alcoholism and Abuse Theme Icon
...of bed and goes out to the hallway. He rounds the corner and sees a dogman guarding the stairs to the lobby. The dogman is a human in some kind of... (full context)
Chapter 44: Conversations at the Party
Fear, the Paranormal, and Reality Theme Icon
Isolation and Insanity Theme Icon
Alcoholism and Abuse Theme Icon
Time Theme Icon
...Over her shoulder, Jack can see Derwent, and a man dressed in a dog costume, Roger, is following him on all fours, obviously drunk and barking. (full context)
Fear, the Paranormal, and Reality Theme Icon
Isolation and Insanity Theme Icon
...is Jack the hotel wants, not Danny or Wendy. As Jack speaks, Derwent yells at Roger for peeing on the floor and the room erupts in laughter. Grady tells Jack that... (full context)