Jack Torrance In Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

Jack Torrance, the main character of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, played by Jack Nicholson, dutifully fills his role as breadwinner to the nuclear family until the pressures of carrying the “white man’s burden” become to great for him to bear and ultimately causing him to go insane. Because a wide gap exists between Torrance’s desire (to be a creative person) and his interpolated role (which imposes breadwinning over his desire), he experiences heightened inner tension. This inner tension ultimately results in violent outbursts toward his wife and son, whom he perceives as the sources of his alienation. Kubrick's positioning of Jack Torrance at the center of the narrative, and Nicholson’s use highlights the films thematic criticism of the …show more content…
As Torrance sits and types, isolated in the center of a vast, open room, Wendy enters and approaches with the intent of engaging in small talk. As soon as she speaks, he rips the paper out of the typewriter and abruptly answers her. When she asks, “get a lot written today?” he leans his head backward, and with noticeable agitation he glares up at her and succinctly answers, “Yes.” Despite his obvious intimations to be left alone, she proceeds to chitchat about an impending snowstorm. In response, Nicholson fidgets his leg, arches his eyebrows, clears his throat, and grumbles, “What do you want me to do about it?” When she tells him not to be “so grouchy,” his sarcastic smile turns into a clenched grimace as he closes his eyes and jerks his head away from her, thrusting his hand toward the typewriter and snarling, “I’m not being grouchy; I just wanna finish my work.” His delivery of the line drips with seething tension; he slows down the space between the words; he puts an exaggerated emphasis on the t in not, the st in just, and the k in work, and he stresses the second syllables in grouchy and finish. To augment these oral flourishes, the nuance expression (arched eyebrows, grimaces, clenched teeth, agitated blinking, and other subtle facial variation) blend with affected gestures (the thrusting of the …show more content…
The tension, which was barely noticeable (but thanks to Nicholson’s performance, detectable) in the beginning of the film, takes Jack over the edge. By choosing a modernistic acting style rather than a naturalistic one, Nicholson is able to convey not only the seething tensions of the male subject forced to perform certain roles but also the constructed nature of masculinity as an ongoing performance rather than as a natural essence. Through Nicholson's performance, the dislocation technique effectively captures the gestures and tensions of the male subject who carries the