Symbolism In Poe's The Shining

All of the evil of the hotel, which is possessing Jack, eventually fights with Danny. The Overlook is working through Jack to make Danny be obedient, and to not run away; Danny has to be "chastised" (Kubrick 1980). The young boy, however, has known that the hotel has been trying to know what he 's thinking, and he has been able to resist it 's attempts. Instead of referring to the hotel 's illusions as "pictures," as he formally did, Danny now calls them "false faces," which are fictitious. In conjuncture with this thought, Danny now calls the creature before him, possessing his father, "a mask;" this statement mirrors "The Masque of The Red Death" (York 2016). Although death will occur eventually, Danny knows that it is not his time; he is …show more content…
The symbols employed by King in relation to Poe’s literary work of 1842 were the coloring of the black and red, western-most room, signifying death (in King’s work, the western trek to the formidable Overlook Hotel was an invitation of death to the Torrance family); the avoidance of death in the case of both Poe’s party-goers and King’s Danny and Wendy Torrance; the respective clocks striking midnight, and the mortal significance of this. The presence and influence of religion is also clear in both texts. The unclear nature of the Grady girls, and the dogman in the movie and book symbolizes the masked nature of the figure resembling the plague of the “red death,” in Poe’s story. The color red in the bathroom of the movie and blood covering the lens, also serves as a reference to the black and red room as described by Poe, and of the blood which is a symptom of the red death as it pours from pores of the ill. Signs of Stephen King’s creative genius can be found within the pages of The Shining. Edgar Allan Poe’s text, “The Masque of the Red Death,” served as a suitable theme for King’s work, both of which are now horror classics due to the detailed symbols crafted, and employed, by each astounding