The Shining Character Analysis

In the film ‘ The Shining’, director Stanley Kubrick teaches the audience a harsh lesson regarding humanity about how seclusion and isolation is unnatural for humans as social beings to be put into for prolonged lengths of time, and can cause the mindset of an individual to be triumphed by evil. Kubrick use a variety of film techniques such as dialogue, sound and camera techniques to characterise Jack Nicholson’s character, Jack Torrance, by showing how his character changes throughout the film and how isolation is an unnatural environment for human beings to be put into and causes evil to triumph over an individual causing their mindset to be tainted and can set off evil tendencies.
During the early stages of this film Kubrick uses camera …show more content…
In this shot Jack is positioned closest to the camera making him look larger than the others in the vehicle, this makes Jack appear more dominating to the audience which foreshadows that Jack may have a large and significant impact on this films outcomes, Wendy is positioned beside Jack however she is shown at the back of the shot foreshadowing to the audience that she is going to be weak and submissive character throughout the film, Danny is positioned in the back seat however is shown between Wendy and Jack, this is significant to the audience as it foreshadows a divide between his two parents later on in the film. Kubrick uses Nicholson’s character’s dialogue to show that everyone has an evil and sadistic nature within them when his character says “They had to in order to survive” when justifying cannibalism, as if it is okay to eat another human being instead of trying to find alternative food. This reference to cannibalism foreshadows to the …show more content…
Kubrick portrays this contrast through the use of camera shots and dialogue. In the beginning of this scene Jack is shown to walk into the bar in an unstable manner, muttering to himself “God, I’d do anything for a drink”, at this point the bar is now fully stocked and a bartender named Lloyd appears, who seems very familiar to Jack. Kubrick uses a close up shot to show Jack’s reaction to the fantasy, this is effective as it gives the audience a good idea of the emotions Jack is feeling towards this sudden change, Jack is shown to be pleased and even relieved to be met by Lloyd. This is significant as Kubrick uses Lloyd, a figment of Jack’s imagination, to symbolise evil nature. Therefore, when Jack is shown to welcome the presence of Lloyd, the director is showing the audience that in actual fact Jack is welcoming the evil nature of isolation to triumph his humanity. Kubrick uses a close up shot and dialogue of Jack at another point in this scene to show Jack’s emotions conflicting, when he is shown in a close up shot which gives the audience a good idea of his feelings through his body language and