Previous
Chapter 36
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shining, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fear, the Paranormal, and Reality
Precognition, Second Sight, and the Shining
Family
Isolation and Insanity
Alcoholism and Abuse
Time
Summary
Analysis
It is December 1, and Danny stands in front of the fireplace in the ballroom. On the mantel is a clock under a glass dome, two large ivory elephants on either side. Danny supposes that he probably shouldn’t touch the clock, but he takes the glass dome off anyway. He lifts the silver key and winds the clock. It starts to tick. It plays Strauss’s “Blue Danube Waltz,” and boy and girl ballerinas twirl around to the music. Shouts appear in Danny’s mind. “Midnight! Stroke of Midnight!” and “Hooray for masks!”
Danny is again hearing the masquerade ball, which the clock in the ballroom is perpetually counting down to. The clock is sort of the hotel’s master timepiece; it runs the hotel and all the eras within it. When Danny winds the clock, he winds the hotel, so to speak, and he sets the events that are to follow in motion.
Themes
Danny looks around the ballroom. It is completely empty, but it isn’t really empty. The hotel is never empty because all times and eras are one at the Overlook. It is always the night of the masquerade ball in 1945, and it is always 1966 with bullets peppering the Presidential Suite. The Overlook is alive, as if it has been wound like the clock, and Danny knows that he is the key.
Time is completely relative at the hotel. At any given moment it is both 1945 and 1966, and every other time in between. Time collapses and completely ceases to matter, except for the clock on the mantle. This clock seems to be ticking down to the hotel’s final moment, and Danny is the key because of his ability to shine. The hotel, then, seems to be after Danny to absorb his shine and harness his power.
Themes
Staring at the clock, Danny calls to Tony, but Tony doesn’t answer. Suddenly, the clock face is a black hole, and Danny is entering it. He is in the Presidential Suite, with the unmistakable sound of the roque mallet whizzing through the air. Danny can just make out the figure with the mallet, but there is another one, all in white. Danny realizes the figure in white is Hallorann, and he reminds Danny to call him if there is any trouble. Danny concentrates, calling to Hallorann in Florida, begging him to come back to the hotel.
Hallorann’s presence in Danny’s vision, which has only included Jack and Danny himself up until this point, foreshadows the fact that Hallorann may return to the Overlook to help Danny, after all. In this sense, it seems that Danny’s visions aren’t necessarily set in stone—his shining shows him what may happen in the future, not necessarily what will happen.
Themes
Danny is suddenly falling down the rabbit hole, and he realizes that Tony is falling, too. Danny falls into Jack and Wendy’s bedroom, which is completely trashed. Tables and chairs are overturned, and in the bathtub, Danny can make out a bloody hand. On the medicine cabinet, the word “REDRUM” flashes, and a big clock under a glass bowl forms. The clock face has only a date: December 2. The “REDRUM” written in the mirror reflects again on the glass bowl, and Danny reads the word “MURDER.”
Danny’s vision in Jack and Wendy’s bedroom is another promotion of the future. The disheveled room and bloody handprint—in addition to the fact that this vision takes place the very next day, on December 2—suggests that Danny is in imminent danger. “REDRUM” is finally reflected as “MURDER,” giving the reader further insight into what may happen on December 2—if Danny’s vision is correct, it seems that Jack really is out to kill Danny. But the fact that the word is capitalized (as words always are when Danny can’t read them) suggests that Danny still doesn’t quite understand what it means.
Themes
Get the entire The Shining LitChart as a printable PDF.
