The Shining: Chapter 46 Summary & Analysis

 Around noon, Wendy decides to go to the kitchen to make something to eat. Danny is in the bathroom, so Wendy knocks on the door and tells him it’s lunchtime. She asks if he knows where Jack is, but he doesn’t. It doesn’t really matter, Danny says again. Wendy leaves the room. She is certain Jack has gone insane. They listened to him all night long, having what sounded like drunken conversations with himself. Early this morning, there was a loud crash, and silence followed.

In the lobby, Wendy notices the velvet rope that blocks the ballroom is down, and the metal pole is knocked over. She passes the registration desk and wonders what she will do if Jack appears. Will she have the courage to kill him and save herself and Danny? Or will she stand frozen in fear? Wendy has always thought herself weak. During trouble she usually sleeps and tries to avoid it. She gets to the kitchen and feels some relief. She feels Hallorann’s comforting presence, and thinks maybe he is on his way now to help them.

Wendy quickly whips up an omelet and gets a can of tomato soup from the huge walk-in pantry. The door is heavy and close to the ground so mice can’t get under it, and it locks with a massive bolt. As she cooks, Wendy feels a presence behind her. She puts her hand on the knife in the pocket of her robe and spins around, but the kitchen is empty. She finishes cooking and mentally prepares herself to return the way she came. Wendy puts the food on a tray and walks out to the registration desk. It is December; they could be stuck here for another four months. It could be weeks, maybe even a month, before the rangers come to check on them. How long can she reasonably avoid Jack? She puts the tray on the desk and calls his name.

Wendy’s calls are answered with silence. She crosses to the lobby and pushes through the doors of the Colorado Lounge, the smell of fresh gin hitting her. There isn’t any alcohol at the hotel, Wendy tells herself. She goes around the bar and finds Jack sprawled out, drunk, on the floor. Surprisingly, she isn’t mad. She walks behind the bar, passing several decorative wine bottles wrapped in straw. Jack begins to stir, and Wendy, going to him, asks if he thinks he can walk.

Jack asks if it is really Wendy, and she says yes, then he grabs her ankle. “Gotcha!” he yells. Wendy is struck with pure fear, more intense than any fear she could possibly feel for the hotel. She tells Jack he is hurting her ankle, and he threatens to hurt more than that. He accuses Wendy of never really loving him, and never bothering to think about his “re…res…respons’bilities.” Wendy is crying now, and Jack says she is just like her mother. He knows that Wendy and Danny have been conspiring against him, and now Wendy has turned Danny against him.

Jack puts his hands around Wendy’s throat, and she steps back, fumbling for the knife in her left pocket. Jack breathes pure gin in Wendy’s face and pins her left arm down. Danny walks in and screams for Jack to stop, but Jack keeps strangling Wendy, cutting off her air. Her free hand gropes along the bar, finding one of the decorative bottles. She raises it, briefly hopes she doesn’t mess up and hit him on the shoulder or back, and brings the bottle down hard on his head. The bottle shatters and Jack drops.

Danny runs to Wendy, and they stand there for a moment, holding each other. Wendy tries to explain to Danny that the hotel has made Jack behave this way, and Danny asks where Jack got the “Bad Stuff.” Wendy says the hotel gave it to him, and she reminds Danny that Jack loves them. Wendy thinks to herself that it is Danny’s power to shine that is fueling the hotel, like a battery in a car. Without Danny, the hotel is creepy, but it is no scarier than a haunted theme park attraction. But, Wendy thinks, if the hotel gets Danny and somehow “absorbs” his shine, what then? The though gives her chills.

Wendy tells Danny that they must put Jack somewhere, so he can’t hurt them or himself, until a ranger or Hallorann comes. He asks where, and Wendy suggests the pantry. It is warm and has plenty of food, and the door is sturdy. Wendy and Danny can eat what is in the freezer and refrigerator. They will all be fine for a while. Wendy picks up Jack’s legs and drags him in the direction of the kitchen. They have been married for seven years, and she had no idea he was this heavy. As she drags him, Jack talks in his sleep about smoke and a gas can, and something about cheating.  

Wendy drags Jack to the pantry, but she can’t get the bolt open. She was just in the pantry, she thinks, but now the bolt won’t budge. Danny cries that Jack is waking up, and then Danny steps up to the bolt and rotates it, knocking it open. In her haste, Wendy had forgotten to rotate the bolt. She drags Jack into the pantry just as he wakes and starts to get up. Wendy runs and yells to Danny to shut the door. Danny slams the door and engages the bolt, and Jack beats furiously on the other side. He threatens to kill them both, screaming profanities. Wendy reminds Danny it is the hotel talking, not his daddy, and they leave the kitchen.