Alcohol's role

My final blog post will analyze the theme of alcohol in the novel, The Shining. Jack has had a long history with alcohol. It was a love and hate relationship his father was abusive and an alcoholic. He even beat his mother drunkenly with a cane. This novel really suggests that alcohol and violence go hand in hand. The memory of his father and all the trauma he went through during his childhood has influenced him negatively, even causing him to becoming an alcoholic.
Now as an adult alcohol has almost destroyed his marriage. Jack has a hot temper and can get very aggressive. He even at one point broke Danny's arm. One night after almost running someone over when driving under the influence, he vows to never drink again.

What I find interesting about this novel is the blurred line in how much is the alcohol responsible for Jack's actions in the Overlook hotel and how much is the Overlook's supernatural forces. Yes, the alcohol is provided by the supernatural but how accurate would his actions be if he was drunk in another environment?

His anger and rage that comes out when he drinks and have nothing to do with the Overlook. It's what caused him to break Danny's arm. The Overlook only just amplifies and manipulates Jack a bit and directs his dangerous rage towards his own family.


"Standing on top [the table] was a martini glass, a fifth of gin, and a plastic dish filled with olives"

The Overlook recognizes that Jack's weakness is alcohol and uses it to manipulate him. It knows that Jack's favourite drink is the martini and uses it to its advantage.

The Overlook doesn't exactly possess Jack but helps facilitate him into the violent mentality to hurt his family and also gives him the means to do so.

The Overlook acts kind of like the train thought of a drunk person who has a bad temper. It is aggressive, dangerous, unstable, but seems rational to the person under the influence itself. That's how it seems like with Jack and the Overlook. The Overlook is Jack's train of thought when he is under the influence of alcohol.

"'You let them lock you in?' Grady's voice registered well-bred surprise. 'Oh, dear. A woman half your size and a little boy?'"

The conversations between Jack and the Overlook are unrational but to Jack, it seems completely normal. What the Overlook is really doing is provoking Jack to violence towards his own family with the aid of alcohol.

It can be related to some degree to Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Towards the end of that play we don't if crazy or not or what he is seeing is in fact a ghost or just a hallucination.

Just before or after every major conversation between the Overlook and Jack, the Overlook gives Jack alcohol. This helps to facilitate Jack's inner turmoil and rage that comes from alcohol to the surface.

"'Drink your drink,' they all echoed"

The Overlook tries to make Jack drunk because that is when he is most vulnerable. He is also rewarded with drinks when he follows what the Overlook tells him to do.

At the end of the novel, Jack is ultimately taken down by both supernatural forces who manipulated Jack and supplied him with alcohol, but one of the novels major theme stands strong that alcohol is the cause of domestic violence.