Lacan and "The Shining"

[Thomas O'neill]

Lacanian Mirror Stage as Narrative Device in The Shining1
The Lacanian Mirror Stage as
a Narrative Structure in The Shining


Jaques Lacan wrote in his essay "Le Stade du Miroir

comme Formateur de la Fonction du Je," published in his

Écrits in 1936, that :

...At some time between the ages of six and
eighteen months the child, when confronted with his
image in the mirror, moves from an initial
confusion of reflection and reality to self-
recognition and registration of the movements of a
body which, in the process of self-recognition , he
begins to understand as his own.(Lacan, Ecrits)

Stanley Kubrick's cinematic adaptation of Stephen King's

novel The Shining presents us with a twisted version of this

famous Lacanian postulate. Jack Nicholson's character Jack

Torrence is the child who, through three separate moments

becomes aware of his mirror-self. Lacan states that "Le

stade du miroir" (mirror stage) has three distinct moments in

which the child learns to understand the image presented to

him. These are as follows : first, the child attempts to

take hold of the images in the mirror as if they were solid

like the objects presented to him so far (ie. no difference

between the reflections of himself and the adult who holds

him up to the mirror); secondly, a moment where he

understands that the reflection in the mirror is not real in

the way other things are; and thirdly the child moves from

this realization to an understanding that the image is "his

own" and that his body is a coordinated totality (a movement

of his head is mimicked by the image in the mirror)

Jack Torrence encounters each of these stages at

different points in the movie, each encounter pulling him

closer to the realization that he is Charles (Delbert) Grady.

His first moment occurs in the segment "A Month Later" when

we are presented with a prolonged shot of him eating

breakfast. The second is extended to two instances, both of

which take place at the bar in the gold ball room, and the

third when he talks with Charles Grady in the "Gentleman's

room."

Up until the moment when Jack is first shown reflected

in a mirror he uses pet names such as Hon and sweetie with

his wife Wendy and walks arm-in-arm with her. Even though

these terms and actions of endearment seem forced, Jack does

them. But, after he stares at himself that first time in his

bedroom, we never hear them mentioned again (except when

reduced to an absurdity later in the movie when Jack refers

to Wendy as "love of my life..." before announcing that he is

going to "bash her brains in"). He is bitter and sarcastic

with his wife, even more so than before. When she asks how

his writing is going he snaps sarcastically at her.

When he awakes in this first mirror scene he sits up and

checks his tongue--a narrative convention indicating that a

character does not feel well. Jack's illness though is not

physical, he is merely experiencing the first step in the

mirror stage. He is perceiving the mirror images the same way

as those non-mirror images presented to him up to this point.

He is aware of a difference, but unaware as to what those

differences might be.

For the duration that Jack is cynical with Wendy the

camera is pulled in tight on the mirror so that the molding

and items in front of the mirror are invisible. We the

audience are also unaware that the images in the mirror are

any different than others presented to us so far in the

movie. Had we not seem the camera zoom in on the mirror, we

would not know that the images are reflections.

Yet, when Jack begins talking to Wendy in a more sincere

tone (about the Overlook hotel) we cut to a straight shot of

Jack which momentarily disorients our sense of spatial

continuity--it appears that Jack is now on the other side of

the bed. This shift from reflection to straight shot

coincides with a shift in Jack's tone, indicating that he has

looked away from the mirror and re-established his hold on

reality for the moment. Kubrick incorporated the prolonged

shot of the mirror for the same reason that he presents

Jack's hallucinations during later moments--he wants the

audience to step inside Jack's mind and see what he sees. If

the entire bedroom scene had been shot without the mirror

angle, we would never experience the disorientation when it

changes to a straight shot.

This subjectivity from Jack's point of view is crucial

in understanding Jack's change. We do not see any

hallucination during Jack's first encounter with the mirror

because he did not see any hallucination. Jack merely had a

thought or an idea that was incongruous to his previous

thoughts. It is for this reason that he is bitter with Wendy

and the shot is held on the mirror. Since there is no

narrative device such as a voice over, we can only infer from

the dialogue and visual clues, what Jack is feeling.

It is also crucial to understand that each moment in the

mirror stage is not isolated, but each moment is a trigger

for the following moment. That is, the actions in each

moment will cause a response that elicits each subsequent

moment. In the case of the mirror stage the child, through

movement, discovers that the image presented to him does not

behave in the same way that all others have (image mimics

child's actions). In Jack's case, he begins to realize that

his emotions (and sanity) are changing and are different than

before we see him in the mirror.

Following his first encounter with the mirror, which

introduced us to a crueler side of his personality, Jack

begins to grow hostile towards Wendy. First, he is outright

violent towards her when she enters his study to ask if he

would like sandwiches. He tells her never to enter the room

when he is in it and to, "...start right now and get the fuck

out." Wendy is puzzled by his reaction, but does as he says.

Then, in possibly his last moment of sanity, Jack has a

nightmare in which he tells Wendy, "I killed you and Danny.

But I didn't just kill you, I chopped you up into little

bits...I think I'm losing my mind." He is beginning to

understand that what he saw in the mirror was not just a

vision of other, but a different kind altogether...a vision

of self.

Jack's second moment takes place during two scenes, both

of which occur at the bar in the Gold Ball Room. As the plot

has described, Jack is an alcoholic and thus seeks refuge in

a bar. Behind the bar are three mirrors. Jack sits down at

the bar and we cut to a shot of him straight on, his eyes

looking almost directly into the camera (which has assumed

the position of the mirrors). Jack then addresses Lloyd, an

image that he perceives in the mirrors behind the bar.

Besides Lloyd, Jack also sees in his reflection racks of

liquor. He speaks to Lloyd about his troubles with the

"sperm bank upstairs."

Having entered the second moment, Jack sees the

hallucinations as he begins to understand that the images in

the mirror are not like those that he has been presented with

up until now. The images are those of alcoholism and

uselessness (Lloyd states "Women, can't live with them, you

can't live without them." both a cliché and meaningless

phrase). Yet, Jack has not yet grasped what these images

mean, he merely understands that they are different than

other real images he has seen (they are not real the same way

Wendy and Danny are real).

It is shown that Lloyd is not real and is merely Jack's

reflection through careful camera placement. The camera is

placed at an angle such that the reflected image of the

bartender is not recorded on film, either dead on (so the

actor hides the reflection) or outside the viewing range of

the lens being used. This subtle cinematic device lets the

film alternate between shots of Jack as Jack and Jack as his

mirror image, Lloyd. Also, on the physical level, the glass

and peanuts disappear once Wendy pulls Jack's gaze away from

the mirror.

Jack, as he begins to understand the meaning of the

reflection, sees a bartender and liquor because these are

elements inherent in himself. He inebriates himself and is

useless. He does none of the caretaking, he can't think of a

story line, and later in the film is ineffective in killing a

skinny woman and catatonic child.

The third moment does not occur through deductive

reasoning. Instead, it is a moment of Aha-Erlebnis (the

recognition that "Aha! That is my body!") which occurs "as a

sudden apperception in which the newly observed properties of

the object at hand (the reflection) are apprehended without

transition."

This third and final moment occurs for Jack when Delbert

Grady, disguised in Jack's hallucination as a waiter, brings

Jack into the "Gentleman's room" of the Gold ball Room.

Jack, who has been calling Grady "Geevesy," asks him his real

name. He replies, "Grady, Delbert Grady." Jack recognizes

the name from Allman's story and from the newspapers and asks

Grady about his wife and children and if he was ever the

caretaker. Grady responds that he doesn't know exactly where

they are but knows that they are "around somewhere." Jack is

still reacting within the second moment--he does not yet

understand that Grady is him. Yet, Jack is the one who does

not know exactly where his wife and child are and Jack is the

caretaker (and always has been).

The moment of Aha-Erlebnis occurs simultaneously for

Jack and the audience when we cut to a close shot of Grady,

framed by a mirror. This shot, like the previous shots of

Lloyd, is positioned so that we can see no reflection. This

man truly is Jack's reflection and Jack understands this. He

has become Grady by understanding what the image in the

mirror really is. Jack is the caretaker and always has been,

according the Grady. Grady assures Jack (in other words Jack

assures himself) that killing his wife and child is the right

thing to do if they get in the way of "his responsibilities."

Grady is a cinematic "imago," or unconscious

representation, or perhaps more accurately an imaginary

outline, of Jack's first experiences of alterity. In Lacan's

words the imago, which develops after the third moment is

reached, is :

The totality of [the child's] own body perceived in
the mirror is the other of his own "impuissance
motrice," his lack of motor co-ordination. It is
from this imaginary schematization of alterity that
the I begins to precipitate in a primordial
form...(Lacan)

Jack has described Danny's "accident" as "a momentary

loss of muscular co-ordination..." We see then that this

other, this Grady, has existed for years inside Jack and only

now, with his total comprehension of his reflection is it

coming out in the form of Charles Grady, Jacks's own

"schematization of alterity."

After realizing that the image in the mirror is actually

him, Jack must emulate Charles Grady in every way since the

image is not merely representative of him, but equal to him.

Jack gets an axe and attempts to kill his wife and child,

just as he heard Charles Grady had done.

The mirror stage applies itself well to cinema for two

reasons: first, because it takes place during three moments

and second because of the important relationship between the

mirror and the movie screen. Although both of these topics

could themselves easily fill a paper it is important to

mention their relevance in terms of this paper.

The tripartite applies itself well to all narrative

structures (ie. beginning, middle, end) and therefore is an

ideal form to adapt a story to. It provides a clear set of

expectations with which one can enter a narrative. We know

that each element of the tripartite will contribute valuable

information to the following parts.

Secondly, the mirror is an object which reflects light

in such a way that it produces a virtual image (an image that

appears to be behind the medium at an equal distance as the

object placed in front) of the item in front of it. So does

the silver screen. It reflects the light cast from the

projector's bulb through the print back to the audience,

adding a light to the print that would not be there if it

were merely printed on paper.