Jack’s Madness
Understanding Jack’s behavior is not too easy but it is
very interesting. Jack is the main character on The Shining, and he is a writer that accepts a job as hotel
caretaker. During the time of the story, he does very strange things that can
be called like insane. But at the beginning, he was not mad. He became mad by
effect of despair and isolation.
When Jack was interviewed, he seemed like a normal
writer that needed an off-season job. He told the interviewer that his wife
likes ghost stories and the occult things, and that she will be happy to come
to the hotel. Also he was very calm when hotel’s owner showed him the hotel and
Dick (the black guy) was telling stories to his son. Until this point he did
not show any proof of madness.
Then when he began to write, some strange things began
to happen. These things provoked despair on him that could be the most
important cause for Jack’s madness. He wrote for hours and it seemed like if he
was advancing through his book, but sometimes he was angry by that, other times
he decided to leave his work and began to play with a ball. It showed me that
he was so desperate by his work.
The next most important cause of Jack’s madness was
his total isolation in the hotel due to off-season and the terrible storm. But
why did not his wife feel too isolated and develop any kind of madness? Maybe
because she was not too desperate, or maybe because she went out of the hotel
some times. But for Jack this isolation feeling provoked he cannot do his work;
therefore, he showed a kind of fear and became more desperate.
In conclusion, Jack arrived to the hotel without being
mad, but his past violent conduct was enhanced by despair and isolation in the
hotel, and all these situations led him to madness and to attempt killing his
family.
