Personality Examination of Jack Torrance in the Shining

It's easy to like a character like Wendy Torrance, characters like her are written to be liked. But characters like Jack Torrance are written to be liked, as well as hated. King wrote Jack as a "bad guy", he's the alcoholic dad who broke his kids arm and is single handedly ruining his marriage. Given the facts we should hate him with every fiber of our being, but we don't. On the contrary, we feel for Jack and understand him. So how did King write such a "complete" antagonist who we sympathize and relate to?

There are countless antagonists that play the typical villain, they all have a complex backstory but it's never enough to allow you to relate to or sympathize with. Even in real life, no one ever takes the side of the alcoholic who beats his family, it never happens. So what makes Jack Torrance different? Well he's an extremely sympathetic character. When he breaks Danny's arm we can see the instant remorse for what he has done, "He felt awful.

This is what oncoming death feels like." (18. King) We can see that by no means did he intend to break Danny's arm, and I think that many people can relate to this in some form. Be it an argument where you said harsh things you didn't mean and are unable to take back, mistakes that alter the course of your life, or rage you acted on causing harm to others. Whatever your mistake, many people do things in rage, without thinking, and Jack is a victim of his own anger. Jack lives with the guilt of what he has done daily, and we see the thoughts he has about himself "you fucking drunken waste god wiped snot out his nose and that was you." (41. King.)

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Jack constantly goes from current time to the past, where he comes home drunk and sees Wendy and Danny sleeping on the couch or in the crib with Danny in his cast, and he hates himself for it. Jack wrestles with suicide constantly, he keeps the Spanish Llama .38 in a shoebox, "fascinated by its deadly shine" and puts it away still drawn. This is man who hates himself and what he has done to the people he loves. Self-loathing is something that is so easy for people to relate to, for so many reasons individuals have felt the pain that Jack does and they can reciprocate those feels of hating themselves.

Jack's most redeeming quality is that you can see he wants to be a better person. While he has made mistakes in the past he regrets them and shows remorse. He is making a conscious effort to be a better husband and father, along with working to get a new job to support his family. There is so much potential to be a good person, he longs to return to the early days of his marriage, to be a good father, husband, and finally a writer. Jack really understands the trouble he is having with his family, and sympathizes with them.

He shares the feelings of himself that his wife has, he is an alcoholic who wants to a strong enough person to recover from his addiction. I think the biggest proof of Jacks want to get better is in the chapter Phonebook. He goes back to when he gave up drinking for the sake of the family and his marriage, he would "talk lucidly to her for supper, drink coffee, play with Danny after supper, sharing coke with him, read him a bedtime story, then sit and correct themes with cup after cup of black coffee by his hand." (pg. 43) Jack Torrance has made many mistakes in his recent years, causing lots of uncertainty for his family.

Now left without a job he must find one that will allow him to once again support his family. He has made a conscious effort to stop drinking and has now found a job at the Overlook hotel. We want to root for Jack, so many of us have been where he is, feeling that we cannot overcome the obstacles in our way. There are times when Jack almost reverts to his old self, ending up at a bar "the only thing that had kept him from going in was the knowledge that if he did, Wendy would leave him at last, and take Danny with her." (37. King.) Jack loves his family, and wants nothing more than to be better for them, "he would be dead from the day they left." (37. King)

What damned Jack the most was his alcoholism, his addiction tore him apart faster than anything else, but it's what also makes him so relatable. Everyone struggles with addiction, while that may be coffee or soda, for others it's alcohol or drugs. We see Jacks struggle with alcohol, the constant cravings, "the wanting, the needing to get drunk had never been so bad." (37. King) There's a mental dialogue where Jack wrestles with the demons he has, to drink or not to drink. While Jack is making strides to beat his addiction it will always be a part of him and become another demon he carries.

Jack understands the feelings his family has about his drinking, I can imagine this is close to what it was like for King's family. What makes Jack a sympathetic character is that he feels for them, he feels the guilt of what his alcoholism has caused and someone who wasn't receptive to those feelings wouldn't care. It's constantly on his mind, yet through every conversation he craves a drink as a "pick me up to put things in their true perspective." Alcohol has turned Jack into another person, and we can see even later on in the book it causes him to lose his mind, along with the help from paranormal activity he returns to his old ways. I think that Jack's alcoholism made him weak, susceptible to the effects the hotel has on people.

Jack is such a relatable character, because with all his flaws, you can see a person whom wants, and wishes to be better. He feels remorse for the mistakes he has made in the past, and many can sympathize with the regret he feels over his actions. We can relate mostly to the Jack we meet in the beginning, when the Overlook takes ahold of him he is unrecognizable. I myself hold a lot of sympathy for Jack, I know what addiction can do to people and how it can alter so much of his life. King wrote a "complete" antagonist, whom at the same time you were able to see his emotions and inner thoughts, allowing you to sympathize with his life and the actions that he made.

References

1. King, Stephen. The Shinning. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2008. Print.

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