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Introduction
This essay will examine personification and sound in Stephen
King’s The Shining (Doubleday, 1977)
to see how the effects of horror have been achieved. The Shining is a contemporary horror novel set in an isolated
haunted hotel named the Overlook where Jack, the caretaker, stays with his wife
Wendy and child Danny.
Personification
First, let’s examine personification. This means attributing
human qualities to objects or elements that aren’t human.
For instance, personification
can be seen in the Overlook hotel itself. It achieves a human form: “The
Overlook was coming to life around them.” And: “The hotel was running things
now. Maybe at first the things that had happened had only been accidents … But
now the hotel was controlling those things.” Also: “Ahead he could see the
Overlook, mockingly distant, seeming to stare at him with its many windows …”
Parts of the hotel also take on human characteristics. First
there is the elevator: “… the brass yaw of the elevator stood mockingly open,
inviting her to step in and take the ride of her life.” Then there are the
windows: “For the first time he noticed how much [the windows] seemed like
eyes. They reflected away the sun and held their own darkness within.”
The wind is also personified: “The wind spoke back, gusting
more strongly this time … The wind sighed through the trees …” And: “… the
whooping and impersonal voice of the wind, so huge and hollowly sincere, made
their laughter seem tinny and forced.”
Other elements of nature like air and fire also achieve
personification. For example: “The air whistled” and “yellow flames danced”.
Night time itself comes alive as a living, breathing entity: “With the sound of
Tony's voice the whole night seemed to have come silently and secretly alive,
whispering even when the wind quieted.”
Other everyday objects are personified to create a surreal,
uneasy atmosphere that add to the overall element of horror in the novel. For
example: “Her slippers whispered; the hedge-clipper hummed; the [catmobile’s]
engine rumbled grumpily; his pinky ring caught the lobby's electric lights in a
baleful sort of wink.”
Now that personification has been examined, we will turn to
sound.
Sound
First, loud noises are used to great effect to create terror
in The Shining. “Outside there was a hollow booming noise, like a dreadful door
being thrown wide … In the darkness the booming noises grew louder, louder
still, echoing, everywhere, all around …” And “[there were] more hollow booming
noises, steady, rhythmic, horrible. Smashing glass. Approaching destruction.”
The Overlook hotel seems to have a distinct sound that
brings it to life. “It was a living sound, but not voices, not breath. A man of
a philosophical bent might have called it the sound of souls … But to Danny it
was only the sound of the hotel, the old monster, creaking steadily and ever
more closely around them …” And: “Suddenly the hotel seemed full of a thousand
stealthy sounds: creakings and groans …”
Next, elevator sounds create terror: “The humming sound
again. Loud and steady, varying the slightest bit. Followed by a clank as the
humming ceased. A rattling bang. A thump. Then the humming resumed. It was the
elevator.”
Further, the sound of a clock is used to create horror:
“From within [the hotel] came a steady ticking, like a bomb. [Wendy] stiffened …
The ticking of the domed clock in the ballroom seemed to fill her ears.” And
later: “Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang.”
Wind is an instrument of terror and sound increases this
effect: “The wind gusted, making a hungry rattling sound in the close-matted
branches … the wind [built] to the
low-pitched scream that would go on all night, a sound they would get to know
well.” And: “Outside a sudden gust of wind slammed against the equipment shed,
making it rock and creak.”
To continue, sound is combined with objects of terror to
increase their nightmarish effect. First there is the mallet, a weapon of murder: “It hissed
viciously through the air.” And: “The steady, irregular booming sound of the
mallet against the walls grew louder.” Then there is the sound of a strict
school teacher’s cane: “Jack's body twitched in a remembered cringe at the
sound it made in the air, a murderous swish, and its heavy crack against the
wall ... or against flesh.” Finally, there is Jack’s typewriter that seems to
become a character unto itself: “Wendy could hear the typewriter Jack had
carried up from downstairs burst into life for thirty seconds, fall silent for
a minute or two, and then rattle briefly again. It was like listening to
machine-gun fire from an isolated pillbox.”
The hedge animals that come to life is perhaps one of Stephen
King’s more famous creations and sound is dramatically used to increase their
effect of terror: “Hallorann heard [the hedge dog] whine fearfully, and mixed
with that sound was the fearful, confused yowling of the big cats. Even from
here he could hear the sounds of the close-set twigs and branches which made up
[the hedge rabbit] cracking and crunching like breaking bones.”
Finally, silence is used in contrast with sound to heighten
the effect of terror. “The silence in the Overlook was complete and intense except
for the weird noises coming up the elevator shaft.” And: “Somehow the silence
was worse, more ominous than the screams and the blows against the strong
pantry door.” Finally: “The lack of any sound beneath the steadily running
water made [Wendy] uneasy.”
Conclusion
All in all, this essay has looked at how personification and
sound are used to create effects of horror in The Shining. It is important to note that these literary features
are often combined, and used with other figures of speech like simile,
animalism (think of the hedge creatures) and sensory literary devices, too, like
smell, sight, touch, and so on, to create the author’s desired effect – that of
overwhelming terror upon the reader.
