Shakespeare References in The Shining

I recently re-read Stephen King’s The Shining (a book I hadn’t read since my childhood), and of course discovered that there are a few Shakespeare references in it. That shouldn’t have surprised me, particularly as the character of Jack Torrance is a writer. And, in fact, the first reference is because of his profession. Jack’s wife, Wendy, says, “Jack Torrance, the Eugene O’Neill of his generation, the American Shakespeare!” (p. 117). The second reference is to The Merchant Of Venice. Some lines, those that are spoken in the characters’ heads, often the characters’ darker voices, are presented in parentheses. Such is the case with the reference to The Merchant Of Venice, with Stephen King writing, “(YOU’VE GOT YOUR POUND OF FLESH BLOOD AND ALL NOW CAN’T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?)” (p. 190). The next reference is to Hamlet, with Stephen King giving a nod to Hamlet’s line to Horatio, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” King writes, “Watching him, she had been struck again by the eerie certainty that Danny knew more and understood more than there was room for in Dr. (‘Just call me Bill’) Edmond’s philosophy” (p. 192). There is another Hamlet reference. King writes, “In his faded tartan bathrobe and brown leather slippers with the rundown heels, his hair all in sleep corkscrews and Alfalfa cowlicks, he looked to her like an absurd twentieth-century Hamlet, an indecisive figure so mesmerized by onrushing tragedy that he was helpless to divert its course or alter it in any way” (p. 297). The hotel where Jack is the winter caretaker is full of ghosts, and one of those ghosts delivers the book’s other Shakespeare reference, this one to King Lear. King writes, “‘A thankless child is sharper than a serpent’s tooth,’ Grady said, handing him his drink” (p. 350).

The Shining was published in 1977. The first Signet Printing was in January of 1978. The copy I read this time is from a more recent printing, for it mentions It on the cover.