The Queen of Spades by Pushkin, and The Shining Movie - Research Paper Example

The Queen of Spades by Pushkin, and ‘The Shining’ Stories and films that evoke fear and horror have always been attracted the attention of the readers as well as a massive audience for long. The story ‘The Queen of Spades’ by Alexander Pushkin, and the movie ‘The Shining,’ directed by Stanley Kubrick belong to the aforesaid category were both provided the utmost aesthetic appreciation and thrilling experience from the beginning to the end. Even without the least prospect of suspicion one can state that it is the intricate creation of the central characters in the story and the film that made them well-liked. When the story unfolds the life of Hermann, an officer of the engineers in the Imperial Russian Army, and his attempts at the fortune of cards by some fouls means and, the movie revolves around the writer, Jack Torrance who takes a job as an off-season caretaker at an isolated hotel with his wife and son. The movie portrays the mysterious and the crucial series of incidents that took place in the life of Jack and his family during their stay at the hotel which is believed to be the abode of ghosts and evil souls. While going through both the story and the movie, one can see that both deals with ghosts to create an atmosphere of horror. Both Hermann and Jack suffer as a result of false imaginations. When Hermann in the story suffers from sleeplessness and horrid images of the ghost of the dead Countess as an outcome of his greediness to hoard money through gambling, Jack in the Movie The film ‘The Shining’ has almost all the features of a horror movie. ‘‘The Shining is set in the apotheosis of the Bad Place: not a haunted house, but a haunted hotel, with a different ‘real’ horror movie playing in almost every one of its guest rooms and suites’’ (254). The presentation of the characters and the scenes also conjoin with the nature of the movie. ‘King places a family which is already in crisis in this evil setting. People and place interact to create horror which is both natural and supernatural’ (Sharon 46). Stephen King, whose novel ‘The Shining’ has been filmed with the same title, states, “Horror allows us to penetrate the mystery of death: horror, on the one hand, shows a way to cope with death and, on the other hand, even suggests what might happen beyond death” (Heidi 119). The novel and the film provide so many instances establishing this fact through the life of the central character Jack. It was his attempt to penetrate into the mystery of "crazy woman in one of the rooms" creates all the troubles in his life (Heidi 119). His meeting with the ghost of the previous caretaker, Grady is another instance that causes for Jack’s psychic behaviour and the ultimate obliteration of his family. An appreciable remark proposed by Stephen King regarding horror and its after effect in a person can be cited in his statement, “Horror allows us to indulge our darkest collective and social fears, connecting our anxieties to a larger concern” (Heidi 119). This statement proposes the fact that horror has clear connections with the social fear which leads to anxiety. Now it is crystal clear that Jack has the social fears connected with his profession, that is, his present inability to pursue the full fledged writing career as before. It is this social fear that forces him to find a convenient place; an isolated hotel and take a job as an off-season caretaker. But things assumed a different shape when his social fears lead him to severe anxiety and desperation. His desperation is quite evident when his wife Wendy finds out sheets of papers near his typewriter repeating "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." While observing the attitudinal changes in Jack, one can infer that his meetings with ghosts may be mere hallucination. It should be also notable that only Jack has such kind of terrible visions of ghosts and his wife Wendy is not at all affected with feigned imageries. In an interview, Michel Ciment, the popular French film critic, makes a right evaluation on the character of Jack when he says thus, “As the supernatural events occurred you searched for an explanation, and the most likely one seemed to be that the strange things that were happening would finally be explained as the products of Jacks imagination” (Ciment). From the words of Ciment it should be understood that all the supernatural incidents occurring in the movies are the products of Jack’s imagination. While examining the behaviour of Jack, one can find many negatives. The horror scenes depicted in the movie are identical with the so called social fears in our day to day life. “Horror allows us to transcend the world of darkness and negation” (Heidi 119). Thus it is evident that this horror film too leads us to the world of darkness and negation through the eccentric attitude of the hero and his ultimate fall affected with a severe psychic disorder, an outcome of his social fears. The same social fear can be cited in Hermann, the central character in Aleksandr S. Pushkin’s short story ‘The Queen of Spades.’ Hermann, an officer of the engineers in the Imperial Russian Army is presented as a gentleman at the beginning of the story. He is the one who simply observes gambling and not indulge even in betting. From the words of his friends, it is evident that Hermann is a person who does not have many contacts and would like to lead a secluded life like Jack in the Movie ‘The Shining.’ However, he wishes to spend his time by watching playing cards. His reply to one of the guests is notable when he said, "Play interests me very much, but I am not in the position to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of winning the superfluous" (Pushkin). A deep analysis of Hermann’s character will certainly reveal that he is not a person having such a nature but the one who has some hideous plans and secrets. It is just a passing remark from his friend Tomsky made while playing cards prompted Hermann to search for the secret of three cards. Tomsky’s grandmother won a sudden prosperity after she was handed over the secret of playing with three magic cards by St. Germain. Hearing the story of Tomsky’s grandmother, the vaulting ambition in Hermann woke up and he decides to meet with Tomsky’s grandmother, the old Countess and come to know the secret of the magical cards enabling him to be the richest in his locality. As the story progresses, one can see the advancement of Hermann to achieve his goal becomes more intense and at last he finds a way to get into the palace of the countess by establishing a relationship with Lizaveta Ivanovna, the young maid of the countess. But his unsolicited meeting with the Countess at midnight unfortunately causes for the death of the old lady, though he had not any deliberate role in it. The unexpected death of the Countess shatters all the prospects of winning the secret of the magical cards and as such it turns to be so severe for Hermann that he could not control his emotions. And it was in the outburst of his sadness, not on the death of the Countess, but on the thought that he could no more get the secret of the magical cards, he fell unconscious during the burial of the Countess. This incident really imbalances his mind and he feels the ghost of the Countess appearing before him and pronouncing him thus, “Three, seven, ace, will win for you if played in succession, but only on these conditions: that you do not play more than one card in twenty-four hours, and that you never play again during the rest of your life” (Pushkin). Unbridled imagination on the prospect of sudden riches makes his mind uncontrollable and it is quite evident from his application of ‘Three, seven, ace’ on whatever thing he meets with. His gambling with Chekalinsky proves his abnormal state. One is sure that any sensible person would think twice before engaging in punting for a huge amount by believing the words of a ghost. It is the perturbed mind of Hermann that forces him to continue gambling for the third day too. He strongly believes in the words of the ghost which turns against him and he loses all his money. If the first two chances were mere lucky, he loses with the third. If what he thought was true, he should certainly win the three cards. Therefore, one can infer that the appearance of the ghost of the Countess to Hermann was only the imagination of his perturbed mind after the unexpected death of the Countess before revealing him the secret of the magical cards. However, one feels that Hermann becomes mad only at the end of the story until then he is behaving quite like a normal person. Gary Rosenshield supports this argument by stating that “...if “The Queen of Spades” does not tell a tale of full-blown madness, it certainly tells a tale about going mad” (Rosenshield, 1-26). To conclude, one can infer that the tragedy of Hermann in the story and Jack in the movie is caused by the same cause. When the thought on winning the gambling caused for the abnormality of Hermann, it was the failure in his writing career and the inferior complex that lead Jack to his pathetic state. Therefore, one can say that Jack and Hermann are the birds of the same feather, though they belong to different regions and social groups. Works cited Ciment, Michel. “Kubrick on The Shining” < http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.ts.html> Heidi, Strengell. Dissecting Stephen King : From the Gothic to Literary Naturalism. Madison, WI, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. Print. Pushkin, Aleksandr S. The Queen of Spades. Classic Reader. Web. 3 July.2013. Rosenshield, Gary. “Freud, Lacan, and Romantic Psychoanalysis: Three Psychoanalytic Approaches to Madness in Pushkins The Queen of Spades.” The Slavic and East European Journal. 40 (1996):1-26. Print. Sharon, Russell, A. Stephen King: A Critical Companion. Greenwood Press, 1996. Print. Read More