Kubrick's Depiction Of The Wendy In The Movie

* Wendy is portrayed differently in film and book. Now we are going to talk about the Wendy in film first. She is timid and passive, always submissive to her husband and stick to her role as a mother & a wife. In fact, Kubrick once explained why he presented wendy so differently from the one in the book, he said Wendy is portrayed in this way so that the film audience would not "wonder why she puts up with Jack for so long." * Her submissiveness to Jack can be revealed in the scene that Jack was typing his work while Wendy stepped in and tried to know if his work had been smooth or not. In response to what wendy said, Jack did not appear to welcome wendy’s coming. He even accused her of interrupting his work and started establishing a
new rule with foul language used. The point is, regarding jack’s reaction, wendy just kept saying yeah and ok to show her agreement to his reaction. She even suggested making sandwiches for him. All these showed that she was a very submissive and passive to her husband, and she would not voice her opinion easily in face of Jack. * Wendy kept sticking to her role as a wife and a mother.
Scenes of her preparing breakfast for her husband and child can be seen from time to time in the movie. It is just like she was any other traditional women since these kinds of job had long been seen as daily routine of mothers and wives. Thus these scenes actually reinforced her image as a mother and a wife to audience. * Her costumes in the movie also demonstrated her motherly nature. Very often when she appears in the movie, she was wearing aprons and had her hair tied up, which implies she had been occupied with housework and house chores since that’s what women are like when they are doing that. * However, wendy’s passiveness actually has played a role in contributing to the tragic end of the story. in fact, although jack’s indifference and irrepectful attitude to her had already showed his decreasing love, care and passion for her, all she did was just sticking to her role as a mother and wife continuously without doing other things to save her marriage. For example, apart from the scene about interrupting her husband’s work which I just mentioned, there is a scene that she prepared breakfast for her husband in the morning. It is just like her husband’s attitude to her would change if she kept sticking to her role as a good wife and a good mother since that may gain her husband’s appreciation some
day. * Apart from this, her over-reliance to her husband all added fuel to the tragic end of the story. for example, when she was told by Danny that he had been hurt by the woman in room 237, her first reaction was to run to her husband and asked her husband what should they do next. Her over-reliance on Jack therefore made her become hysterical and frightened when Jack was out of his mind. Her actions were all out of an instinct to survive and protect her son. She herself did not really know how to calm down and make decisions properly on her own. * Since she was very submissive to her husband and she dared not ask and read about the things that Jack did and wrote, she became ignorant of her families dangerous situation. it was not until she found that all the things jack had been typing these days were “all work and no play makes jack a dull boy” that she realized that jack had gone out of his mind. This ____ shot shows her desperation and fear clearly to the audience. And the over-the-shoulder shot which demonstrated jack’s point of view in seeing his wife’s back further signifies the danger approaching wendy, which had not been observed by her. * It is known that shots have a function of showing the audience character’s point of view as that particular moment, and these contrasting shots showing jack approaching wendy when he discovered what wendy found about him can not only demonstrate how they saw each other as that moment, jack’s insanity and wendy’s helplessness can also be shown clearly to the audience. It is because with their dominance in these shots, audience can see the characters’ facial expression as well as their body movements and gestures which showed their emotions and feelings clearly. * Now we are going to talk about the wendy in book. In fact, the wendy in book is not as submissive as the one in film. For example, she once wanted to get divorced with jack after jack hurt Danny. This means she was not submissive and passive to save herself and her son in face of her husband. She even voiced out her opinion and grievances to jack from time to time. For example, when they heard strange noises coming from outside of their room and jack wanted to go out and see by himself, wendy said “Don’t you dare leave us alone!” and suggested going to investigate what happened together. She also gave suggestions about how to get Danny out of the hotel after he was hurt by the woman in 237. * Unlike the wendy in film,