Isolation is the state of being alone for an extended period of time, which has an impact on your mental and spiritual skills. Extended durations of isolation have been shown to alter people's sanity, and the more a person stays alone, the more their sanity suffers. The concept of isolation has been carefully examined in the books "The Shining "by Stephen King and "The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The theme has been employed by the writers to depict various functions in their distinct writing styles. For instance, the book “the shining” is based on Jack Torrance, who is an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a job offer to take care of a haunted hotel by the name The Overlook.
Isolation can be no picnic for a man, particularly when that individual feels like a complete disappointment and they imagine that the book they're chipping away at is their lone shot at being relevant in society. Also, when that same individual has added up to an inability to write and can't compose a solitary word. What's more, when he's as of now sort of a brutal slimeball. He is accompanied by his Son Danny who possesses psychic abilities and his wife Wendy.
The capabilities of his son help him uncover the haunted past of the hotel. The title of the book is borrowed from a name to which jacks son Danny is referred to by a chef at the Overlook Halloran due to his unique psychic capabilities. The theme of Isolation has been adequately used in this text for different functions. The isolation of jack by his writing, the Overlook itself is haunted and the isolation of Danny through the way of his psychic ability. The theme is depicted in both mental and physical ways.
In the “Rime of the ancient mariner,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge tells us about the story of a lone sailor who has just come back from a long sea voyage. The sailor stops a man who was attending to a wedding along the way an starts to narrate him a story which twists and turns the emotions of the wedding guest from amusement to fear to fascination as depicted in the writing style of Coleridge.
The poem goes on and explores deeply the main theme of isolation. Before the mariner went south to the Antarctic, he was a very sociable guy but changed when he came back from the long voyage. He started wandering the vast lands looking for “lost souls” like him (Gettmann). He later comes to the wedding guest whom he perceives as lost too and tells him his story. The lowest point of mental and physical isolation is when the sailor is left alone in the sea vessel looking at the dead men who were previously his colleagues on the ship. After this ordeal it gets quite hard for him to return to normal society, he becomes mentally unstable and therefore alienates himself from the society both mentally and physically. The poem has two settings, outside of a wedding hall and in the seas of which both portray being isolated from the rest of the society. The instances of isolation mentioned above have been discussed below in depth.
In the book “the shining” the following instances depict isolation. Right from the start of the book, Jack, due to his drinking patterns gets isolated from his job as prep school teacher. The isolation of the Overlook has been demonstrated and its detrimental effects on the existing human relationships. The hotel is firstly isolated from the urban and modern world. It is accessed through “windy mountain roads” far from the modern urbanized world. The hotel is also haunted by supernatural beings who take a toll on jack causing him to attack his family. At some point, his family overpowers him as he tries to attack them and lock him up in the walk-in pantry but he is released by the demon of former caretaker Delbert Grady who himself succumbed to cabin fever and killed his own family and himself. (Stephen K) This also depicts the level of depression caused by isolation in the mountains where the overlook was situated.
Jack was released by the demon of former caretaker Delbert Grady on the evil and controlled promise of delivering his son Danny to them and killing his wife Wendy. This State of possession also isolates Jack from reality and he wants to hurt the same people that expect him to take care of them. He even gets “slashed in the hand by his wife Wendy to deter him from killing her” (Magistrale, 28) and chases his son Danny so as to give him out to the demons of the Overlook.
Before Jack takes up the job, he is warned that the job will be mentally isolating by Mr. Ullman, the owner of the Overlook during the job interview for the position of the caretaker to the shackled hotel.He also told Jack about the expected cabin fever which had caused the former caretaker Delbert Grady to kill his family and himself after succumbing to the fever. This mental isolation he said was connected in some way to the 1971 murders in the hotel. Jack himself accepts and says that he longs for the isolatedness as it will give him more time, space and energy to sharpen his budding writing career. Jack Torrance, also a former teacher who had caused his family some harm due to his drinking, for example, he broke Danny’s arm, hopes that being secluded away in the hotel Overlook would help reconnect him with his now deranged family. He also hoped that the seclusion would help him with a play he was writing through motivation to write.
Due to Danny’s special psychic ability ‘shining’, he is sort of alienated from his family. He does not tell his parents about the secret gift and this puts the whole family in danger. He is guided by his future self “tony” who tells Danny that,” I am a part of your own”. He enables Danny to see the past future and the present. This unique ability puts his life at risk by bringing back demons in the Overlook.
Due to seclusion in the hotel, Jacks son Danny who has special powers attracts demons from the past that later go on to harm his father. Jack is possessed by spirits of former murdered people in the hotel. The hotel takes control of him and instructs him to kill his wife and give them their son Danny. It requires the intervention of his wife Wendy to hold him down and tie him up and therefore this whole situation of insanity and being locked up separates him from his own spiritual being and his family both mentally and physically. This has a big effect since he hurts people in the hotel including his wife, son and the also psychic chef Halloran.
At some point, his wife Wendy even thinks of leaving the hotel and leaving him there. However, his son Danny thinks otherwise. He believes that being there with their father would motivate him more to work since the family needs the income.Jack dies in the overlook as he tries to vent pressure from the hotel's kitchen boiler which explodes as he is in the basement where it is situated and kills him. The chef Halloran leads jacks son and wife Wendy to safety. This incident of the tragic death separates him forever from his family both physically and spiritually (King et al 30).
The hotel's Hedge maze also contributes symbolically and much significantly to the theme of isolation. The maze itself is a representation of being locked out from the outside world. It brings out the idea of getting lost in the maze and consequently losing connection with the outside Conner, 38) world, therefore, causing isolation from reality. This isolation is increased by the location of the hotel in the mountains.
In the poem “the ancient mariner, the character of the sailor is in many instances referred to as being ‘lonely’ which depicts mental and physical isolation from his society. This situation is caused by the mariner committing a mistake by complete ignorance which infuriated his crew. He is therefore disliked by the crew members which renders him isolated from the group. In the poem, he says that “Alone, alone, all, all alone, “Alone on a wide sea! “And never a saint took pity on” “My soul in agony" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 42).
On another instance, the poet says that” They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, nor spoke, nor moved their eyes; It had been strange, even in a dream, to have seen those dead men rise. The helmsman steered, the ship moved on; yet never a breeze up-blew; the mariners all 'gone work the ropes, Where they were wont to do; they raised their limbs like lifeless tools – We were a ghastly crew. This is a depiction that the crew of the sea vessel was all dead and the sailor was all alone in the vessel, with no one to talk to or work with. This also shows that his soul was isolated from those of the dead crew.
While the mariner is conversing with the wedding guest, he tells him that “His soul had been left alone in the seas and even God himself felt scarce”. This shows the spiritual loneliness where he had been isolated from God himself. It also talks about the sailor’s physical isolation from society or humanity out on the sea with only the dead crews’ curses to give him company.
Further, in the poem, we are told that and through the drifts the snowy Clifts, nor shapes of neither men nor beasts we ken – The ice was all between (Gale L, 32). This depicts that as the sea vessel was being driven further into the Antarctica, It was still very early in the age of exploration and therefore the seamen were being more isolated from the society. No people could be seen and neither could they see animals. The storm out in the ocean pushes the ship together with the sailors further south where the ship is marooned in between “green Icebergs” without people or beasts. This further adds to their woes of isolation and depression. The icebergs are actually said to be groaning and this scares the seamen more.
An albatross leads them to stronger winds to the advantage of their ship. Later the sailors killed an albatross that helped guide them down South. When they later lost wind, they had nothing other than sit and wait. Their depression was getting built due to the mental isolation as a punishment for killing the albatross. The ocean was drying up and the sailors lacked water to drink. They could not even speak just gave the stinky look to the mariner (Gustavo, 96) for killing good lucked albatross. At the point when the fellow mariners are killed by death, the Mariner stays in the despicable state of punishment of Life-in-Death. The world is so substantial around him, yet everything feels like a dead weight pushing down on his eyes. He is staggeringly forlorn, and the waiting condemnation of curses in the eyes of the dead sailors influences him to need to simply close out the world. This is due to the physical isolation from reality and society in dry land and mental separation from himself due to causing the killing of his friends by murdering the good lucking albatross (Conner 40).
Later in the poem, the mariner is rescued by good spirits and is taken by a hermit who is a person who is good spirited and lives a pious life in solitude.This isolation according to the poem is good since it helps the hermit lead a good life that is pious and free from sin. The mariner also wants the hermit to cleanse him by means of confessing him. The wedding guest clearly changed by the antics of the mariner decides not to enter the wedding and gets isolated from his former self. He wakes up the next day a sadder but wiser man (Tave B, 51) maybe because he had been living a life that was not so pleasing.
In conclusion, the very important and main theme in both texts that is the book “the shining” and the poem “The Ancient Mariner” of isolation has been widely expounded and used to show to the literal world the possible effects of isolation on human mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing. From affecting the main characters to other people referred to in the texts, we draw important lessons from the usage of the themes. The mariner for example probably due to the penance he incurred from killing the albatross made him think in another dimension about treating other people and things better. Which he tells the wedding guest in stanza 124.
The stories are about losing sanity in unique ways of complete isolation. Death of Jack in “the shining” results from his ignorance of the forewarning by Mr. Ullman that isolation would be a major hindrance in the work he was undertaking. Danny, Jacks son tries to use his unique capabilities to avert any future harm in the Overlook resulting from the demons. This causes him to be isolated and therefore poses an unquantifiable danger to his family by being isolated from the present and acting to prevent future activities. Later in the novel, the chef Halloran isolates himself from the Overlook and only comes back when he is psychically called by Danny to save them from the imminent threat from their father. However, he meets myriads of hindrances that deter him from reaching the Overlook fast enough to save Jacks, family. The Mariner in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Ancient Mariner” on the other hand faces the brutal effects of isolation when he causes the death of his crew after he kills a good albatross that had helped them to get to their destination. He even gets cursed by his fellow Seamen due to the calamity he had caused. He draws many lessons which he shares with the wedding guest and ends up making him a wiser but sadder man (Coleridge 30).
Works cited
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King, Stephen, and Campbell Scott. The Shining. New York: Books on Tape, 2012: 40–97
King, Stephen, Glenn Chadbourne, and Don Maitz. The Shining. , 2016. Print. P 13_29
Magistrale, Tony. Discovering Stephen King's The Shining: Essays on the Bestselling Novel by America's Premier Horror Writer. San Bernardino, Calif: Borgo Press, 1998: p 76–110
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