Danny Torrance
Jack and Wendy Torrance’s son and the protagonist of The Shining. Danny is just five years old, and he has the ability to read people’s thoughts and emotions. If Danny concentrates really hard…
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Jack Torrance
Danny’s father, Wendy’s husband, and the antagonist of The Shining. Jack is an alcoholic with a long history of abuse. His father was a drunk who abused Jack as a child. After…
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Wendy Torrance
Jack’s wife and Danny’s mother. Jack and Wendy met in college, and she moved in with him after her mother kicked her out. Wendy has a difficult history with her mother—her mother blames…
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Dick Hallorann
The cook at the Overlook Hotel. Jack, Wendy, and Danny Torrance first meet Hallorann when they arrive at the hotel for the winter. Like Danny, Hallorann can “shine,” or sense people’s thoughts and…
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Tony
Danny’s “imaginary friend.” Tony brings Danny visions that allow Danny to see into the future. With his power to “shine,” Danny concentrates and asks Tony to come to him, and he shows Danny what…
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Get the entire The Shining LitChart as a printable PDF.
Al Shockley
A member of the Board of Directors at the Overlook Hotel and Jack’s former drinking buddy. Al and his associates bought into the hotel in 1970, and Al also sits on the Board of…
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Grady
The former winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel during the winter of 1970. Ullman, the hotel manager, hired Grady as the caretaker, although he was hesitant to do so because Grady was an alcoholic…
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Stuart Ullman
The manager of the Overlook Hotel. Jack thinks that Ullman is an “officious little prick” the first time he meets him, and Ullman indeed admits he is a “bastard.” He takes his job running the…
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Howard Cottrell
A plow truck driver in Colorado. Hallorann loses control of his rental car when he passes Howard Cottrell’s plow on a snowy road on the way to the Overlook Hotel and buries his car in…
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Horace Derwent
A billionaire entrepreneur who bought and renovated the Overlook Hotel after World War II. Derwent throws the masquerade ball on the August night in 1945 that perpetually unfolds in the hotel’s ballroom, and when Jack…
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The Ghost of Room 217/Mrs. Massey
A former guest at the Overlook Hotel. Mrs. Massey checked into the hotel with her lover—a young man of about 17—sometime in the early 1970s, and her ghost is in the Colorado Lounge drinking Singapore…
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George Hatfield
One of Jack Torrance’s former students at Stovington Prep in Stovington, Vermont. George was on the debate team Jack coached at Stovington, but Jack cut him because he stuttered. After George was cut, Jack…
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Delores Vickery
A former maid at the Overlook Hotel. According to Hallorann, Delores had a “little shine to her” but didn’t know it. She was a “lazy goof-off” and spent most of her time hiding in…
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The Dogman/Roger
A guest at Horace Derwent’s masquerade ball at the Overlook Hotel in 1945. Roger is dressed in a dog costume, and he is very drunk. When Jack begins to go mad and hallucinate, he…
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Larry Durkin
The proprietor of the gas station in Sidewinder. Hallorann goes to Durkin’s station to rent a snowmobile the night Danny uses the shining to call Hallorann to the Overlook Hotel to save Danny and Wendy…
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The Sour-Faced Woman
A woman who sits next to Hallorann on the flight to Denver after Danny calls him back to the Overlook Hotel. The sour-faced woman sits with a stern expression and silently reads a book, talking…
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Watson
The maintenance man at the Overlook Hotel. Watson is the one to show Jack the hotel’s boiler and warn him that “it creeps.” Watson is a crass man, who swears too much and looks at…
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Dr. Edmonds
The doctor in Sidewinder to whom Wendy and Jack take Danny after they find him nearly catatonic in the bathroom at the Overlook Hotel. Danny tells Dr. Edmonds all about his ability to read people’s…
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Vittorio Gienelli
The mob boss who is gunned down in the Presidential Suite of the Overlook Hotel in 1966. Gienelli’s bodyguards are murdered as well, and Danny can see their blood and brain matter splattered on the…
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Aileen
Wendy’s sister. Aileen was struck by a car and killed when she was six years old and Wendy was 10. Wendy thinks about Aileen in the waiting room at Dr. Edmonds’s office, and…
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Minor Characters
Lloyd
The bartender Jack hallucinates in the Colorado Lounge at the Overlook Hotel. As Jack slips further into insanity, Lloyd serves him 20 martinis—all at once—presumably to get Jack drunk so the hotel can more easily convince him to kill Wendy and Danny.
