Summary

• The Shining made significant changes from the novel, creating its own horror masterpiece that doesn't feel like a typical adaptation.
• Room 237 in the film is where Danny and Jack encounter a ghostly woman, but her true identity remains unclear, leading to different theories.
• Theories suggest that the woman in room 237 could be the mother of the Grady twins, Bob T. Watson's wife or sister, or represent sexual abuse within the story.

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining has been the subject of countless theories due to its symbolism, ambiguities, the changes made to the original novel, and more, and among the biggest questions around it is what happened in room 237 – and here are the theories on whom the woman there could be. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, The Shining took the basic idea of King’s novel but made significant changes to it that ultimately made the movie its own thing, and it doesn’t really feel like an adaptation of the novel. The Shining tells the story of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a struggling writer who takes a position as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel.

Thanks to Danny’s mysterious psychic abilities, the supernatural forces inhabiting the Overlook Hotel begin to awaken and start messing with Jack’s sanity, leaving Wendy and Danny fighting for their lives. The Overlook had different ways of messing with the Torrances which makes it a great horror movie. It did so mostly through different ghosts, such as what happened in room 237, where Danny and Jack interacted with a ghostly woman, both with scary results – and her identity has also been the subject of different theories and interpretations of what The Shining is truly about.

Who Is The Woman In Room 237 In Stephen King’s Book?

In Stephen King’s The Shining novel, room 237 is actually room 217, and it was changed for the movie as the hotel used for the aerial exterior shots requested that the number be changed for the nonexistent room 237. The woman in King’s novel is Lorraine Massey, who used to seduce bellboys and engage in sexual acts with them. Lorraine was the wife of a prominent New York lawyer, but during her stay at the Overlook, she was with a younger man. When he abandoned her, Lorraine died by suicide in the bathroom, and her ghost stayed there. Lorraine’s ghost could have physical interactions with the guests. Danny and Jack encountered her.

Danny’s encounter happened by accident – or not so much given the force of the hotel itself – as a ball rolled to him from room 217. Danny was lured into the room, where, he later recounted, he came across a “crazy woman” who tried to strangle him. Jack later entered the room to see if Danny’s claims were true, and they turned out to be worse than he could have imagined. Jack found Lorraine in the bathtub, and he heard her following him as he left the room. Lorraine’s ghost returned at the beginning of Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, where young Danny continued to be haunted by her but now at his home in Florida.

The encounter of Jack with the woman is changed in Kubrick’s The Shining. What happened in room 237 is that she appears as a beautiful, young woman. She came out from the bath and kissed Jack, but when he turned to the mirror, he saw that she transformed into an ugly, rotten old woman, who once Jack pulled away from their embrace, started laughing maniacally and chased a frightened Jack. However, it’s unclear if the woman in room 237 in Kubrick’s movie is also Lorraine Massey, and this has made way for some theories on who she really is and how she connects with Jack and Danny’s story.

The Shining Theory: The Woman In Room 237 Is The Mother Of the Grady Twins

One theory about the identity of the woman in room 237 in The Shining links her to Charles Grady and the Grady twins. The Overlook’s manager, Stuart Ullman, tells Jack that the previous caretaker, Charles Grady, succumbed to cabin fever (or so the authorities said) and killed his family before committing suicide, all this while in the hotel. As a result, two of the ghosts in the Overlook Hotel are the Grady twins, who in The Shining only appear to Danny – first when he’s playing in the game room and the twins walk in and silently leave, and later when Danny is riding his tricycle through the hotel’s halls.

When he reaches the end of the corridor, the Grady twins appear, inviting him to play with them and be friends forever. After that, Danny has horrible visions of the bloody corpses of the twins in the same spot where they were murdered. The identity of the mother of the Grady twins isn’t revealed, but as the ghosts of the girls are trapped in the Overlook Hotel, it wouldn’t be surprising if the ghost of their mother was there too, maybe in the bathtub of room 237, where she was killed by her husband.

The Shining Theory: The Woman In Room 237 Is Bob T. Watson's Wife Or Sister

Less than a theory, and more of a what could have been, in the Shining prequel that was going to be made, the history of the Overlook Hotel was the main story. Glen Mazzara was writing the script, and he admitted that they had come up with an idea of what happened in room 237 that wasn't in the Stephen King novel or hinted at in the Stanley Kubrick movie. In this case, Mazarra said the woman in the room was either Sarah, the wife of Bob T. Watson, who built the hotel, or her sister Eliza.

According to Mazzara, Eliza showed up to help her sister and brother-in-law build the "grandest hotel the world has ever seen." However, Bob drowned his wife Sarah in the bathtub and then went to kill his son Richard. Eliza had already left when Bob went on his murder spree and when she returned, it was under new ownership and no one knew anything about what happened to Sarah. Eliza then stays in room 237 and her sister returns as a ghost and drowns her in the bathtub. This means that the ghost that Danny and Jack encountered could be either Sarah or Eliza. However, this is about the unmade prequel and not Kubrick's movie or King's story.

The Shining Theory: The Woman In Room 237 Represents Abuse

Another theory on what happened in room 237 connects the woman to the darkest interpretation of the story of Jack and Danny (via Movies Up Close). Throughout The Shining, it’s mentioned that Jack was physically abusive to his family, and he once broke Danny’s arm. This, along with details in Danny’s clothes, his toys, the way he interacts with Jack, and the disturbing scene of a hotel guest being fellated by a man dressed as a bear have made way for the theory about The Shining being about Jack sexually abusing his son.

As what happens to Danny inside room 237 isn’t shown, it has been theorized that Danny was abused by Jack in that room, and he made up the attack of the “crazy lady” as a result of the trauma and as a way to cope with it. The scene where Jack interacts with the woman in room 237, then, is also a creation of Danny’s mind, and it’s his version of the molestation as he telepathically tells Dick Hallorann about it, so Jack is the “crazy lady.” The Shining left many things open for interpretation, so ultimately, it’s up to every viewer to decide if the woman in room 237 is Lorraine Massey as in the book or someone else.