The Shining is full of allegory and mystery, but none are as wild and potentially insidious as the meaning behind The Shining bear scene. Stanley Kubrick's iconic Stephen King adaptation is intentionally cryptic. The scene with the bear suit seems absurd and grotesque even by the standards of the rest of the movie, but The Shining bear man does have a disturbing and specific implication. At first glance, the scene seems brief and somewhat inconsequential. The bear in The Shining has a lasting legacy, though — an especially unsettling moment in an already unsettling film.

In the scene, Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) is roaming through the halls of The Overlook Hotel with a knife when she approaches a door at the end of a long hallway. Inside, a man in a bear suit is performing fellatio on one of the Overlook's guests. Wendy seems to be thoroughly disturbed by this and runs away. Despite being strange and somewhat out of place, the bear scene exists in the Stephen King Shining book too, but in the novel, it's a man dressed as a dog. However, the animal suit scene in The Shining has symbolic relevance regardless of medium, bear or dog. Here's why.

The Shining's Bear Man Has Extremely Disturbing Implications

The Bear Scene In The Shining Movie May Symbolize Sexual Abuse

Film scholar Rob Ager delved into what Kubrick may have been implying with The Shining bear scene, and has provided one of the most thorough explorations. Stanley Kubrick's films are known for foreshadowing as well as leaving behind clues that all signify some kind of deeper meaning, usually tethered to psychological conditions, phenomena, or theory.

The Shining bear scene is no different, and, if Rob Ager's theory is correct, could explain the much darker nature of the relationship between Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) and his father, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson). It seems ridiculous on the surface, but Ager's in-depth analysis points to some very compelling evidence of sexual abuse.

One of the most persuasive is the reoccurrence of The Shining bear symbolism. During the scene where Danny is speaking to his psychiatrist, he is lying on stuffed bears. At The Overlook Hotel, there is a picture of two bears above Danny's bed, and there's a prominently featured bear skin rug in the lobby.

This provides a clear association between bears and Danny Torrance. Keen-eyed viewers have pointed out that the issue of Playgirl magazine Jack Torrance is reading has an article titled "Incest: Why Parents Sleep With Their Children" featured on the cover. Connecting the dots, the two figures seen in The Shining bear scene could be stand-ins for Danny and Jack.

What Really Happened in Room 237?

The Explanation For The Shining Bear Scene Also Ties To The Old Woman In The Bath

Danny's experience in Room 237 occurs when a ball rolls into the room, and Wendy then comes to his rescue after she hears his screaming, punctuated by his yells that a "crazy woman" strangled him. The Shining's Room 237 is known for having a female specter, as referenced when Jack encounters a woman in the bath. Ager suggests that Danny's experience in Room 237 was his way of externalizing his abuse and that it was his father who assaulted him instead. The ball itself is featured in another scene with Jack throwing it against a wall in the hotel lobby.

Ager cites Jack's experience in Room 237 as evidence that he's abusing his son. In his theory, he states that, inside the room, Jack is face-to-face with the truth of what he's been doing to Danny after having been in a dissociative state, previously unaware of his own horrific actions. All of this corresponds to Wendy's horrified reaction to seeing the bear in the hallway. Ager also suggests Wendy's response may or may not imply that she has realized, at that moment, what's been happening to Danny in The Shining. Ultimately, it's all speculative, but Ager's cogent proof unravels the mystery of The Shining bear scene all the same.

The Shining's Book Links The Bear Man To The Hotel's Owner

The Overlook Hotel Is Key To The Animal Costume In Stephen King's Shining Novel

The Shining's brief moment of intimacy between the man in the bear costume and his partner has a different context behind it in Stephen King's novel. In the book, the man dressed in a suit is actually Horace Derwent, the mysterious owner of the Overlook Hotel, and the man in the costume (which is a dog in the book) is Roger, a one-time lover of his. The novel provides Roger and Horace's story as an example of atrocities that have happened in the hotel.

In a cruel act of domination, Horace instructed Roger to attend one of the hotel's balls in costume and behave like a dog for the other guests. The sighting of the pair in the novel, then, doesn't have much to do with Danny and Jack Torrance, at least not as clearly as in Ager's film analysis. Either way though, The Shining bear scene is a haunting moment, as the dynamic between the two men is uncomfortable, to say the least.

Why The Shining Bear Wasn't In Doctor Sleep

Mike Flanagan Didn't Reference The Bear Scene In His Stanley Kubrick Sequel

Stephen King's Doctor Sleep follows an adult Danny Torrance after the events at The Overlook Hotel and his endeavor to find closure. In 2019, famed horror director Mike Flanagan brought the story to the big screen, starring Ewan McGregor in the titular role. That being said, The Shining bear didn't appear in the sequel. Flanagan purposefully decided to leave the ghost out, despite Doctor Sleep containing many ghosts from The Shining. While some fans felt this missed an opportunity to add some meaning to The Shining bear scene, Flanagan felt trying to give the bear from The Shining a backstory would disrupt the rest of the movie.

In an interview (via Huffington Post), Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan discussed why he didn't include this particular character, and his reasoning makes sense. Flanagan itted:

"I was afraid that once we brought him back, it evokes all the images from the original down to the open butt flap of the costume. Tonally, I didn’t know if the film would survive that kind of speed bump,"

It makes sense why Doctor Sleep didn't include The Shining bear man. While he may be one of the weirdest Overlook Hotel ghosts, Flanagan decided to keep all the ghosts that would've stuck with Danny the most, and that wasn't the man in the bear costume.

What The Shining Actor Brian V. Towns Says About The Bear Scene

The Cast Of The Shining Were Surprised By The Scene Too

In 2019, a short called The Shining: The Lost Interview arrived with actor Brian V. Towns (via YouTube). He appeared in The Shining bear scene as the regular person in the room with the man in the bear suit. He itted that when he was cast for the movie, he was told it was a small and "rather rude scene." He then reveals he was told the other actor would be a bear, although he said he knew it was a dog in the book. Towns said that Stanley Kubrick chose him from casting photos, and he flew into England to shoot the scenes.

When the time came, Towns was called in to practice one day, and he shot his scene the next. Towns said he and the actor in the bear suit, Eddie O'Dea, got along well, but they really had no idea what to expect from The Shining bear scene. Towns also stated that there was a mystery to the scene, and he always wondered why it was changed from a dog to a bear. He itted his character had an important backstory, but he was really interested in learning what that specific scene meant — such is the mystery of Kubrick's work that even one of the actors had no clue.

Theories About The Shining's Bear Man

The Moment Is One Of The Most Widely Discussed In The Shining

The Shining is one of the most widely discussed and analyzed movies in the history of cinema, and the Bear Man scene has been the focus of a particularly high level of intrigue. There have been many theories put forward over the years about what the Bear Man in The Shining means, and what he's supposed to represent. While the theory of implied sexual abuse has become incredibly prominent, this is far from the only interpretation.

A theory popular among those who've both read The Shining book and seen the movie is that the Bear Man is one of several ways the Overlook Hotel shows Jack some of the depraved acts that have taken place within its walls (keep in mind, the film was released in 1980 — while by today's standards such an act between two consenting adults wouldn't and shouldn't be considered horrifying, discourse around such subjects was incredibly different when Kubrick's movie was being developed).

This theory doesn't place much thematic weight on the moment, simply suggesting that the Bear Man scene is one of many spooky moments in The Shining, but that it doesn't have any hidden metaphorical weight. A similar theory that loosely ties into this is that everyone who dies in the Hotel becomes a ghost, with the implication being that the Bear Man, and the man he's performing a sexual act on, meet an unfortunate end shortly after the moment they're forever re-living as spirits when Jack encounters them.

There's also a theory that Kubrick intended The Shining to also be a commentary on the treatment of Native Americans. This theory puts forward that various scenes a metaphors for various aspects of the violence inflicted by the U.S. on them, such as the elevator full of blood representing the blood of Native tribes massacred during the colonial violence. The Bear Man scene in this interpretation supposedly represents the forced submissiveness of Native Americans due to the laws imposed on them by the ever-expanding United States.

The Shining Has Some Other Major Unanswered Mysteries

The Bear Scene Isn't The Only Question Raised By Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

Outside of The Shining Bear scene, the movie is full of many other unanswered mysteries too. Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining is replete with enigmatic elements that have perplexed viewers for decades. Central among these is the haunting figure in Room 237. While Ager explains the woman in his sexual abuse hypothesis, she still goes unexplained if viewers don't subscribe to his theory. The nature and limitations of Danny's "shining" ability, too, remain shrouded in mystery, especially concerning its influence on the hotel's supernatural occurrences. The film also diverges from the novel in its inclusion of the hedge maze, central to its climax but layered in ambiguity.

Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining is replete with enigmatic elements that have perplexed viewers for decades.

Is the maze a symbol of the labyrinthine minds, the confusing age of time, or another mystery altogether? Additionally, The Shining ending concludes with a photograph from 1921, depicting Jack at an Overlook Hotel party, raising puzzling questions about reincarnation and Jack's ties to the hotel's history. These unanswered questions not only amplify the film's eerie atmosphere but ensure its enduring allure and continuous debate among fans and critics. A whole documentary film dedicated to the endless mysteries of The Shining, Room 237, was released in 2012, and exp, but they will never be definitively answered.