An Effective Strategy in Writing the Alfred Hitchcock & Stephen King

 

In The Shining the would-be writer who must maintain an abandoned hotel in winter is a family man with a wife and son. His condition might be our own. As Jeff is trapped inside his world, so Jack Torrance is trapped inside the Outlook.

Both characterizations, Jeff and Jack, share another similar trait in the writing of Hitchcock and King, both deal with men who are either afraid to commit to women or are in unhappy relationships with them. Jeff is afraid to commit to marriage. He thinks all women want is a "new dress, a lobster dinner, and the latest scandal," but he is proven wrong (Hitchcock 1954). Jeff's inhibitions over committing to marriage are in contrast to the female troubles suffered by Jack Torrance. Jack has an antagonistic and abusive relationship with his wife. When the bartender he imagines informs him women are something you can neither live with or without, Jack replies "Words of wisdom?words of wisdom" (King 1977). Such common characters and universal situations create greater empathy with the predicaments of Hitchcock and King characters, thereby adding to our suspense and tension when reading or viewing their experiences.

The use of humor is also prevalent in the works of both Hitchcock and King. In Rear Window, Hitchcock (1954) begins the story with the inscription on the cast of Jeffries: "Here lie the bones of L. B. Jeffries." The humor not only refers to his broken bones, but it also refers to his inability to get close to other characters. In Hitchcock and King the use of humor is often used to build suspense. It will be Jeffries' broken bones that make it impossible for him to get away from the murderer who eventually tries to kill him when he is alone. In Dolores Claiborne, Dolores explains her employer's inability to make a bowel movement which makes the police officers laugh, "The dirty old bag had her a shit savings account, and it was like some weeks she banked it in order to collect the interest?only I was the one who got all the withdrawals. I got em whether I wanted em or not," (King 1993). However, despite the humor, albeit juvenile, involved, the point is to demonstrate that the woman Dolores is accused of murdering gave her shit both literally and figuratively. This builds the tension because it makes us wonder if Dolores was so dehumanized in her inferior position as employee that she may have killed her.

 

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