Wendy Torrance

Winnifred (or Winifred) "Wendy" Torrance is a fictional character and protagonist of the 1977 horror novel The Shining by the American writer Stephen King. She also appears in the prologue of Doctor Sleep, a 2013 sequel to The Shining.

Wendy Torrance
The Shining character
First appearance	The Shining (1977 novel)
Last appearance	Doctor Sleep (2019 film)
Created by	Stephen King
Portrayed by	Shelley Duvall (1980) Rebecca De Mornay (1997) Kelly Kaduce (2016) Alex Essoe (2019)
In-universe information
Full name	Winnifred "Wendy" Torrance
Spouses	Jack Torrance (husband)
Children	Danny Torrance (son)

She is portrayed by Shelley Duvall in the 1980 film adaptation of the novel directed by Stanley Kubrick, played by Rebecca De Mornay in the 1997 television miniseries directed by Mick Garris and portrayed by Alex Essoe in the 2019 film adaptation of Doctor Sleep directed by Mike Flanagan.

Unlike her husband Jack Torrance's case, Wendy's background isn't very much revealed in the novel, but it mentions her having a bad relationship with her emotionally abusive mother.[1] In the film version, the character is much less nuanced than in the book and in the miniseries (written by King himself), where she appears as a "central" character,[2] so much so that some critics have spoken openly about "two different versions of Wendy Torrance".[3] Stephen King has often stated that Wendy's submissiveness is one of the main reasons for his aversion to Kubrick's film.[4] Writer Chelsea Quinn Yarbro also criticized Wendy's "weakness" as portrayed in the novel, attributing it to King's general inability to paint convincing female characters.[5]

Other critics have spoken of the novel's Wendy as a "modern Gothic heroine",[6] although not stereotyped.[7]

References

1. Dale Bailey (1999). American Nightmares: The Haunted House Formula in American Popular Fiction. Popular Press. p. 95. ISBN 9780879727895.
2. Cartmell, Deborah (1997). Trash Aesthetics: Popular Culture and Its Audience. Pluto Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7453-1202-6.
3. "these two dramatically differing versions of Wendy Torrance - the female who remains always a victim trapped in a psychotic cycle dictated by her husband, versus the assertive, independent woman who deliberately separates herself from the madness of masculinity" (Tony Magistrale, Stephen King: America's Storyteller, Santa Barbara, Praeger, , 2010, p. 127)
4. Laura Miller, What Stanley Kubrick got wrong about “The Shining”, Salon.com, October 2, 2013; "Shelley Duvall as Wendy is really one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film, she’s basically just there to scream and be stupid and that’s not the woman that I wrote about" (Catherine Shoard, Stephen King damns Shelley Duvall's character in film of The Shining, "The Guardian", September 19, 2013; "The movie is so misogynistic, - he told Rolling Stone in 2014 - I mean, Wendy Torrance is just presented as this sort of screaming dish rag" (Andy Greene, Flashback: Shelley Duvall and Stanley Kubrick Battle Over The Shining, "Rolling Stone", November 17. 2016)
5. Cinderella's revenge: twists on fairy tale themes in the work of Stephen King, in Fear itself the horror fiction of Stephen King, San Francisco, Underwood-Miller, 1982
6. Dale Bailey, American Nightmares: The Haunted House Formula in American Popular Fiction, University of Wisconsin Press 1999, p. 92; Douglas E Winter, Stephen King, the art of darkness, New York, New American Library, 1984, p. 48
7. Heidi Strengell, Dissecting Stephen King: From the Gothic to Literary Naturalism, University of Wisconsin Press 2006, p. 99

Further reading

• Jackie Eller, Wendy Torrance, One of King's Women: A Typology of King's Female Characters, in Tony Magistrale, The Shining Reader, Mercer Island, Starmont House, 1991