Comparative Analysis: The Symbolism of The Red Color in Stanley Kubrick’s “the Shining” and “eyes Wide Shut”

 SAE Institute Belgrade

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS: THE SYMBOLISM OF THE RED COLOR IN STANLEY KUBRICK’S “THE SHINING” AND “EYES WIDE SHUT”

Želmira Mikljan

Student number: BGD 10155

Course code: 502 Y2 1014

Date of submission:  8 December 2014

Word count: 3503

I hereby declare that I wrote this thesis on my own and without the use of any other than the cited sources and tools and all explanations that I copied directly or in their sense are marked as such, as well as that the assignment has not yet been handed in neither in this nor in equal form at any other official commission.

December 8, 2014, Belgrade, Zelmira Mikljan

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(Date, Place, Signature)

ABSTRACT

        In this comparative analysis I am going to represent the use of the red color and its symbolism in two Stanley Kubrick’s film:  “The Shining” and “Eyes Wide Shut”. What does the red color represents? What is the symbolism behind that color? Why did he chose that color for a particular scene?  Which emotions and thoughts is this color causing while watching his films? Those are answers I am going to explore. I will focus on the use of the red color in the scenes and make correlation to its symbolic meaning.  In this research will be used Carl Jung’s method for symbol analysis. The final results will show that there is no universal symbolism and meaning of the red color in Kubrick’s films, but it may present the opposities and have contradictory meaning. It can represents both love and death, passion and aggressiveness, Eros and Thanatos, depending on the context ic certain situation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION        

“THE SHINING”        

"EYES WIDE SHUT"…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6

CONCLUSION        

REFERENCE LIST        

BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………  .11

INTRODUCTION

                In this paper, two movies will be compared – “The Shining” and “Eyes Wide Shut” from the same director, Stanley Kubrick. As all Kubrick’s films, both films are full of symbolic and hidden meanings. In this analysis, it will be spoken about use of the red color in symbolic purposes. Both films are full of scenes rich with red color. But symbolism is different. Stanley Kubrick is one of the most famous film directors who likes to play with symbols and hidden meanings. He reveals the darkest side of the human psyche in both films, and he serves that to the audience through the symbols – images, signs, colors, clues. It can be said that in the Shining he represents the Thanatos, death, and in the Eyes Wide Shut he’s representing the Eros, love and passion, and he does this in many of the cases through the same color.