In Stephen King’s The Shining, Wendy is one of the main characters. She is wife of Jack and mother of Danny. Like many of King’s female characters, Wendy is a traditional wife and mother, who is described as pretty. She has some psychological problems. She is always unconsciously competing with her mother, who resented Wendy for the death of a younger sister, and who has derided her choice of Jack as a husband and criticizes the way Wendy is raising her son, Danny.
Wendy uneasily observes and voices internal worries about the whole situation when her husband moves the family into an old haunted hotel for the winter, after he is hired as the hotel caretaker for the winter.
She tries to be patient and understanding with her husband but has little pity or forgiveness for him. She is always reminding him of his failures. Wendy has put up with abuse from her husband, Jack, for many years. Her marriage is on the rocks because of Jack’s violence. She seems more fearful of what his drunken rages might lead to in relation to their young son than what he might do to her. She has good reason for these fears because when Danny was three years old Jack broke the child’s arm in a fit of anger. Wendy is in constant fear that Jack’s temper will be provoked, possibly leading to him being unable to stop himself from destroying both the child and her. Despite all this, she is committed to her husband, but only when this commitment does not conflict with her loyalty to her son.
Wendy realizes her husband has gone insane but knows nothing of the power that the Overlook Hotel exerts over him. She barricaded herself in their quarters, when Jack, in a psychotic rage, shatters the door with an axe, attacking and severely wounding her.