Mrs. Brant

Mrs. Brant is a wealthy, imperious guest at the Overlook Hotel on closing day, whose loud dispute over credit card policy and her subsequent death by overdose illustrate the hotel's cycle of scandal, the manager's skill at suppression, and the transient, morally compromised nature of the clientele that has haunted the Overlook's history.

Identity and Arrival

Mrs. Brant is a formidable, elderly woman who has been a returning guest at the Overlook since 1955. She is described as a "dreadnought of a woman" bundled into a long fur coat and what looks like a black feather boa. Her second husband died of a stroke on the hotel's roque court, a fact she mentions without apparent grief, noting only that she had warned him the sun was too hot that day. On closing day, she creates a public scene at the front desk, loudly refusing to pay her bill with anything but her American Express card, despite being told the hotel stopped accepting it the previous year. She threatens to have the police called rather than use another card, embodying a sense of entitlement that the hotel's management is accustomed to handling.

Confrontation and Resolution

Stuart Ullman, the manager, intervenes. He touches Mrs. Brant's elbow deferentially, listens sympathetically, and says something that causes her to smile triumphantly. She then loudly declares that at least one employee of the hotel has not become an "utter Philistine." Ullman leads her away to his inner office, and she emerges looking vindicated. Danny Torrance, observing the scene, immediately perceives that Ullman was only pretending to like her, a judgment his father confirms with the remark that "flattery is the stuff that greases the wheels of the world." The incident demonstrates Ullman's skill at managing difficult, wealthy guests and preserving the hotel's veneer of decorum.

Death and Aftermath

Mrs. Brant's story does not end with her departure. Watson, the maintenance man, later recounts to Jack Torrance the full, sordid tale. Mrs. Brant had arrived at the hotel with a much younger man, no more than seventeen, whom she passed off as her husband. Each evening, she would drink Singapore slings in the Colorado Lounge while the boy nursed a single bottle of Olympia beer. After several days, the boy disappeared in his Porsche, ostensibly to get her stomach medicine. Mrs. Brant, growing paler, refused Ullman's offer to notify the state police. She spent the afternoon drinking alone, went to her room, and was found dead the next morning. The county coroner ruled she had taken about thirty sleeping pills on top of all the alcohol. Her actual husband, a prominent New York lawyer, arrived and threatened to sue. Ullman, however, managed to quiet him, likely by threatening to expose the scandal of his wife's relationship with a teenage boy. The coroner's verdict was changed to accidental death, and he was later seen driving a new Chrysler. The chambermaid who later found Mrs. Brant's body in the bathroom claimed to have seen her ghost, leading to her dismissal.

Narrative Role and Significance

Mrs. Brant functions as a concentrated example of the Overlook's dark underbelly. Her story, told by Watson, confirms his earlier assertion that "any big hotels have got scandals" and "just like every big hotel has got a ghost." She represents the transient, morally compromised clientele that has passed through the hotel, leaving behind a residue of death, cover-up, and scandal. Her death, and Ullman's efficient suppression of it, foreshadows the hotel's own capacity for concealment and its parasitic relationship with the powerful and the desperate. Danny's ability to read Mrs. Brant's thoughts—specifically her desire to "get into" the uniformed driver's pants—also serves as an early, comic demonstration of his psychic "shining" ability, contrasting with the darker, more threatening visions to come.