Idiomatically, saying that someone is “part of the furniture” is to say that someone or something has been a part of something for so long it’s become permanent, unquestioned, or an invisible aspect.
It is to say “fish don’t know they’re wet”.
The slumped over mattresses, the bags of rumpled clothes, the rugs being carried down the stairs. While the reality of a hotel might have these objects, we’re watching a constructed environment which does not need to include them to give the feeling of “real hotel”.
What we’re witnesses is symbolic. We’re shown dirty rumpled clothes right before we’re shown the murdered Grady girls.
This theme also relates to the objects that ‘strip away’ as the film goes on. Objects within The Colorado Lounge and The West Wing Living Quarters are removed for specific scenes. Arguably for Kubrick to focus on the imagery in the shot, but it also communicates a “stripping away” of artifice in the life of the characters. What’s warm and personable during the Closing Day sequences becomes stark and austere during the scene where Wendy accuses Jack of giving Danny bruises. It’s the same space but far less furnishings.
In this image · No.6
People as furniture.