H. P. Lovecraft: A Horror In Higher Dimensions

In Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “The Damned Thing,” specific writing choices allow the reader into believing the unimaginable. The use of literary devices is essential to illustrate what the narrator and the reader cannot see. In doing so, the terms used to articulate the indescribable are thought-provoking. How do humans view the natural world? Throughout the section on page 47, “Shadows of Carcosa,” Bierce shatters the quintessential monster archetype, by creating a beast that the human eye cannot see. Through the use of descriptive language, characters, setting, style and tone, Bierce produces a piece of work that goes against the normative horror story.

In the gothic the way characters appear are influenced by societies fears and uncanny feeling of the unknown. This changes the way their personas are perceived while reading these stories. Both in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the short story The outside by H.P Lovecraft it is shown how the author use appearance to demonstrate the arbitrary and immoral boundaries of society. Both characters are feared by society because they represent the repression that has come out. In the movie Frankenstein, the ‘monster’ is made up of different body parts from dead corpses who in the past life where criminal and sick with viruses.

“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win”(King). Stephen King is one of the most famous horror fiction writers in history, with such classic works as The Shining and It on his resume. However, King would be nothing if it weren’t for the tortured, Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849). Poe’s works seem to project the monsters and ghosts which lived inside him, through his awful, short life. Poe writings are woven tightly with language holding hidden meanings and psychological anguish. Argumentary the most famous work of Poe is The Fall of the House of Usher(The House of Usher), as the short story incorporates every trope of modern horror, important among these is the setting. A nameless narrator

“You’ve just crossed over into The Twilight Zone” says Rod Serling before every episode of The Twilight Zone. A show that leaves it’s viewers in a macabre state. Instead of drawing a conclusion like most shows, the show usually ends mysteriously. It utilizes similar elements as other short half-hour shows, but goes about it in a different way. This outlandish style is seen in literature, more specifically short stories, as well. Even though other short stories employ the same literary devices, “The Beast In The Cave” by H.P. Lovecraft is uniquely mysterious because of the story’s suspenseful plot, compelling diction, and, most important, overshadowing theme.

David Cronenberg’s The Fly and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are both majorly influential works that both explore the concepts of self-actualization and inner-monstrosity. Cronenberg and Shelley use mirrors and reflections as a device for their monsters to self-reflect and adopt the monstrous traits they see depicted in the mirror. Both monsters are blissfully unaware of their monstrous characteristics until they look upon themselves in their reflection, which ultimately leads to their self-actualization of the monster persona society perceives them as. Reflections serve as a powerful narrative tool in both “The Fly” and “Frankenstein” capturing Seth Brundle and the creature’s internal struggles with grappling with their monstrous identities.

“But I am not wholly sorry; either for this or for the loss in undreamable abysses of the closely written sheets which alone could have explained the music of Erich Zann.” (Lovecraft).

But without a doubt, this story, though simplistic in its plot and scare factor, has potential thought value that can be critiqued and analyzed. Perhaps, my own background of cave spelunking seated a more powerful attachment to this particular story, but before I explore the reader response theories of “The Beast in the Cave,” let me give you some background about the author taken from the brief biography by Joshi, renowned as the foremost historian of Lovecraft.

Taking into account the previous descriptions and the definitions of horror and terror we will try to identify which of these stories presents horror and which one may be said to go deeper by portraying terror. The Pit and the pendulum is characterized by having a narrator who seems in absolute use of his mental faculties. As it is mentioned above, this character is aware of what is happening around him and by having a peak of his logical thoughts and feelings the reader experiences the struggle of the narrator to stay alive in a much more personal way. The fact that this character is sane, integrated and coherent in his thinking is one of the reasons why the reader may sense the terror of the story on a whole other level.

The book Frankenstein, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Heart of Darkness, and Turn of the Screw, display a complexity of madness in different fashions. Reading Meditation in a Toolshed by C.S. Lewis gives the ability to change perspectives on the theme and opens up new windows on how the theme applies to the books and to real life. Meditation in a Toolshed plays a momentous role for understanding the theme of madness in different perspectives, inhibiting the ability to further further progress one's understanding of the connections between the theme of madness, the characters, and life. In the book Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein's madness proves to be the foundation of the book.

H.P. Lovecraft wrote the short story, “The Dunwich horror,” in 1928 and had it published in april of 1929. He has written other works such as “The Call of Cthulhu,” “Dagon,” “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” “The Colour Out of Space,” and “From Beyond.” Many common themes within his work are non human influences on humanity and forbidden knowledge. In many of his stories there are unknown creatures that cause humans to go insane. Also, his short stories have curiosity of the unknown. H.P Lovecraft likes to write about science fiction and mythology. Most of his pieces have mythological creatures that he either makes up or learns about from other cultures. In “The Dunwich Horror” he uses characterization to build up the suspense and views from each

As important compositions of the Cthulhu mythos created by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, both “The Call of Cthulhu” and At the Mountains of Madness employ first person narration. Lovecraft employs a common technique of horror literature in these two stories: characters attempt to interpret abnormal phenomena with rational explanations, and horror is created when the characters fail to achieve their purpose. In these two stories, the narrators are both highly driven by curiosity, and they are enthusiastic about what they explore. However, two narrators are both unwilling to solve what they have learned ultimately. Through the alternation of the subjective attitudes of narrators, Lovecraft argues that human curiosity can cause unexpected and dreadful

For centuries, stories of monsters, demons and other unholy abominations have brought fear to the hearts of audiences in commercially convenient doses. Noel Carroll, Ph.D., in his article “The Nature of Horror”, argues that the existence of monsters and supernatural entities alone do not define a horror novel or film “for monsters inhabit all sorts of stories, such as fairy tales, myths, and odysseys, that we are not wont to identify as horror” (Carroll). One can therefore infer that the absence of such creatures in either media can absolutely still yield a work in the Horror fiction genre.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birth-mark,” and H.P. Lovecraft’s horror story, “The Call of Cthulhu,” there are both similarities in themes and style, however, their characterization and narration is entirely different. This lends itself to creating two different short stories, both can be classified as horror or suspenseful. Hawthorne’s story, published earlier, shares a similar theme of humanity and union with “The Call of Cthulhu.” The documentary style of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story contrasts with the less personal feel of “The Birth mark.” Finally, the characterization of both the birth mark and Cthulhu create the stories and give them purpose and meaning, while acting as heavy symbols for the purpose of extending and building a fuller, more intense plot.

In “The Call of Cthulhu,” H.P. Lovecraft makes use of a more psychological horror path, which is a major aspect of Lovecraftian horror. Psychological horror uses more suspense build up and shock than blood and gore. H.P. Lovecraft accomplishes this by using a buildup of suspense, not revealing the ‘monster’ till the end while hinting at what the ‘monster’ is throughout the story. H.P. Lovecraft writes the main character following his great uncle's manuscript and piecing together the puzzle of “the Great Ones.” H.P. Lovecraft also creates the sense of suspense by making the main character’s inner dialogue contain the main characters emotions and thoughts of suspect. Another example of the use of psychological horror is when Henry Anthony Wilcox dreams of “the Great Ones,” and experiences a period of mental breakdown that physicians could not identify. Once Henry Anthony Wilcox came out of the episode he remembered nothing, creating a shock factor, and making the reader ask “how did that happen?”

Positing two possibilities, this article looks at the open world that Lovecraft created as well as his lesser known but masterful long essay on the history of gothic literature. Lovecraft’s world was one of the first to be picked up by other authors and expanded. The