Cosmic Horror In Dagon, By H. P. Lovecraft

Throughout his life, H.P. Lovecraft struggled with mental health issues and nightmares in which he claimed to have seen monsters that would later become a part of his literary mythos. In his stories, unnatural creatures are used to demonstrate the terror that the vast unknown contains. Lovecraft uses the styles of weird and cosmic horror to convey the fear of the characters in his stories. Weird horror is a type of horror that uses nontraditional monsters and settings to evoke fear. Cosmic horror relies on the fear of the unknown, oftentimes using ancient gods, insanity, and extraterrestrials to communicate its fear. Lovecraft creates fear with imagery of the ocean and its creatures. In “Dagon”, the narrator wakes up in a mysterious location

He describes it as “putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish” (Lovecraft, “Dagon” 5). The fish smell makes the area more intimidating and presents a need for the narrator to escape. Later, while exploring to find a way out, the narrator comes across a large statue that depicts humanoid fish creatures. While observing the statue, a creature matching those on the statue appears from a nearby river. Upon seeing it, he goes insane. The sheer terror he feels from its appearance alone is enough to cause a crippling fear that leads him to becoming a morphine addict and commiting suicide. In “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, the people of Innsmouth have mixed with an immortal race of amphibious sea monsters. This causes the people to develop features similar to the monsters as they age, eventually joining them in the ocean. The narrator travels through Innsmouth on his way

Williams describes this by comparing it to traditional horror, stating that “the focus is not necessarily on how the monster itself is, but on what the existence of the monster means … Lovecraft creates a tale in which readers are not most afraid of the monster but what the monster’s existence signifies” (Williams, “Weird” 11). Williams cites Lovecraft’s treatment of Cthulhu in as an example. In “The Call of Cthulhu”, Johansen encounters Cthulhu. In his later writings, Johansen states that “The Thing [Cthulhu] cannot be described—there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order” (Lovecraft, “Cthulhu” 68). By not describing Cthulhu’s physical appearance, Lovecraft is able to develop Cthulhu as a being from beyond Earth and far more powerful than humanity. Similarly, in “Dagon”, the fish creature is vaguely described as “vast, Polyphemus-like, and loathsome” (Lovecraft, “Dagon” 15). By limiting its description, Lovecraft shows the narrator’s fear and refusal to focus on the events of the