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Dark Atmospheres In H. P Lovecraft's Short Stories

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Introduction H.P Lovecraft was an American author of macabre fiction, in the early 20th century, and is widely known for his atmospheric short stories. Influenced from a young age by Gothic stories and his own Nightmares, Lovecraft went on to write thousands of correspondence letters, hundreds of poems and several short stories in his short lifespan of forty-six years. Writing in the early 20th century, in the dawn of a new era of literary language, Lovecraft purposely adopted a writing style heavily stylised with archaic words from old English, and concentrated on using sophisticated vocabulary to describe eerie scenes with dark atmospheres. It was only after his early death, that Lovecraft became recognised for his short stories characterised …show more content…

Instead of being victims of “an irruption of the inadmissible”, they are rather the ones to throw themselves and make an irruption in spheres which should have remained unknown to mankind. In The shadow over Innsmouth , for instance, the main character embarks onto a trip to discover the ancient town of Innsmouth in spite of repeated hints and warnings that he should avoid it as it is a place of “decay and desolation”. He dismisses those warnings which could impress “uninquiring souls” but for him are “merely a fresh incentive”. The main character of Dagon is at first in a passive situation, alone at sea in a small boat after an escape from war enemies. From a certain point in the story, however, leading up to the horrific discovery of an unknown world, he “sets out boldly for an unknown goal”. “Urged on by an impulse which (he) cannot definitely analyse”, he makes his way up and down rocks, until he gazes “into the Stygian deeps where no light had yet penetrated.” Later on, the protagonist describes himself as “dazed and frightened, yet not without a certain thrill of the scientist's or archaeologist's delight” . In The Nameless City, the main character recognizes: “When I drew nigh the nameless city I knew it was accursed. (…) A viewless aura bade me retreat from antique and sinister secrets that no man should see, and no man else had ever dared to see. ” Yet he defies all

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