In The Eye Of The Unknown: The Dunwich Horror

In the Eye of the Unknown
The Dunwich horror written by H.P Lovecraft is a short horror story following “most of” the life of Wilbur Whateley. This story takes us through mystery and deep into the fear of the unknown. With this story we get a small glimpse, a perspective from the narrator into what else could possibly lie beyond. Perhaps the most horrifying thing about this story is not all the death and chaos, but simply not knowing the source of all of this chaos, which leads imagination and fear to run riot. The central theme of this story, is how humans respond to whatever “horror” they are confronted with. The story begins with the birth of Wilbur Whateley, his mother is the daughter of a man known as Wizard Whateley. Wizard Whateley

Dr Armitage only knew of Wilbur’s intentions and what he saw occur. Now, generally speaking seeing a mutated man with tails and extra eyes on the body would be enough to make one believe in the supernatural, however, Wilbur is dead and the threat needs to be dealt with. Luckily for the town of Dunwich, Dr Armitage did his research because the supernatural occurrences in Dunwich have gotten progressively worse since Wilbur’s death. Large footprints have appeared in the ground bigger than a bear’s and houses are being obliterated from existence as well as the families within them. Chanting and other strange noises can be heard from the hills at night, the storms grow worse and worse with the clouds becoming so dense one could hardly see in front of themselves. It is worth noting how differently the people of Dunwich respond versus Dr. Armitage. The people of Dunwich are just as afraid as anyone but prefer to hide in their homes instead of facing whatever horror lies beyond. Meanwhile, Dr. Armitage is willing to push himself to the limit to try and save mankind even when pressed with the same fear plaguing everyone else. This really goes to show that when presented with something unknown or frightening, people can respond in very different ways depending on who they

Either they will hide themselves away and try to avoid this uncomfortable situation like the people of Dunwich; or like Dr. Armitage people will obsess over what they are afraid of and will go to any lengths to try and fight it back, even if it risks one’s own life. When it came to men like Wizard Whateley the people of Dunwich avoided him, they talked behind his back but tried their best to leave him out their life and minds. When it came to Dr Armitage he obsessed for weeks over Wilbur and was terrified, this fear within him drove him to madness as he poured through books and ancient texts looking for a way to stop whatever Wilbur planned to unleash upon the world. The very act of not knowing leads people to do radical things, like change their entire belief system when confronted with something like death. The main theme of The Dunwich Horror is how people respond to the unknown, and how people will respond in many different ways when confronted with such