The Outsider Literary Analysis

“I did not shriek, but all the fiendish ghouls that ride the night-wind shrieked for me as in that same second there crashed down upon my mind a single fleeting avalanche of soul-annihilating memory.” This quote, one of many unnerving passages in Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s “The Outsider” is one that would most likely not be found in any category but the famed horror genre. “The Outsider” is about a being who is “trapped” inside a castle with barely any recollection of its past. In a quick decision, it decides to break out of its own prison to find light. The thing manages to escape out of a “tower” that was all but accessible, and into a field that strangely resembles a graveyard. Then it makes way to an elegant home, and crashes a party.

What can put a story over the edge, however, is an element of the supernatural. In “What is the Horror Genre?” the reader learns that “Sometimes the supernatural is the result of the way the central character sees the world.” This statement helps define that if “The Outsider” was being told from the point of view of one of the escaped socializers, it would be much more of a supernatural tale. But that doesn’t mean that “The Outsider” is not about the supernatural. On lines 194 to 198, the author states: “Nearly mad, I found myself yet able to throw out a hand to ward off the foetid apparition which pressed so close; when in one cataclysmic second of nightmarishness and hellish accident my fingers touched the rotting outstretched paw of the monster beneath the golden arch.” Through deeper thought, the reader may realize that the “golden arch” is a mirror, and the use of apparition suggests a ghost, or something that is undead. Evidently, it becomes rather obvious to the reader that the narrator is some ghoulish being. These ideas help illustrate why the congregation of party people were so frightened, as well as why the creature lived in such a morbid environment. The thought of the supernatural also helps be a benefactor in establishing “The Outsider” as a prominent short story in the horror