H. P. Lovecraft Essays

  • The Shadow Over Innsmouth Sparknotes

    2760 Words  | 12 Pages

    Was H. P. Lovecraft true to his time or a racist? H. P. Lovecraft was mainly known for his unique horror stories but today he is known for more. A review of his publications will shed light on the initial question. While Lovecraft lived and wrote in a time when the social environment oppressed those who were not white, his writing could reveal a more extreme view. For example, in “The Call of Cthulhu”, the main character of the story judges people who are not white and thinks less of them. Additionally

  • H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos

    612 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story, Lovecraft exhibits a universe where humankind is not alone and displays them as frail, which can further assert his opinions on the world. “Although the 'Cthulhu Mythos' includes such trappings as common names, places, gods, and so forth, how a story evokes horror is what qualifies it as part of the ‘mythos’.” H. P. Lovecraft was adept at providing eerie details to the point of causing shivers and illustrating all the things in need of explanation. Lovecraft blended his ability

  • Social Isolation In H. P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror

    1809 Words  | 8 Pages

    Lovecraft and Social Isolation H.P. Lovecraft is one of the most renowned horror authors, perhaps most well-known for the creatures in his works. For example, “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” “Dagon,” “The Dunwich Horror,” and many other Lovecraft stories involve creatures that are rejected and isolated from society because of their physical features or psychological demeanor. When reading these works, it becomes apparent that the theme of society’s treatment of people who are “different” is prevalent

  • H. P. Lovecraft Research Paper

    1085 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Complicated Life of H.P. Lovecraft “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” - H.P. Lovecraft. According to H.P. Lovecraft humans are easily frightened, especially of the unknown things in life, and especially the unknown things about death. H.P. Lovecraft loved to write weird fiction, his maternal grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, sparked his interest as a child when he would tell him stories before he went

  • H. P. Lovecraft: Who Is The Outsider?

    632 Words  | 3 Pages

    Who is the Outsider? The story “The Outsider” by H.P. lovecraft, follows a main character called the outsider as it escapes the castle it has been stuck in and escapes into another world. As the story unfolds we find out more and more about the outsider. Readers can infer that the outsider is many different beings. For example when the outsider says “My longing for life grew so frantic.” the reader may infer that it is a ghost, since it verbalizes the fact that it wants to live. When the outsiders

  • Fear In H. P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out Of Space

    1497 Words  | 6 Pages

    and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”(H.P. Lovecraft, “Supernatural Horror in Literature”) This quote which has been stated by H.P. Lovecraft himself in his essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature” reflects a big aspect of his writing. Lovecraft’s works make use of the unknown; the fear of it. By referring to the supernatural, things that are not known or widely understood, Lovecraft

  • In The Eye Of The Unknown: The Dunwich Horror

    1450 Words  | 6 Pages

    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

  • Lovecraft's Accomplishments

    472 Words  | 2 Pages

    Born in Providence in 1890 H.P. Lovecraft is nowadays regarded as a major figure on horror literature; Nevertheless, as many different writers before, Lovecraft's work was mostly ignored during his lifetime. His work is inspired by Gothic writers such as Poe, as well as many other fantastic tales like the Arabian nights, the Odyssey and many other important works which he read as a child. He was considered to be a misanthropic and distant person with a troubled personality, as many of his works seem

  • Yossarian In James Heller's Catch-22

    1495 Words  | 6 Pages

    Yossarian. Surely, such a name does not exist or cannot possibly even have a right to do so. What a name, even thinking of it! Really, James Heller’s Catch 22’s hero or ante-hero is something that no one else could have dreamed of but a modernist and at that, a sadist, a righteously cynical one. In fact, during the rudimentary monologues of characters like Colonel Cathcart, Captain Black and Major Major that make the novel a swashbuckler, it all involves them questioning the almost dreamlike existence

  • Elements Of American Gothic Literature: Edgar Allan Poe

    839 Words  | 4 Pages

    Robles 1 Jesus Robles Mr. Recinto Credit Recovery May 14 2017 American gothic Literature: Edgar Allan Poe Author during this time period included: Edgar Allan Poe. Elements of American gothic literature were rational vs. irrational, puritanism, guilt, ghosts, and monsters, At times American Gothic Literature would seem to mock transcendentalism with the character going insane and becoming irrational. At times American Gothic Literature would seem to mock transcendentalism with the character

  • Comparing Monsters In 'Iphigenia In Aulis And' The Outside

    1123 Words  | 5 Pages

    himself “such a lot the gods gave to me – to me, the dazed, the disappointed; the barren, the broken. And yet I am strangely content and cling desperately to those sere memories, when my mind momentarily threatens to reach beyond to the other” (Lovecraft). Even though he describes himself as barren and broken, he is fully aware of himself and knows how fortunate he is to have what he has. He is also content with his memories. THE OUTSIDER is eloquent and very self-aware without a trace of hate, fear

  • Isolation In The Shining

    711 Words  | 3 Pages

    Unlike other movies, The Shining forms its horror through psychic power. One of the most important example would be Danny’s supernatural ability to “shine”. Danny's ability to "shine" was a main reason that cause Jack getting insane and the supernatural events to happened in the hotel. This ability “shine” is what brings the hotel to life. Shine was an powerful ability and reason that brings all the scary event and ghost in the hotel, which they are able to materialize themselves due to the “shine”

  • Genre Conventions In 'The Wizard Of Oz'

    1073 Words  | 5 Pages

    Genre theory is a break down of different types of films. It is a recipe that is put together to make it a whole. When you break down the type or category of your film, that will become a formula for your character types/conventions, settings, and visual imagery, which is called iconography (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014). When this is used, it will help the viewers to understand the prediction of the movie they are watching. A lot of genres falls alongside with sub-genres, which have a more defined

  • The Doorstep Lovecraft Obscurity And Knowledge

    3460 Words  | 14 Pages

    Weird Stories, it can be seen that Lovecraft ties the human condition of fear to our limited understanding of our world and the obscurity of what exists outside of it. By applying the scholarship of Bradley A. Will in his essay, H.P. Lovecraft and the Semiotic Kantian Sublime, and Patricia MacCormack’s essay, Posthuman Teratology, to H.P. Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories it becomes transparent that the opaqueness of the worlds of Lovecraft tie into the human capacity for

  • Better To Have Lovecraft Essay

    1027 Words  | 5 Pages

    It’s Better to Have Lovecraft and Lost For what he lacked in prominence during his lifetime, Lovecraft more than made up for it in the strength of his legacy. His influence is still present in fiction today long after his death. He has a huge fanbase that has produced numerous works based on the worlds and creatures that he created. Highly celebrated, Lovecraft’s style of archaic language, disturbing imagery, and mythos made him one of the most influential authors of horror despite his lack of success

  • Passage In The Secret History Of An Irish Countess Analysis

    1744 Words  | 7 Pages

    Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess: Through the lens of Sigmund Freud’s The Uncanny The emergence of the Gothic Literature in the 18th century set the stage for one of the most prolific Irish writers of the 19th century, Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, whose “work is squarely in the nineteenth-century Gothic tradition” (Begnal 27), and to whose name can be ascribed The Purcell Papers, titled so due to “being attributed to the Reverend Francis Purcell of Drumcoolagh”

  • How Did Edgar Allan Poe Influenced Lovecraft

    313 Words  | 2 Pages

    for Arabian Nights and led to his pseudonym of "Abdul Alhazred," under this pseudonym Lovecraft became the author of the mythical Necronomicon. During his youth Lovecraft was lonely and suffered from frequent illnesses, many of them psychological (Joshi 3). Due to his constant illnesses, his school attendance was sporadic. Edgar Allen Poe influenced Lovecraft first works. On the days when illness struck Lovecraft, he would spend his time in his grandfather's extensive library. Whipple had an interest

  • Cosmic Horror In Dagon, By H. P. Lovecraft

    654 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

  • The Devil In The White City Analysis

    1584 Words  | 7 Pages

    first is an American architect named Daniel Burnham. The book follows his struggle and work to put this huge fair together, and also make it a huge profiting attraction. He faces many obstacles and internal conflict while doing so. The second is H. H. Holmes, an insane serial killer who was active during the existence of the fair. He had different businesses and practices he would use to lure women, in order to kill them and sometimes the women in their families. The book takes place in Chicago

  • H Holmes Murder Castle

    1582 Words  | 7 Pages

    H. H. Holmes 2 H.H. Holmes: A Prince and His Murder Castle A lot of people are oblivious to the things that happen in our world. Many people don’t know about serial killers in the United States. There have been many murderers all around the world, but none quite like Henry Howard Holmes. Holmes is said to be the first serial killer in the United States. Although some may not know about him, he is one of the most famous serial killers in history. On May 16 1861, Theodate Price gave birth to Herman