The Call Of Cthulhu Analysis

What makes people seek for experiences that make them feel scared? Fear is the expectation or the anticipation of possible harm, so why do people like it? There is a hormone called dopamine, that is released during scary and thrilling activities, according to David Zald, some individuals may get more of a kick of this hormone than others. Lots of people enjoy scary experiences, because of the feeling that they have after these situations. As reported by ABC News, in “Spooky Business American Economy”, people spend about 7 million dollars in Halloween, looking for costumes, decoration objects, and also in haunted houses. People enjoy scary movies, roller coasters, and haunted houses. Similarly, people enjoy thrilling literature, as Edgar Allan Poe and Louise Erdrich poems, “The Raven” and “The windigo” respectively. Both of these authors write and explore death and the ambiguity of what will happen after death, by using concrete examples of imagery and symbols, structured paragraphs, and a certain type of diction.

Horror is the genre that keeps the reader on their toes for nights upon end. It keeps them thinking. Thinking about how cruel and disturbing someone, or something, could possibly be. Thinking about what in the world happens to a character after the story drops off in a cliffhanger. Thinking about the probability that the events in the narrative could transpire in real life. Thinking about how likely it is for those things to happen to the reader. Refusing to look out their window in fear of seeing the glimpse of a murderous face, and listening to every sound with acute accuracy, praying that the noise is not one of a stranger creeping up the stairs. Scary accounts make the reader live in fear whenever the

Writers can use many tricks to make a story seem more interesting to the reader. From the words they pick to the setting to the time of the day... the possibilities are endless. In the story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe, the use of light and darkness, the description of the mans eye and the time frame make the story more scary than anything else. Poe also uses suspense at the end to make the readers heart beat faster.

“For some time I sat in silence. Then a cold shudder ran down my spine.” That would be one example of how suspense is created throughout a horror story. There have been multiple authors which have made frightening stories and put a lot of work into them.Furthermore, as in the story, “August Heat” by W.F. Harvey, it is composed of suspense around the piece. A prime example would be the use of foreshadow, reversal, and being unpredictable. Therefore, combining the three makes the completion of a story with frightening scenes, along with the suspense.

Since it’s infancy at the beginning of the eighteenth century, horror has followed certain conventions that results in an awakening of the senses, evoking intense emotions of fear and terror in the audience. Horror feeds off triggering the primal fears embedded within all of humankind, creating a sense of menace that is the very substance of this genre. Furthermore, the central menace of a piece tends to enlighten the human mind to the world of the paranormal and the enigmatic, dark side of the unknown. The movie “Psycho” directed by Alfred Hitchcock is a perfect example. Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre, “Psycho” was filmed with great tact, grace and art in regards to horror conventions.

The Call of Cthulhu is a horror story that is able to break through and cause terror. The horror comes from forcing the reader to witness awful and unexplainable things happen to the characters in the story, especially without the ability to prevent the misfortunes from happening. It becomes terror because Lovecraft places the entire story in our reality rather then a fictional setting. Becuase of this, we are forced to relate the story’s events to our physical world. It inflicts a sense of danger by insinuating that the forces in the story exist around us. Lovecraft is able to effectively place the imaginary story in our physical world by arming the story in science and logic, using familiar references and locations, and makes you an unofficial

Compared to the plot structure of H.P. Lovecraft, this structure fails to create a mysterious atmosphere for the reader. When these little conflicts are brought up throughout the story, the reader expects that the protagonist will succeed in achieving his or her goal after all the failed attempts. However, with the plot structure in “The Beast In The Cave”, the reader has no idea whether the protagonist will succeed or fail, because there is nothing except tension leading up the climax. When tension is relieved at the climax, the protagonist kills the beast. This leads to a feeling of relief and regained control of the situation for both the protagonist and reader which can be seen with all horror stories despite the simplicity or complexity of the plot (Faye, Thomas 3). When “Gramma” by Stephen King was written, King managed to write a suspenseful plot while using several conflicts throughout the story; however, the readers had a sense of what was to come through mini-conflicts and some

H.P. Lovecraft wrote the short story, “The Dunwich horror,” in 1928 and had it published in april of 1929. He has written other works such as “The Call of Cthulhu,” “Dagon,” “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” “The Colour Out of Space,” and “From Beyond.” Many common themes within his work are non human influences on humanity and forbidden knowledge. In many of his stories there are unknown creatures that cause humans to go insane. Also, his short stories have curiosity of the unknown. H.P Lovecraft likes to write about science fiction and mythology. Most of his pieces have mythological creatures that he either makes up or learns about from other cultures. In “The Dunwich Horror” he uses characterization to build up the suspense and views from each

For example, in “The Tell Tale Heart”, it says, “Then I heard a sound, a low cry of fear which escaped from the old man.” This shows that the old man is afraid, and it creates suspense because he does not know what will happen next. Another example from “The Tell Tale Heart” is, “The old man’s fear must have been great indeed. And as the sound grew louder my anger became greater and more painful.” This demonstrates that the man was very nervous and scared, and it creates suspense because he thought he was going to get hurt. Furthermore, in Deep and Dark and Dangerous, it says, “Hiding her face, Emma cried ‘I don’t wanna see the bones’ I didn’t want to see them either. As scared as Emma, I looked at Dulcie.” This illustrates that Ali and Emma were very scared and the author creates suspense because the reader would not want to see the bones either. The authors of both texts effectively used description of characters’ fears or anxiety to create

As important compositions of the Cthulhu mythos created by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, both “The Call of Cthulhu” and At the Mountains of Madness employ first person narration. Lovecraft employs a common technique of horror literature in these two stories: characters attempt to interpret abnormal phenomena with rational explanations, and horror is created when the characters fail to achieve their purpose. In these two stories, the narrators are both highly driven by curiosity, and they are enthusiastic about what they explore. However, two narrators are both unwilling to solve what they have learned ultimately. Through the alternation of the subjective attitudes of narrators, Lovecraft argues that human curiosity can cause unexpected and dreadful

Howard Philips Lovecraft has been described by many as the father of the modern horror story. His works influenced many future horror writers and set the tone for heavy metal music and horror films from the 1960s to the 1990s. Much of this influence is based upon H. P. Lovecraft’s depiction of humanity in his stories. In the works of Howard Philips Lovecraft, the portrayal of humanity as an inconsequential piece of the universe that is unable to exact any meaningful change in the world due to its frail sanity and its inability to truly comprehend what is happening in its surroundings. is based upon H. P. Lovecraft’s personal philosophy and life experiences.

H.P. Lovecraft is a famous writer who is known for bringing a new type of fear uncommon in horror to reader's hearts. He created the philosophy called “Cosmicism”, which creates fear as it stems from the fact or belief that our existence is insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. In stories such as “The Colour Out of Space” or “The Mountains of Madness”, bad things happen to the characters simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The “gods” in the stories are often rather indifferent to humanity, potentially causing our destruction accidentally, like a child stepping on an anthill. He creates a paranoia and unease that permeates weeks after reading one of his stories. H.P. Lovecraft's horror stems from the fear that our lives are meaningless, and most of what happens to us is out of our control.

The curiosity of the unknown is a common theme within H.P. Lovecraft’s writings. Both “The Shadow of Innsmouth,” as well as “The Call of Cthulhu,” have narrators that are curious and hungry for knowledge about the unknown. This curiosity and accumulation of knowledge ultimately leads to the revelation of their true identities.

In “Call of Cthulhu”, this protagonist is Francis Thurston who discovers his deceased uncle’s studies on a cult, the Cult of Cthulhu. Thurston goes through the story first deciphering the papers he found from his uncle, then moves on to unearth more information of his own findings (Lovecraft). As he does this, the reader learns through him, allowing them to reach the same horrific conclusions as the protagonist through their own interpretations of the information found. It is also most often realized that the protagonist has learned too much about the cult or monsters and will now be killed or otherwise taken care of in order to keep this highly secretive and important information safe. This, again, only adds to the reader’s own terror and fear of safety as they have learned the exact same

In H.P. Lovecraft’s sensational story The Call of Cthulhu Lovecraft indirectly characterizes the inhabitants of his story primarily through thoughts and actions. In the story we follow unnamed characters through multiple parts of this theosophical tale, all starting at the discovery of a professor’s research on the Cthulhu cult activity. As more information on this enigmatic topic