The driving mysteries at the heart of the Cthulhu cult, in spite of their horrifying nature, compel the men in the story to learn more about them, and even to dedicate their lives to deciphering their secrets.
At the end of the story Thurston remarks, "I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror." Lovecraft demonstrates how the human constitution is not built to endure knowledge about the horrors of the universe, hence why the opening lines of the story praise the "inability" of the human mind as merciful. Thurston refers to his revelations toward the end of the story as "cosmic horrors" which eventually disturb his sleep, derange his mind, and make him a target for assassination. The story's first part, entitled "The Horror in Clay," suggests that the only way humans can glimpse the ancient depths of horror that Cthulhu represents are in dreams and nightmares. "The Call of Cthulhu" aspires to represent a horror that is beyond describability-monstrous cosmological forces that defy rational human modes of communication like writing and speech. Mystery has a double function, in that it limits the characters' understanding of the cult, at the same time that it intrigues them into further study. Wilcox's bas-relief, Legrasse's statuette, and Johansen's idol are all symbols of mysteriousness-objects that defy expert analysis, yielding no influences or translations. Many of the story's narrators are professors and detectives, vocations that entail combing through mysteries and gaps in knowledge to produce satisfying solutions and intellectual accounts. The opening lines of the story, probably the most famous lines Lovecraft ever wrote, articulate the nihilistic philosophy of a man who has come to know just how insubstantial human affairs really are, in the grand scheme of the cosmos. Lovecraft's tale often relies on the power of the unknown-specifically, how insignificant mankind seems in light of the incomprehensible nature of the universe. Because mankind cannot directly know or comprehend the "Old Ones" without being driven insane, dreaming is the only way many of the story's characters are able to access their language and imagery. Eventually, Thurston pieces together the fact that an unnatural earthquake on the night of February 28th triggered Wilcox's visions, and that Cthulhu's awakening on March 22nd intensified these visions into a delirium. Dreams are the provenance of the very first pieces of evidence that Thurston receives from Angell's manuscripts about the Cthulhu cult, specifically the dreams of "hyper-sensitive" poets and artists like Henry A. Lovecraft first expresses the outline of Cthulhu in the form of a clay bas-relief glimpsed in the dreaming mind of an artist named Henry Anthony Wilcox.
The struggle to understand the alien hieroglyphics in the story is an impossible task that repeatedly claims the translator's life. Lovecraft represents writing as a lethal weapon, as when a cache of papers falls on Johansen's head, killing him, or when the acquisition of Johansen's diary ensures Thurston's assassination. The preponderance of written manuscripts in the story correlates inversely with the vague and suggestive fragments that each of the tale's speakers is able to convey, which limits Thurston's ability to understand their implications until he pieces them all together. The transmission of the secrets of the Cthulhu cult through writing is a cursed act that dooms many of the tale's characters, including Johansen, Angell, and Thurston himself.
Hp lovecraft call of cthulhu archive#
Thurston's written document is itself an archive of other writings-his late grand-uncle's papers, various transcribed oral accounts, news clippings, a diary, and so forth. WritingĪs an epistolary tale, " The Call of Cthulhu" consists of written documents left behind by Francis Wayland Thurston. At the end of the story, Thurston himself wonders whether fate has in store for him the same kind of demise that claimed Johansen's and his grand-uncle's lives.
Lovecraft also weaves the theme of fate into the musings of the cultist elder Old Castro, who surmises dreamily that the "Old Ones" will rise when the stars achievement a certain alignment with human affairs. Regardless, fate itself is a major theme in the story, as Thurston's attempts to uncover the truth behind the Cthulhu rumors are also aided by strokes of pure luck and good fortune, as when he initially notices Angell's secret manuscripts, or when he spots an issue of the Sydney Bulletin on a chance visit to a local museum. To what extent Francis Wayland Thurston is ultimately fated to be the lone surviving interpreter of the Cthulhu mythos is an open question in the tale.
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