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H. p. lovecraft and critical theory
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1. Thesis: While organized throughout “The Rats in the Wall,” H.P. Lovecraft reveals the categorical contamination of the narrator through animal and human, reality and fantasy, and truth and lies at the end of the story.
2. Evidence: Prior to discovering the secrets of his family history, the narrator has a dream of a man he despises being devoured by “a mighty swarm of rats” (22).
3. Analysis: As the story progresses, the narrator describes the dream he has been having since entering the house. While this nightmare appears to be an effect of living in the cursed house, the dream turns out to be prophetic. In his dream, the narrator sees a man control rats and kill a man with whom he is angry. This course of action ends up being identical
The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.
music starts off in a minor key and in a slow but simple rhythm. This
Frederick is written in a third person’s point of view. The narrator is not Frederick or one of the other field mice in the story, but rather an outside person, or perhaps a mouse, who tells the story. By telling the sto...
Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health, but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper which is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the story of a woman spiralling into madness whilst her physician husband refuses to acknowledge that she has a "real" problem. On the other hand The Black Cat by Edgar Alan Poe is about a man who is initially fond of cats however as the plot progresses he becomes an alcoholic making him moody and violent, which lead him to torture and kills the animals and eventually also his wife. In Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Black Cat," symbolism is used to show the narrator’s capacity for violence, madness, and guilt .The recurring theme present in both these stories is that the main protagonists claim that they suffer or have been taken over by a form of madness. In this essay I shall examine the various symbolism used by the writer's to represent madness.
Lovecraft, H.P.. “The Beast in the Cave.” The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft: The Road to
The descriptions of the house deteriorating throughout the years covered in the book establishes the sensation of the endless nightmare – that despite mortal man, the house remains as it was from the day it was erected and only the outward appearance changes. . In fact, as the story centralizes around the curse placed upon the house, it is almost the main attraction of the story, the other characters only playing supporting roles to show the potency of the dark power that the house holds on members of the Pyncheon dynasty. Because Hawthorne gives the house human characteristics, “So much of mankind’s varied experien...
In conclusion, gothic literature, identified as the genre of literature that revolves around romance and horror, illustrates nonetheless insanity in several stories such as Shutter Island and “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” As both authors employ physical isolation of the locale, disturbing elements and hallucinatory incidences in the narratives, the reader gradually captures the effect the components have on lunacy. Therefore, all three elements combined confirm the influence of setting on madness.
The story opens with a description of the mother, Hester, a woman who ?knew that at the center of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody? (481), not even for her son, Paul, or her two daughters. The most pressing predicament for the family, however, is not Hester?s indifference but ?the grinding sense of the shortage of money? (481), despite the palpable clues that the family is in fact quite wealthy. This problem is so intense that the house itself ?came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money!? (481). The house and its sinister, ever-present whispering serves to represent the sin of greed, or ?an excessive desire to acquire or possess more that what one needs or deserves? (dictionary.com).
Through vivid yet subtle symbols, the author weaves a complex web with which to showcase the narrator's oppressive upbringing. Two literary
Edgar Allen Poe is well-known for having characters and narrators in his story that are insane like he has in “The Black Cat.” Gothic scholar Jerrold Hogle has stated, “No other form of writing or theatre is as insistent as Gothic on juxtaposing potential revolution and possible reaction - about gender, sexuality, race, class, the colonizers versus the colonized, the physical versus the metaphysical, and abnormal versus normal psychology - and leaving both extremes sharply before us and far less resolved than the conventional endings in most of these works claim them to be.” The short story explores the extremes of abnormal versus normal psychology through the influence of the supernatural, and the development of a psychosis in the narrator
Poe builds suspense throughout the story, revealing some facts while withholding others. He deliberately leaves out these details forcing us to place the relationship between the wife and the narrator in our mind. By doing so, we then inject our own personal details, in order to relate to the wife, and even the narrator, on an intimate level. We all desire a happy and safe home life. Poe takes that basic human need for safety and security and drops it the hands of a madman. Poe allows the narrator to invite us directly into his twisted mind. The suspense increases when we fear that the home can be an unsafe place. The narrator then leads us down his path of drunkenness, violence and insanity, dragging behind him his poor wife and his beloved pets.
Are humans pathetic? H. P. Lovecraft believes so and in his horrific short story Lovecraft shows examples of this through underlying themes. In The “Call of Cthulhu” by H.P. Lovecraft, he demonstrates his philosophies on life and how he does not believe in human supremacy. The author shows his beliefs in his characters and through subtle story details. He takes advantage of the horrific universe he has created filled with higher beings that show how weak humans are.
Stephen King is addicted to writing. He just didn’t like to write, he loved it. At an early age King was hooked on drugs and alcohol. In alternative to that he wrote books to complisate the horrible things he was doing. In June 1999; he almost died anyway. He and his family were staying at their lake house in western Maine. It was late afternoon and King was finishing up his daily four-mile walk alongside a small highway. Suddenly a minivan crested the hill and pinballed King off its windshield. He came down in a clump. His head was bleeding, his lap seemed to be turned sideways and he saw that a bone in his right leg was pointing in the wrong direction. Five weeks later, King would resume writing after be hospitalized for several months.
There has always been a power struggle between the sexes. Men and women have always had trouble accepting the idea that there may be a defined role for each sex. Through time men have constantly upheld the belief that if women gain a recognized status in society then they could jeopardize the role that men play. However, this is simply not true as can be seen in the current times. Women hold prestigious titles and do the same types of jobs men do and society still functions normally. At the time Margret Atwood wrote the poem, “Rat Song” the feminist movement in Canada as well as the United States was in full swing. Atwood uses a rat in this poem to symbolize a women and a human to serve in the place of man. The rat is constantly being thought of a inferior or vile by the human always getting in the way and having a cleverness that is thought of as dangerous. Through the strained relationship of the rat and the human Atwood is able to depict what it is like to be a women growing up in society during the 1970’s. Nonetheless, the point of view that Atwood chooses to embody in this poem can still relate to society today even though the struggle between men and women is not as prevalent as it once was.