The Dunwich Horror

H. P. Lovecraft’s work is often referred to as cosmic horror. The name of this genre derives from a theme found in many of Lovecraft’s works, especially those that take place in the same narrative universe. Cosmic horror involves a fear of the unknown, the sense that there are unspeakably terrible entities that exist just beyond the scope of human comprehension. In The Dunwich Horror, Yog-Sothoth, the entity that Yog-Sothoth fathers, Wilbur Whateley’s true form, and the existence of the Old Ones illustrate this idea. Each of these exists outside of the typical human realm of understanding. Most humans are blissfully unaware of the dimension in question and the threat the Old Ones pose; knowledge can cause people to be so overwhelmed by horror that they lose their minds. The entity and Wilbur’s true form are elements of cosmic horror that are doubly hidden from the world. Not only is the entity invisible, but it also spends most of the story hidden away in the Whateley home. Wilbur covers his monstrous form with human clothing, so his horrifying physical reality is only revealed at the moment of his death, when a dog tears away his clothing. These elements of cosmic horror all imply the existence of dreadful, monstrous forces that are everywhere, constantly threatening the world yet remaining mysterious to most people.

The exploration of cosmic horror is subtle in The Dunwich Horror, which suggests that knowledge of the truly horrific nature of the universe would cause a person to lose their mind. People cannot comprehend the true darkness of the universe—so much so that this horror cannot be conveyed through something as simple as prose. The Old Ones and Yog-Sothoth never appear in the text. They are referenced in passing, in old texts or magic spells. Their influence and their threat are clear, in that only a fraction of their power (Wilbur and the entity are half-human, half-cosmic iterations of Yog-Sothoth, for example) is enough to destroy a small village. Similarly, the entity’s destructive power is portrayed indirectly. It is relayed through telephone calls or glimpsed from afar through a telescope. In each instance, the person with firsthand experience of the entity loses their mind or their life. Readers never come face to face with the true nature of cosmic horror. Instead, echoes and reflections of that reality demonstrate its destructive power, suggesting how terrifying the cosmic forces themselves must truly be.

The overwhelming nature of cosmic horror colors the ending of the novel. Armitage and his colleagues battle the entity and defeat it using magic. In defeating the entity, however, they have been changed. They have been burdened with a knowledge of the horrific forces that exist in other dimensions, and they have been made keenly aware of their own weakness and vulnerability. They cannot return to their normal lives because they understand the forces of cosmic horror that will continue to threaten the universe. The truly horrific nature of the ending for Armitage is that he helped to save a world to which he can never return.