~5 minute read Link to the story as always! Let me know any further analysis you have in the comments! https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/rw.aspx Throughout the collection of Lovecraft’s works, there are a number of common items, but one shown most prevalently is his use of setting. “Rats in the Walls” falls under no exceptions to the weird norm set by his stories. Lovecraft utilizes the setting to control the narrative and orchestrate complex themes and tones for the reader, culminating in an ultimately grotesque ending. There’s quite a bit of dramatic scene development through Lovecraft’s articulate use of language to describe the horrors at the ancestral home of Mr. Delapore: Exham Priory. The author painstaking lays out the landscape to the reader, displaying the home in an air of myth and horrid legend through the townsfolk. Their stories of evil happenings there, as well as Delapore’s incomplete family history, let the reader understand that actual unnaturally evil occurrences are to be expected in this story, though it doesn’t let on just how far Lovecraft is willing to go. Delapore discards most of the rumors and relies on the remodeling to cover up the aging gothic residence. But like the described repairs, the home is a mask that disguises the nature of what evil lies beneath its walls. The story is a variable descent into madness, which Lovecraft facilitates through the draw and movements of the rats. Delapore is able to hear the rats, as he is one of the family’s descendants, and it drives him to madness to try and find the source of this every night. The author uses an overload of sensory imagery to develop the resounding dread from the protagonist, and envelop the audience in the gross feeling of being surrounded by thousands of scraping bodies in the walls. It is a sound of intense disgust and revulsion, one that should be avoided, but it draws the protagonist into his descent by leading him to the truth of the estate. The ghost rats are depicted as literal denizens of the underworld, with the cats being a classic medium for warning of evil lurking. The abundance of detail on Lovecraft’s part is what engages the reader to be able to visualize the scene, and he depends on it to develop the sense of foreboding. The reader knows the rats are wrong, and that the protagonist will be led to his doom by them, but the interest is enchanting for both parties. Lovecraft creates a variable cookie jar. The images mustn’t be touched, but the resisting is too much to bear. These settings darken the deeper Delapore descends. Cracking open the Roman seal with the excavation and archaeological crew opens a gate to the evil realm. Lovecraft instills the sense of despair and horror in his gothic images of enslavement of all races over time, showing through the setting that the protagonist’s position is hopeless against the greater powers of the world. He is led deeper and deeper into the abyss by the guidance of the rats, and descends into full madness at the culmination of a loss of mind and the grotesque image of the character the reader has been following becoming the evil and voracious rats he was enraptured with. Lovecraft spares no detail to show the reader the hopelessness of the protagonist’s cause. Even though the reader may have the desire to try and align themselves with the inquisitive nature of the man, they know that there is no good from witness the descent. The deeper Delapore goes, the darker the world becomes, and the more he becomes the rats. This extremely descriptive use of setting is central to the narrative because it mirrors physically the mental darkness that Delapore is descending into. The anger he has at the death of his son in the Civil War pours out in the end in a rage as he’s placed in the asylum. Darkness had been consuming his soul long before he moved to Exham Priory, and when he took it over, it drew him into the madness of the Hell below in a welcoming fashion. Lovecraft wouldn’t have been able to draw this same mirroring effect without the keen use of perceptive sensory detail that fleshed out his gothic scenes and lurid landscapes.
What did he name his cat again? OK, but memes aside, I am a big Lovecraft fan. Rats in the Walls is one of my favorites by him; I have a "complete" collection of his works. This is a really good commentary that you have made here, and I thank you for sharing. You've helped articulate some of what makes his best work special.
