The Dunwich Horror Summary

This story begins with the narrator describing the town of Dunwich for many pages talking about how old it is and how it was home to many strange things. It then flashes back to a child being born by the name of Wilbur who was the son of the Whatelys. These people were known to be born of inbreeding which may have been the cause of the son maturing way quicker than any other normal child. By the age of 1 he was able to speak perfectly and a few years later could walk and run perfectly. At 7 this child was extremely tall and was said to have a goatish looking appearance. Wilbur and his grandfather began to practice dark arts and were trying to summon a being that could destroy the entire earth. They had a monster who they hid in the second floor of their home but told no one. When Wilbur’s grandfather died he needed a book to find out how to maintain the monster so he went to a library to find a book that said how to do that. Wilbur tried breaking in to steal the book but was killed by a guard dog and his body turned into a monster which then melted away. The monster left the house with no one watching it and rampaged throughout the town killing many. The story ends with three men putting using a spell from the same book Wilbur wanted to kill the monster. Lovecraft in “The Dunwich Horror” portrays that something is wrong with the town of Dunwich with the use of many adjectives. …show more content…
In an article it was said that “the effect is to give the story a strong feeling of authenticity that not only underscores the horrors described but also implies that horrors even more profound lurk just beyond the limits of perception,” (Neilson and Barth). This was written to show that the way he described the setting of this town gave the reader a hint that something was wrong and something evil had happened there. Lovecraft writes “Those figures are so silent and furtive that one feels somehow confronted by forbidden things, with which it would be better to have nothing to do. When a rise in the road begins the mountains in view above the deep woods, the feeling of strange uneasiness is increased,” (Lovecraft.) The way he describes the mountains and rocks show that he is trying to foreshaodow that this place is hiding unimaginable horrors. The quotes tie in with the fact that Lovecraft uses many adjectives to tell you that something is not quite right with Dunwich. Lovecraft in “The Dunwich Horror” portrays that the horrors could be true by making the town in the story feel like a real place. “This indirect quas-journalistic approach also enables Lovecraft to mix real historical events, places, characters, and references with the fictional ones,” (Neilson and Barth). The author writes this to say that Lovecraft had a style of writing places a certain way that they felt very real, making the story even scarier or shocking. “Other traditions tell of foul odours near the hill-crowning circles of stone pillars, and of rushing airy presences to be heard faintly at certain hours from stated points at the bottom of the great ravines; while still others try to explain the Devil’s Hopyard a bleak, blasted hillside where no tree, shrub, or grass blade will grow,” (Lovecraft). This sentence speaks of the Devils Hopyard which is a real place in New England and the hill with the foul odors as well as the other places listed are real places located all over New England. Lovecraft writes in this style to make the place and actions that he is describing seem very real leaving a bigger emotional effect on readers. Lovecraft could very easily make a very descriptive setting because he based them on the place he lived which was New England making the story seem a lot more realistic. “The hierarchy of supernatural beings was only one side of Lovecraft’s coin; the other was the very real, believable New England world into which they intruded,” (Neilson and Barth). It seems like the author thinks that Lovecraft writes up his settings so well it makes the rest of his story seem believable. “When a traveler in