The Dunwich Horror

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1929

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-10

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

The Entity

The unnamed entity that bursts free from the Whateley house is actually Wilbur Whateley’s brother. The entity is the product of a strange ritual, in which Old Whateley summoned the cosmic entity Yog-Sothoth to his own daughter, Lavinia. She gave birth to twins: Wilbur and the entity. While Wilbur has a basic human form (or, at the very least, can hide away his more monstrous aspects), the entity is not human. It is invisible, it feeds on cattle, and it is locked in the Whateley house for the majority of its life. The presence of the entity in Dunwich adds to the mood of dread and fear. The mutilated cattle, the strange noises, and the hideous odor emanating from the Whateley house frighten passersby. They do not know what lurks inside the house, but they know that it makes them feel uncomfortable and afraid. In this sense, the entity symbolizes Cosmic Horror. The entity represents the hideous unknown that lurks beyond the scope of human comprehension. Just as the Old Ones exist in another dimension, the entity is locked away on the periphery of a village community that is already on the periphery of the regional community.

Over time, the entity continues to grow. The Whateleys must make drastic alterations to their home to accommodate the growing entity. They reshape their home to hide the horrific reality from the outside world. The more the entity grows, however, the more absurd the prospect of hiding it forever becomes. The entity cannot be contained forever and eventually bursts free from its home. This escape symbolizes the consequences of many decisions and actions: Old Whateley dabbling in magic, Wilbur continuing in his grandfather’s doomed footsteps, and the people of Dunwich deliberately ignoring the Whateleys’ strange behavior. The consequences of all these mistakes are unleashed on the world when the entity escapes. By this time, Old Whateley and Wilbur are dead. The people of Dunwich are all that remain, so the destruction is visited on them, and the path of destruction it leaves represents retribution for their mistakes. They cannot see the entity, nor can they comprehend it. They are now trapped in their former refuge—their Willful Ignorance—as tragedies are inflicted upon them. They can no longer ignore reality, even if they cannot see the entity itself.

When Armitage defeats the entity, the entity’s physical form shrivels up into a corpse. This corpse is visible and is described by the narrator as Wilbur’s twin, but one that more closely resembles their father than Wilbur ever did. The entity’s monstrous corpse is a symbol of what is to come and why Armitage will never be able to be happy. The entity is the son of Yog-Sothoth. Armitage has barely managed to defeat an entity that possesses a fraction of the power of its father, meaning that Armitage must reckon with the true power of Yog-Sothoth and the seeming inevitability that this will happen again. Old Whateley and the people of Dunwich are not unique; many more people are vulnerable to manipulation by forces such as Yog-Sothoth. Rather than representing a victory or a triumph, the monstrous corpse of Yog-Sothoth’s son is a reminder of the terrible battle that lays ahead and the seemingly impossible odds faced by men like Armitage who want to protect the world.

Books and Written Records

In The Dunwich Horror, books are repositories of knowledge. Old Whateley maintains a large library that is the only thing he carefully moves around the house as the hidden entity grows. His library is filled with books valuable for their explanations of magical spells and ancient, arcane rituals. The way in which Old Whateley treasures these books symbolizes the family’s reverence for knowledge, particularly forbidden knowledge. There is nothing in the house more important than arcane knowledge, to the point that the entire home is rebuilt to accommodate and hide the entity, itself a product of Whateley’s dabbling in the occult.

Following Old Whateley’s attempts to summon Yog-Sothoth, Wilbur continues his grandfather’s work. After Old Whateley’s death, the occult library is one of the few links Wilbur has to his grandfather. The books function as a symbolic legacy; by engaging with them, Wilbur can feel connected to the figure closest to a father or paternal influence in his life. However, the knowledge that he seeks is not available in his grandfather’s library. Wilbur must seek out other books that will allow him to move beyond the limitations of Old Whateley, and he locates a copy of The Necronomicon in the Miskatonic Library. The Necronomicon is an important book in Lovecraftian lore, and in The Dunwich Horror, it represents the way in which terrible knowledge can be obfuscated and hidden. Wilbur’s efforts to translate The Necronomicon symbolize his desire to seek out and comprehend this most dreadful knowledge. His willingness to engage with such a horrific text and his desire to understand its true nature are warning flags to the librarian, Armitage, who prevents Wilbur from borrowing the book and alerts his fellow librarians to the threat Wilbur may pose. Wilbur thus distinguishes himself as a unique existential threat who Armitage decides must be stopped.

After Wilbur’s death, the authorities find his diary, but it is written in a complex code that makes it almost unreadable. The diary is passed to Armitage and forgotten about by most people, becoming an important symbol of why Armitage succeeds where others cannot. He translates the diary after other people’s failed attempts not just by deciphering the code but by deciphering Wilbur. His engagement with the diary is an act of empathy that reveals Wilbur’s true immature nature and his desire to know his father, Yog-Sothoth. Armitage is able to translate the diary because he is willing to do what no other person was willing to do: He humanizes Wilbur. In this moment, the diary becomes a dual symbol. It is a reminder of the way in which Wilbur has been marginalized and isolated for most of his life and a demonstration of what must be done to prevent destruction and tragedy. Armitage understands Wilbur, including the more monstrous elements of his character. His willingness to engage with both Wilbur’s human and monstrous sides demonstrates what is required of people who want to do battle with cosmic entities. They must not sacrifice their humanity while accepting the existence of true horror.

Birds

Birds are a recurring motif throughout The Dunwich Horror. Whippoorwills gather in Dunwich at moments significant to the Whateley family. They are symbolic echoes of the Whateleys’ actions, gathering to sing at deaths, births, and other symbolic events. The story of the Whateley family thus becomes punctuated by the presence and the sounds of these birds, while the gathering of birds hints that something is about to transpire. In an area long regarded as strange and mystical, the natural environment adds to the sense of magic, forming a duet with the Whateley family. The birds are in conversation with the story itself, functioning as examples of pathetic fallacy. Their ability to predict, interpret, and react to narrative turning points suggests that the birds possess a fundamental, instinctive understanding of the uncanny and the unusual nature of the Whateley family.

During the story’s climax, the whippoorwills stop singing. A storm gathers on the horizon, and the birdsong vanishes from the air, all while the entity rampages through Dunwich. During the battle between the entity and Armitage, the birds drop dead. Their deaths seem to indicate the true dread of the moment. The entity is not an all-powerful cosmic force such as Yog-Sothoth or one of the Old Ones. Instead, it is a mix of Yog-Sothoth and a human. It possesses only a fraction of the power of its father, yet it causes death, destruction, and darkened skies. The deaths of the birds are a symbolic silencing of the natural world. The arrival of cosmic horror in Dunwich is enough to destroy the creatures that tried to warn the world about the Whateleys for so long. If an Old One or Yog-Sothoth were finally able to break through into the human dimension, the story suggests, humanity would face the same fate as the whippoorwills.