Summary of the Short Story ‘The Call of Cthuthu”

Summary of the Short Story ‘The Call of Cthuthu”

 This is a short story developed by H.P.Lovecraft, an American horror writer. In the story, an extra-terrestrial entity referred as Cthulthu is largely described in the story.  The basic writing style is similar to of a documentary where three independent narratives are described. The narrator, Francis Wayland Thurston, puts together notes that had been left behind by Professor George Gammell Angell and he realizes that he is in danger as he is now the target of the Cthulthu worshipers.

The first narrative described is “The Horror in Clay”. The narrative concerns itself with a sculpture found among the papers of the professor.  The sculpture had three simultaneous themes; dragon, octopus and a human caricature.  The sculpture was the work of a student of art called Henry Anthony Wilcox.  The theme of the sculpture is based on the delirious dreams of great Cyclopean cities monoliths which the narrator refer to as R’lyeh and Cthulhu by Wilcox.  It is these dreams that causes him to enter onto a state of delirium. At the same time, there was mass hysteria all over the world.

The second narrative is that of “The Tale of Inspector Legrasse”.   The narration notes that the professor had heard of a similar image much earlier in his life. it was in 1908 when he met with a police official  called John Legrasse at the American Archaeological Society in St Louis.  The police had asked the people who had attended the session to identify green statue which looked similar to that of Wilcox.  It is then noted that Legrasse and a bunch of other policemen had found several children and women be used in a ritual by a cult who were all men. After arresting 47 and killing 5 of the cultists, Legrasse noted that they were worshiping Cthulhu who they referred as the Great old one.   Another Professor within the attendees Proffesor William Webb, also confirms that he had witnessed a similar phenomenon on an 1860 expedition  in West Greenland Coast, a cult he referred to as Esquimaux and whose religion appeared as that of devil worshipping.

The third narrative is ‘the Madness from the Sea”. In the narrative, the Thurston extends his inquiry on this specific cult beyond what the professor had discovered. By chance, as he did his research, he discovers an article that originated from an Austrian newspaper, Sydney Bulletin.  The article described the discovery of a neglected ship in the Pacific Ocean. The ship was only carrying one survivor, Gustaf Johansen, a sailor from Norway and who sailed with the Emma that had sailed from Auckland, New Zealand.  The ship had been attacked on March 22 by another ship which was referred as the Alert. The Emma sailor were able to fight of the attack, but Emma was lost and they were forced to board the Alert.  The next day, the survivors encountered an island that was isolated. Most of the sailors died on the Island but Johansen does not give a description of what happened to them. The narrator realizes that he initial sailors of the Alert were connected to Cthulhu. He travels to Oslo where he learns that Johansen had died after encountering with two Lascar sailors.  He finds Johansen widow, who hands him a note that he left before he died.  From the note he leant that the isolated island was the home a nightmare corpse city called R’lyeh.  It is the attempt of Johansen and his crew to understand the city that resulted to their death. After finishing the script, Thurston realises that he had learnt something that he was not supposed to learn and that also his life was in danger from the Cthulhu cult.

Comparative analysis of the short story   ‘The Call of Cthuthu”

Various themes are outlined in the short story, but the most conspicuous is the theme is cultism.  In the story, a cult that worships a super- being referred to as Cthuthu is presented. One of the central character of the cult is secretiveness. It is committed to keep their practice a secret that they are committed to ensure that they are not exposed.  The practices of the cultists are rather weird as presented in the second narrative where we find them using children and women to perform their ritual. This notion is further extended on the third narrative, where Johansen is unable to describe to the fullest what he had experienced as the lone survivor as he had been traumatized by what he had seen during his voyage. By definition, a cult is a social group that is defined and guided by spiritual, religious and psychological beliefs and orientation.  In this regard, cultists have a common interest, personality and goal. For a long term, cult has been a term which has brought about a lot of controversy to many scholars due to its diverse number of definition both in social and religion approach. However, many scholars have agreed that many of the cults are spontaneous and are based around novel practices and belief.  This notion is also presented in the short stories when the narrator explores the practices of the Cthuthu cult. The members appear to be brainwashed by a belief of presence of a certain super natural beings that they are willing go beyond their human orientation to please this one being.  In most cases, cult have been associated with ill and evil doing that are against the norms of the society, which is an aspect that is also presented in the short story.

The notion of cultism presented in the short story is also extended by Eileen Barker, on her writing on “The cult as a Social problem”.  She correlates a cult   to a religion that is used to propagate wrong doing and bad things in the society (Barker, 198).  In this regard, she makes the argument that good religion should be separated from cults and consequently protected in order to avoid societal confusion, which can result in the denial of the liberal religion which can end up being labelled as cults (Barker, 198).  The confusion that Barker worries about is also presented in the story, when we find a group of individual that are confused and brainwashed by a cultism such that they have come to perceive the cult as their own religion.

Barker (198), continues to characterize cultism by showing the kind of problems that are generated by the cults including political intrigue, child abuse, heretical beliefs, criminal activity, sexual perversion, and brainwashing among others.  Many of the characters that Barker gives to the cults are also vivid in the short story. For instance, child abuse is presented in the second narration when we find the Cthulhu cultists using children as vessels for their worship.  This is a rather inhumane act and it shows the extent in which cultism can push people until they have lost all their humanity.  Also the aspect of brainwashing as presented by Barker is shown  in the short story when the believers continue to praise this super being Cthulhu even after they are arrested by the policemen. They are not afraid to die and they refer to Cthulhu as the Great Old One.    Barker (199), continues to argue that sometimes it is good to have a good understanding of religion before we refer to them as cult as one person religion can be another person’s cult. In this regard, a line should be drawn on the factors that qualifies a region to a cult and a cult to a religion.  In this regard, there is need to follow social constructivism approach to protect people from cults which have the potential to alter social behaviour in a negative manner.

The notion of secret society is also presented in the short story. Notably, a secret society is an organization   whose events, activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-member.  For many for the secret societies, concealing the activities of the society is among the central concern of the members and in many cases they are willing to cross the boundaries to ensure that their secrets are not revealed.  The Cthulhu worshipper presented in the short story do not only act as a cult but also a secret society.   They had managed to remain anonymous for a long time   a notion that is confirmed by the narrator when he confirms that he had seen the image of Cthulhu some many years earlier.  Their will to conceal their secret is first revealed when the arrested cult members refuse to expose their religion secrets and they only reference themselves with their super being Cthulhu.  It is the same notion of secrecy that caused the sudden death of Johansen as it is clear that he might have being killed by the members of the cult to ensure that he does not tell their secret. Similarly, it is the same aspect that makes the narrator to get worried at the end as he realised that he had unveiled a secret of a group of people who really wanted to remain anonymous.

Kloosterman, in his article also extend the notion of Secret societies in his article, “The Rise and fall of the Secret societies” by bringing out the impact of this societies on the modern society. Kloosterman (1) notes that secret societies are among the element in the society that have threatened  the liberty and peace of people and he terms them as  cruel, desperate and  wicked movements that should not be allowed  to thrive  and any given cost.  They are instruments of destruction in the society who lead a different moral guide from that of the society.

Finally, the notion of superstition and delusion is also presented vividly in the short stories.  In the first narration, the narrator describes a student named Henry Wilcox who experienced delirious dreams and is associated with sculpting a sculpture of Cthulthu. Form the description, it is clear that he had been possessed by Cthulthu. At the same time, the narrator states that there were report of mass hysteria in the whole world.  the element of delirium and superstition is spread  throughout  the short story but the  narrator seems not to be satisfied with their presence neither  their effectiveness and this is one of the major reason he decides to follow-up  the story  to quench his curiosity. Evidently, the notion of superstition and delirium is one of the aspect that has continued to confuse many people in the world.

Damisch, Barbara and Thomas, in the writing on superstitions and their effect on the behaviour of na individual note that  there has been an increase in  level of superstitious  thoughts and behaviour in the modern society. In most cases, this thoughts and behaviours are held with the major objective of preventing bad luck or gaining good luck (Damisch, Barbara and Thomas, 1). Notably, little is known on the major cause of people to maintain seemingly irrational behaviour and thoughts similar to those presented in the short story.  In this regard, Damisch, Barbara and Thomas (1), hold that in many cases superstitions are irrational thoughts that are generated prior to performance of a task in the hop that they are going to change the outcome of the task to favour a given individual.  In this regard, superstitions have the ability to change the cognitive and social orientation of an individual in such manner that he or she perceive the world in a manner that is not acceptable.