The Outsider (short story)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Outsider" is a short story by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft in 1921^[1] and first published in the April 1926 issue of Weird Tales.^[2] It is about a mysterious individual who awakens to find himself completely alone and what happens when he attempts to make contact with others.

"The Outsider" combines fantasy and horror into an atmospheric, surrealistic, and nightmarish tale. It is one of Lovecraft's few tales that uses human emotion as an important part of the story.

"Michael Whelan's representation of 'The Outsider'

1 Inspiration
2 Reaction
3 Synopsis
4 Connections to other Lovecraft stories
5 In popular culture
6 References
- 6.1 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Inspiration

In a letter, Lovecraft himself said that, of all his tales, this story most closely resembles the style of his idol Edgar Allan Poe, writing that it "represents my literal though unconscious imitation of Poe at its very height."^[3] The opening paragraphs echo those of Poe's "Berenice", while the horror at the party recalls the unmasking scene in "The Masque of the Red Death".^[4]

The story may also have been inspired in part by Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Fragments From the Journal of a Solitary Man", in which a man dreams that he is walking down Broadway in a burial shroud, only understanding the shocked reaction of passersby when he sees his reflection in a shop window.^[5]

Another suggested literary model is Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein (1818), in which the creature causes a shock when he enters a cottage: "I had hardly placed my foot within the door before the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted." The monster later looks in a pool of water and sees his reflection for the first time.^[6]

Colin Wilson, in The Strength to Dream (1961), points to Oscar Wilde's short story "The Birthday of the Infanta", in which a misshapen dwarf is horrified to see his reflection for the first time.^[7]

Some critics have suggested that "The Outsider" is autobiographical, and that Lovecraft was talking about his own life when he wrote, "I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men." An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia finds this analysis to be exaggerated, but suggests that the story "may possibly be indicative of HPL's own self-image, particularly the image of one who always thought himself ugly and whose mother told at least one individual about her son's 'hideous' face."^[8]

[edit] Reaction

Lovecraft was highly critical of "The Outsider", writing:

To my mind this tale--written a decade ago--is too glibly mechanical in its climactic effect, & almost comic in the bombastic pomposity of the language. As I re-read it, I can hardly understand how I could have let myself be tangled up in such baroque & windy rhetoric as recently as ten years ago.^[9]

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

"The Outsider" is written, like much of Lovecraft's work, in the first person, and details the miserable and apparently lonely life of an individual who appears to have had no contact with anyone else for a great many years. His memory of others is vague, and he can seem to recall nothing of who he is or any kind of personal history. The character dwells in a vast but incredibly ancient castle, from which he never seems to have ventured. His only knowledge of what lay beyond has come exclusively from books.

The narrator tells of his eventual determination to free himself from what he sees as a prison. He decides to climb the ruined staircase of the high castle tower. At the top of the steps is a grate in the ceiling which he removes and climbs through. Amazingly, he finds himself not at a great height, but at ground level in another world. He wanders through a churchyard and some countryside in this new land until he reaches another castle.

Drawn to a party he can hear within, he steps into the room only to see the entire gathering flee, although he does not understand the source of their horror. Alone once again, he approaches what he thinks is a doorway to another room and catches sight of a hideous, rotting figure. Reflexively throwing out a hand, he touches not the creature, but a mirror, and sees himself as he really appears.

[edit] Connections to other Lovecraft stories

Ghouls make frequent appearances in Lovecraft's work, most notably in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926).
This story also mentions Nitocris, a legendary queen of Egypt, who makes an appearance in the 1924 Lovecraft and Harry Houdini collaboration "Imprisoned With the Pharaohs".
In "The Haunter of the Dark", Nephren-Ka is mentioned as the pharaoh who built "a temple with a windowless crypt" to the Shining Trapezohedron, and "did that which caused his name to be stricken from all monuments and records".

[edit] In popular culture

Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka (1998) is an album title by death metal band Nile based on a quote from "The Outsider".
"It Grieves My Heart", a song by Draconian, quotes from "The Outsider".

[edit] References

Lovecraft, Howard P. (1984). “The Outsider”, S. T. Joshi (ed.): The Dunwich Horror and Others, 9th corrected printing, Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-870-54037-8. Definitive version.
Lovecraft, Howard P. [1936] (1999). “The Outsider”, S. T. Joshi (ed.): The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. London, UK; New York, NY: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-1411-8234-2.

[edit] Notes

^ "Lovecraft's Fiction", The H. P. Lovecraft Archive.
^ "H. P. Lovecraft's 'The Outsider'", The H. P. Lovecraft Archive.
^ S. T. Joshi, explanatory notes to "The Outsider", The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories.
^ S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 199.
^ Joshi and Schultz, p. 198.
^ Cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 198.
^ Cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 198.
^ Joshi and Schultz, p. 199.
^ H. P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters Vol. 3, p. 379; cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 198.