J. F. Bierlein one time stated, “ The great job of human life ever has been and still is that of happening a significance of intent, an purpose toward which 1 may direct one ‘s attempts ” . However, this statement is untrue in the short narrative “ The Outsider ” , written by H. P. Lovecraft. Even without sing the terminal of the narrative the reader observes that the chief character is an foreigner, small inside informations through the narrative show the reader that he is an foreigner. Unlike the “ norms ” , the chief character in Lovecraft ‘s narrative has really small or no personal and psychological background. Lovecraft creates the unlittered life of an foreigner who has no ends and no intent instead than the type of individual described by J. F. Bierlein. Therefore, this leads Lovecraft ‘s chief character to go an foreigner.
In “ The Outsider ” , the chief character starts out as a suffering and alone person who appears to hold ne’er had any contact with other persons. He does non hold much memory of others nor can he remember anything about himself. His cognition of how things are is chiefly based on the books that he reads within the palace. For the whole clip, he has been populating aimlessly in the palace that he describes as “ huge and blue Chamberss ” ( 49 ) . There are neither mirrors nor the boy that he longed for. He is ever surrounded by darkness. However, he does hold a taper, which provides sufficient visible radiation to read his antique books. With no ends, no intent, no friends, and no distractions, the chief character has nil to mensurate against. Here, the distinguishable character is seen as an foreigner compared to the being J. F. Bierlein describes.
In the narrative, even the clip was unmeasurable. In such an unlittered life of the foreigner, there is merely boredom. The ennui can go terrific as the hours, yearss, and months stretch into one ageless period. He has ne’er taken the hazard of researching beyond the palace. He ever stays in the prison- like place he inhabits ; where he is the lone populating individual believe to be in the palace. However, he does ever woolgather. He dreams for hours about what he reads in the books and pictures himself “ in the cheery word beyond the eternal wood ” ( 49 ) . His semblances of get awaying from the eternal wood to the “ visible radiation ” he longs for, is abolished by his frights. As he describes: “ Once I tried to get away from the wood, but as I went further from the palace the shadiness grew denser and the air more filled with dwelling fright ; so that I ran madly back lest I lose my manner in maze of nighted silence ” ( 49-50 ) .
The foreigner is funny about the “ light ” as he dreams of himself get awaying from the wood. Yet, he fears the “ shadiness ” he mentions in his dream. The cryptic shadiness seems to deter the foreigner from continuing into the cheery universe. An interesting fact of his dream is that it slightly foreshadows his stoping in narrative.
Finally, Lovecraft gives his chief character a hope, a opportunity, and an flight during the narrative. He gives the foreigner the finding to liberate himself from what he sees as a prison. The foreigner desires to cast light upon himself in order him to get away from his suffering and alone life. Therefore, he journeys his manner to his new life. At this point, Lovecraft gives a trait of a existent human life to his character. Lovecraft sets up a end and gives his character a opportunity to specify himself beyond the prison-like palace that the character has ever lived in.
As the foreigner takes a trip from the crypt to the palace, he becomes “ witting of a sort of awful latent memory ” ( 51 ) and experience that some alterations have been taking topographic point. However, most alterations seem to take the signifier of decay alternatively of growing or transmutation. With fright, he continues his journey to his visible radiation. In add-on, With high hopes, he walks into a “ brightly lighted room ” ( 51 ) full of merrymaking human existences that he had ne’er encountered earlier. He thinks he can be one of the normal people. However, when he steps into the room, he is shocked by the awful rejection of the revellers. This is what directs his hopefulness into the “ blackest paroxysm of desperation ” ( 51 ) . The panic does non stop merely yet. His incubus continues as he sees his ain contemplation in the mirror of the superb flat. He realizes that he will ne’er be accepted by the others. The foreigner so recalls himself as: “ a compound of all that is dirty, eldritch, unwelcome, unnatural, and detestableaˆ¦ morbid shadiness of decayaˆ¦ that the merciful Earth should ever conceal ” ( 52 ) .
The foreigner ‘s narrative demonstrates that he does non bury who he was. By the terminal of the narrative the foreigner reveals who he is. This is different from earlier in the narrative since he tries to deny who he is to both himself and the reader. The incompatibilities of the narrative cause it to go phantasmagoric and dream-like. Where many would reason ( in the treatment ) that the chief character is fundamentally showing “ his vivid imaginativeness ” instead than the fact that he is a graverobber. But at the terminal, the foreigner finally learns to accept his fate and attempts to return to his unlittered life in the palace, like his dream before. However he fails to return to the crypt, similar to his inability to reproduce his old ignorance of himself. As a effect, the chief character begins with his new abandon and free life as an foreigner and a “ friendly graverobber on the dark air current ” ( 53 ) .
Plants Citied
Lovecraft, H. P. , “ The Foreigner ” . Weird Tales, Vol. 7, No. 4. Popular Fiction Publishing Co.
Chicago, IL. April 1926. 49-53.
