The Call of Cthulhu

The Call of Cthulhu Literary Elements

Genre

Science Fiction

Setting and Context

1920s New England, Louisiana, Australia, and Norway

Narrator and Point of View

Francis Wayland Thurston (First Person)

Tone and Mood

Horrific, Supernatural, Ominous

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist: Thurston. Antagonist: Cthulhu cult.

Major Conflict

The conflict is between Thurston and the Cthulhu cult, and more broadly, between humanity and the "Old Ones."

Climax

Johansen's discovery of Cthulhu's resting place.

Foreshadowing

The subtitle of the story foreshadows Thurston's death.

Understatement

Johansen calls Cthulhu a "mountain" because he cannot describe it.

Allusions

The cities of the "Old Ones" are described as "Cyclopean," an allusion to Greek mythology.

Imagery

The stone idol that Legrasse and Johansen recover is an image that reveals the outline of Cthulhu.

Paradox

Cthulhu's ruins are architecturally paradoxical, described as conforming to "non-Euclidean geometry."

Parallelism

Johansen dies under mysterious circumstances in precisely the same way that Angell died.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Personification

Lovecraft personifies Wilcox's clay bas-relief, calling it "hellish," "puzzling," and "shockingly frightful."

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