The Call of Cthulhu

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1928

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Symbols & Motifs

The Statuette of Cthulhu

In Wilcox’s dream and Johansen’s real-life encounter with Cthulhu, the creature is described in glimpses. The fullest description of Cthulhu’s appearance is Thurston’s account of the statuette recovered from the Louisiana cult. The story suggests that Cthulhu’s physical appearance is so awful that human beings can hardly assimilate it—only a representation of the creature is bearable. This impression is also borne out in Wilcox’s tablet which, Thurston notes, gives only the general outline of the monster.

Despite its emblematic quality, the statuette inspires horror and confusion because not even the members of the American Archaeological Society can guess its origin. Its material resembles no substance known on Earth, and its style resembles the art of no known culture. The most terrifying thing to the scholars is that the statuette is not just unknown but unknowable.

An interesting aspect of the statuette is its small size. Cthulhu and the city of R’lyeh are vast and monstrous, yet the statuettes are described as being eight inches to a foot in height. In Louisiana, the eight-inch statuette sat atop a high pillar. One might expect the carvings of Cthulhu to be vast in scale, but the small size of the statuette suggests that it was meant to be examined close-up by humans. It can fit in the hand, and it can be passed secretly from one person to another. Thus, the statuette represents not only Cthulhu but also the continuation of the cult.

Modernist Art

Cubism and futurism are referenced several times in the story, always in connection with the “queer” geometry of R’lyeh, a world that exists beyond rational perception. The goal of the modernists was to represent the world not as it appears but as it is. They believed an object did not have one absolute form but changed with the perspective of the viewer. The essence of a thing is infinite and can be defined at any moment by several perspectives, colors, shapes, and planes.

Cubism and futurism were artistic movements opposed to the scientific objectivity that defined fields like archeology, anthropology, and mineralogy. Modernism sought to collapse the boundary between art and science; Euclidean geometry was no longer the standard by which artists created a three-dimensional perspective on the canvas. The canvas held infinite perspectives, and it was the artist’s task to express a truth that transcended both science and art.

These concepts parallel the complexity and supra-rational intelligence that distress Thurston, Wilcox, and the others who encounter the Cthulhu Cult. The rational mind cannot abide infinity. The first sentence declares that “the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents” is merciful, meaning that comprehending the complexities of the universe would be more than the human mind could stand (159). Modernist art is nevertheless human and, like the statuettes of Cthulhu, cubist and futurist paintings are representations of the unknowable universe.

Theosophy and The Golden Bough

Theosophy is the belief that ecstatic rituals, chanting, and mystical experience can lead to direct contact with God. The name derives from the Greek “theos” (god) and “sophia” (wisdom). Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a Russian immigrant to the United States, founded the religion in the late 19th century. Widely traveled, she based the religion on practices found in Hinduism, Buddhism, and other Asian traditions. Blavatsky claimed that she encountered a secret spiritual group in Tibet called the “Masters.” Rather than being one cohesive religion, theosophy is a set of practices and attitudes toward attaining contact with the divine.

Esoterica, the occult, the supernatural, and psychic forces all play into theosophical doctrine. Anthropologist James George Frazer’s famous text The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (1890) described the mythology and religious practices of various cultures, including human sacrifice, fertility rituals, and magic. The Golden Bough was influential in Western literature, particularly in Lovecraft’s work. Many of the Cthulhu Cult’s practices resemble those found in theosophy and practices described in Frazer’s book.

Theosophy and The Golden Bough examine the tensions between science, Judeo-Christian religious traditions, and the occult. Neither of these sources portrays non-Western religious or ritual practices negatively; they are understood as alternate ways of attaining mystical experience and connecting with God. Lovecraft, by contrast, attributes negative, primitive, and destructive powers to those who practice non-Western religious rituals. Though Lovecraft’s primary comparison is between the rational and the nonrational, his Eurocentrism implies a negative value judgment on non-Judeo-Christian practices.