The Call of Cthulhu: An Outline

I. Author
A. H.P. Lovecraft
1. Born in 1890, died in 1937
2. Began writing at age 7 with short verse versions of The Odyssey
and The Illiad
3. Published various horror stories over his lifetime
4. His best-known work, The Call of Cthulhu, has, semi-ironically,
gained an Internet "cult following"
II. Setting
A. New England
1. Events recounted occur in the late 1920's through the early to
mid-1930's.
B. R'lyeh
1. Sunken city in the East
2. Cthulhu lies buried and waiting here
3. An earthquake uncovers it, allowing Johansen's crew to
unknowingly awaken Cthulhu
III. Point-of-view
A. First person
1. Told from point of view of the grand-nephew of Professor
Angell, as he discovers his uncle's work and the hidden Cthulhu cult
IV. Plot
A. Exposition
1. Protagonist's grand-uncle dies, leaving him in control of his
assets
2. Protagonist discovers mention of Cthulhu cult in grand-uncle's
papers, finds Wilcox's bas-relief
3. Protagonist searches to find out more about this cult.
B. Rising Action
1. Wilcox has a seizure and goes into a feverous fit; at the same
time, artisans around the world are having disturbing dreams
2. Inspector Legrasse's unit makes a raid on a so-called "voodoo
cult" in the swamps of Louisiana; they find the Cthulhu idol
3. Idol is brought to the American Archaeological Society's meeting;
it is recognized by one sole man
4. The "voodoo cult" Inspector Legrasse's unit found is questioned;
details of the Cthulhu cult are made known.
5. Protagonist visits Wilcox, does not believe he is fabricating the
stories; his credibility and that of the cult stories are raised.
6. Protagonist sees an article about Johansen's crew and the picture
of the Cthulhu idol within; he visits Johansen's widow and finds the letter he left
behind.
C. Climax
1. Johansen sets sail around the time of Wilcox's seizure and the
strange dreams; his crew is attacked and they capture the yacht of the attackers.
2. Johansen's crew lands at R'lyeh, which has been uncovered by a
recent earthquake.
3. They explore the city, noting that the place looks strange and
non-Euclidean, like Wilcox's dreams.
4. They find a door with the visage of Cthulhu engraved upon it
and open it.
5. Cthulhu is reawakened; he chases the crew. Two men die
immediately of fright; three are snatched up by Cthulhu, and one falls to his
death in his panicked frenzy.
6. Johansen and his remaining crew attempt to escape, but Cthulhu
gives chase. They attempt a desperate maneuver and Cthulhu is caught in the
boat's mechanisms and ripped apart. As He attempts to recombine his body
together, Johansen escapes.
D. Falling Action
1. Johansen and his crew return; they are recognized in the paper.
E. Denouement
1. R'lyeh is once more covered; Johansen, Professor Angell, and
others have perished due to the power of Cthulhu's horror.
2. The protagonist realizes that neither the death of Johansen nor
his grand-uncle was natural, and has completely defeated his skepticism. He
wonders what will become of him as he realizes he knows too much and will
surely be killed.
3. The protagonist prays that after his death, should he not survive
finishing the account of what has happened, those who kill him shall see to it
that it is destroyed, and that no other unfortunate soul may come upon the terror
of the Cthulhu cult.
V. Theme
A. Horror
1. Full of horrible, frightening scenes; the terror of the Great Old
Ones and Cthulhu is described as to be unthinkable.
B. The Joy of Ignorance
1. The story begins with a statement that we are ignorant of the
heinous things that lie just beyond that which science has shown us and warns
that should we come to know too much, the result would be madness and a
regression into a dark age.
VI. Characters
A. Protagonist
1. Unnamed. Grand-nephew of Professor Angell, and overseer of
his assets after his death. He continues the work of his grand-uncle and finds out
terrifying secrets of the Cthulhu cult.
2. He begins the story as a skeptic, but the events that transpire and
the unmistakable record suggesting something terrible has happened change
him into one who knows and believes; this has doomed him to the same fate as
his grand-uncle.
B. Wilcox
1. An artist. Had the reputation of a standoffish genius. In the
timeframe where R'lyeh is uncovered, he suffers from strange dreams, and
creates a bas-relief of what he sees. He takes it to Professor Angell, who is excited
by it. He has a seizure and suffers in a feverous, delirious coma-like fit until
R'lyeh is covered once again.
C. Johansen
1. An unlettered sailor. He has no such fantastic dreams of
Cyclopean cities, but he has the unfortune of stumbling upon the city of R'lyeh
after the earthquake leaves it uncovered. Many of his crew-members are killed
on that day, and he himself falls victim after his return due to his knowledge.
VII. Conflict
A. External
1. Man versus Beast?
a.) There are few words to describe what Cthulhu truly is;
this was intentional on the part of Lovecraft, as he wanted the horror of "The
Thing", as it is referred to, to be unimaginable; however, the events of the day at
R'lyeh are best described as man versus beast. Johansen and his crew had to
escape, lest they all be murdered by Cthulhu; and indeed, many were.
B. Internal
1. Protagonist versus Self's Skepticism
a.) The protagonist suffers as he is forced to put aside his
deeply ingrained skepticism and see what the record shows: that the Cthulhu
cult is a very real, and very horrible thing.
2. Johansen versus Self's Desire to Share
a.) It can be easily assumed that Johansen deeply wanted to
tell the world what he experienced that day in R'lyeh, but he must decide
whether to do so and trouble the minds of all, or stay as the only affected one. He
therefore does write an account of this day but in English so his wife cannot read
it and does not release it to anyone else; however, his writings are discovered by
the protagonist.