However, fame, notoriety and cultural ubiquity also lead to ill-informed stereotypes and stupid memes. The one I'll look at today is "All of HPL's stories end with his protagonist seeing a tentacled monster, running away and then being devoured and/or driven insane". This meme is closely linked to "Robert E. Howard heroes see a monster and kill it. HPL heroes lose their minds."

Like most stereotypes, this is generally true, but certainly not one hundred percent accurate. REH wrote some yarns where the protagonist--after witnessing unspeakable horrors--either died, went mad or killed himself. HPL penned some tales where his protagonists actively fought back, sometimes even winning--for now. Those are the Lovecraft stories I'll look at today.

I should note that much of the violence that takes place in the stories I'm examining occurs at--or near--the end of the tales in question. Spoilers are inevitable. If you are one of the poor souls out there who is afflicted with spoilerphobia, proceed onward with care.

A stand-out moment of Lovecraftian violence can be found in "The Dreams in the Witch House". The protagonist, Gilman, has gradually been brought under the sway of the witch, Keziah Mason. She then tries to make him assist in the sacrifice of a human infant. Mayhem ensues:

"In an instant he had edged up the slanting floor around the end of the table and wrenched the knife from the old woman’s claws; sending it clattering over the brink of the narrow triangular gulf. In another instant, however, matters were reversed; for those murderous claws had locked themselves tightly around his own throat, while the wrinkled face was twisted with insane fury. He felt the chain of the cheap crucifix grinding into his neck, and in his peril wondered how the sight of the object itself would affect the evil creature. Her strength was altogether superhuman, but as she continued her choking he reached feebly in his shirt and drew out the metal symbol, snapping the chain and pulling it free. At sight of the device the witch seemed struck with panic, and her grip relaxed long enough to give Gilman a chance to break it entirely. He pulled the steel-like claws from his neck, and would have dragged the beldame over the edge of the gulf had not the claws received a fresh access of strength and closed in again. This time he resolved to reply in kind, and his own hands reached out for the creature’s throat. Before she saw what he was doing he had the chain of the crucifix twisted about her neck, and a moment later he had tightened it enough to cut off her breath."



Gilman put that bad bitch down.

In "From Beyond", Tillinghast--the friend of the nameless narrator--has constructed a machine which allows dangerous creatures from another dimension into our own. The experiment goes too far and the narrator takes decisive action, placing his pistol shot precisely where it will do the most good:

"What remains to be told is very brief, and may be familiar to you from the newspaper accounts. The police heard a shot in the old Tillinghast house and found us there—Tillinghast dead and me unconscious. They arrested me because the revolver was in my hand, but released me in three hours, after they found it was apoplexy which had finished Tillinghast and saw that my shot had been directed at the noxious machine which now lay hopelessly shattered on the laboratory floor."

The narrator did not shoot Tillinghast. Tillinghast was his friend, for one thing, albeit, the man had obviously gone insane. No, he blasted Tillinghast's machine which was allowing the transdimensional creatures access to our dimesnion. One well-placed round saved the narrator and, possibly, our entire universe. The gunman was a man of steely nerves and a cool intellect. Since none of us have seen anything close to what he witnessed, who are we to judge him for losing consciousness—after saving the world?