Theme of Forbidden Knowledge

This theme is most commonly seen in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos stories, where either the main protagonists of the story or the people around them are driven by a strong curiosity to discover some sort of hidden knowledge. Most by the end wind up going mad or suffering a crueler fate worse than death. This is most prominently seen in the stories “From Beyond” and “The Nameless City”. In “From Beyond” the friend of the main protagonist creates a machine, allowing him and anyone else within the range of the machine to see with the sight of ultra violet. This causes the main protagonist to see horrific creatures and for the inventor to go mad and almost kill the main protagonist. Though he survives, he is scared for life and will never be able to look at the world the same way again.

            In “The Nameless City”, the protagonist is driven by his curiosity and desire to discover the secrets of the hidden city that were spoken by a mad prophet. This eventually leads him to discover a race of reptilian like creatures who were lived before mankind, but he eventually realizes that the creatures are not actually dead after remembering a line from the mad prophet’s song. He is then trapped in the buried city for an entire night, and finally escapes in the end with his sanity barely intact.