Theme of Isolation and Insanity

In all of the Lovecraft’s stories covered and many more, the main protagonists of Lovecraft’s tales always seem to either start off or wind up alone, usually with a draining mental state. As seen by his influences, through his entire life Lovecraft had to put up with mental illnesses of his own family or battle with his own mental struggles, like anxiety. A good example of this can be seen at the end of “The Temple”, where the main protagonist, a German submarine Lt. Commander, is alone in the powerless vessel and begins hearing voices of insane laughter. Another can be seen at the end Polaris where the main protagonist believes that the dream world that he fought for is the real world and our reality is the dream realm.

            A more relatable story that reflects Lovecraft’s own isolation would be in the story, “The Outsider”. Like Lovecraft, the main protagonist is shut in inside his own “home”, never going outside until night. After successfully leaving and adventuring to another home, the protagonist enters and what he believes is a monster, scares the residence away. It is later revealed that the monster the protagonist sees is nothing more than his reflection, and instead of rejecting this, he seems to rather embrace the facts of who he really is. This also parallels to how Lovecraft was able to accept who he is as a person.