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The Rats in the Walls
- 184 statements
- 35 feature instances
- 10 referencing feature instances
| The Rats in the Walls | type |
TVTItem | |
| The Rats in the Walls | label |
The Rats in the Walls | |
| The Rats in the Walls | page |
TheRatsInTheWalls | |
| The Rats in the Walls | comment |
The Rats in the Walls is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in August-September 1923, and published in Weird Tales in March 1924.It represents a rare Lovecraft story that does not contain any overt supernatural elements, other than the mention of ancient worship and the imaginings of an increasingly unreliable narrator. After his son dies from injuries sustained during the Great War a man named Delapore leaves New England, with his nine cats, to purchase and restore the hereditary lands of his ancestors, the De la Poer family, in England. Helped by a friend of his son's, who just happens to be the nephew of the man currently in possession of the land, he discovers generations of mistrust and suspicion aided by local traditions of horrible, nasty deeds attributed to the land and his ancestors specifically. Then the cats start acting weird, the narrator starts having troubling dreams and the newly renovated ancestral home may be overrun by an army of nocturnal rats. And things just go downhill from there...The complete story can be read online here.Warning: Spoilers Below | |
| The Rats in the Walls | fetched |
2023-11-14T11:14:43Z | |
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2023-11-14T11:14:43Z | |
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Dropped link to Bowdlerise: Not a Feature - ITEM | |
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| The Rats in the Walls / int_1246c26c | type |
Villainous Lineage | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_1246c26c | comment |
Villainous Lineage: Implied, it seems that the de la Poers have a hereditary predilection towards madness and evil, even the single surviving branch had a few black sheep, despite its progenitor being a significantly nicer person than his ancestors (the main character mentions an uncle who had gone off the deep end and run off to become a voodoo cultist). It's also implied that the Priory itself, or rather the caverns it was built on, was the cause of this curse, as the narrator mentions that there was no record of any sort of evil in his family before his ancestor was given the land by Henry III in the 13th century. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_1246c26c | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_1869b4b1 | type |
Unreliable Narrator | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_1869b4b1 | comment |
Unreliable Narrator: The first-person narration dips into this toward the end. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_1869b4b1 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_18aff462 | type |
Artistic License – Biology | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_18aff462 | comment |
Artistic License - Biology: It'd be extremely difficult to maintain a breeding population for generations that relied entirely on inbreeding, since the chances of dying young from genetic abnormalities or being sterile would greatly increase with each generation (see: Tutankhamun and Charles II), rendering the idea that the lineage would have survived long enough to become ape-like quadrupeds highly unlikely (and that doesn't take into account the fact humans would make terrible livestock due to a very slow breeding cycle, and the diseases that would surely set in from keeping so many people packed together in squalor for centuries). Terrifyingly averted, since the de la Poers don't. Early in the book it's noted that the people of Anchester resent the de la Poers for "the occasional disappearance of villagers through several generations." With the revelation of the grotto, the reader discovers what those villagers, and who knows how many others, were used for. | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_18aff462 | featureApplicability |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_18aff462 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_1adcd502 | type |
Sins of Our Fathers | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_1adcd502 | comment |
Sins of Our Fathers: Delapore is made to suffer for his ancestors' crimes. | |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_1adcd502 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_22071825 | type |
I'm a Humanitarian | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_22071825 | comment |
I'm a Humanitarian: The hideous truth behind all the horrible legends surrounding the Exham Priory and its inhabitants. The horrible reveal maddened the narrator into killing his companion and eat his flesh. | |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_22071825 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_38f1a7ed | type |
Defector from Decadence | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_38f1a7ed | comment |
Defector from Decadence: The narrator's ancestor, who killed his entire degenerate family when he discovered the truth of their evil, and fled to America. The people of the surrounding area considered him something of a hero and didn't even try to stop his escape. A nobleman who had married into the family ended up killing his wife when he discovered some gruesome secret about her. When he explained his motives to the local priest (we're never told exactly what they were), he immediately absolved him of his crime and told him he had committed no sin. | |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_38f1a7ed | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_3d85c6bc | type |
Black Speech | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_3d85c6bc | comment |
Black Speech: As the protagonist realizes the truth about his family's history, he starts to deliriously rant in antiquated, medieval English, then in Roman-era Latin and finally in Celtic. Eventually his speech degenerates into guttural, wordless grunting implied to be a primordial pre-druidic tongue. | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_3d85c6bc | featureApplicability |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_3d85c6bc | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_475d592d | type |
You Dirty Rat! | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_475d592d | comment |
You Dirty Rat!: Played with, the rats aren't actually evil themselves, but the heralds of something much darker. They're still treated as dangerous and monstrous; shortly after the narrator's ancestor wiped out the de la Poers and set fire to the castle, their abhuman "cattle" trapped in the underground city were devoured by rats, resulting in a population explosion which then proceeded to swarm the countryside in a "historic orgy of devastation which the peasants will never forget." | |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_475d592d | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_479d4e5a | type |
Would Hurt a Child | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_479d4e5a | comment |
Would Hurt a Child: Goes for all the evil de la Poers, but one particular family member mentioned in passing was treated as a virtual boogeyman by the children of the town. | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_479d4e5a | featureApplicability |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_479d4e5a | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_4dcfdb68 | type |
It's the Only Way to Be Sure | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_4dcfdb68 | comment |
It's the Only Way to Be Sure: The narrator mentions at the end that "they have blown up Exham Priory" in response to the horrors discovered there. | |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_4dcfdb68 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_4e3d253b | type |
Downer Ending | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_4e3d253b | comment |
Downer Ending: The story ends with the main character going mad after realizing his ancestors engaged in human farming and cannibalism, kills and eats Mr. Norrys, and is subdued, has his cat taken away from him and is committed to an asylum where he constantly hears the rats haunting him. | |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_4e3d253b | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_4e7c4536 | type |
Wham Line | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_4e7c4536 | comment |
Wham Line: In the radio play we get this as the searchers descend the stair. | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_4e7c4536 | featureApplicability |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_4e7c4536 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_5be7bcfa | type |
Older Than They Think | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_5be7bcfa | comment |
Older Than They Think: In universe, the Exham Priory itself - the visible parts are old enough (ranging from Gothic, Roman, Druidic and possibly even native Cymric) but then they get down into the caverns and the further they move the older the remains, both structural and skeletal, become. The exact age of the underground ruins are never totally established, since they only explore a small fraction and never find out how far the caverns descend; the point where "typical creepy castle" turns into "High-Octane Lovecraft" is when Sir William notes as they're descending the stairs that from the marks in the stonework, the passage was chiseled from below - the passage wasn't cut to permit access to the caverns, whoever or whatever lived in the caverns dug its way out. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_5be7bcfa | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_66755d29 | type |
Author Avatar | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_66755d29 | comment |
Author Avatar: Like Lovecraft himself our narrator is a cat lover and, after his move to England, a budding historian—albeit mostly just of his own family line. His favourite cat also shares a name with one of Lovecraft's own cats. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_66755d29 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_677ecaa9 | type |
People Farms | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_677ecaa9 | comment |
People Farms: One of the investigators the author brought with him states that, based on the skeletons they find, the poor unfortunates kept down below had been so interbred they had devolved to walking on all fours. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_677ecaa9 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_6977c45e | type |
Purple Prose | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_6977c45e | comment |
Purple Prose: Not as bad as some of Lovecraft's works but still definitely there. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_6977c45e | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_7b454a57 | type |
White Sheep | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_7b454a57 | comment |
White Sheep: One of the hero's ancestors despised his family's evil deeds. When he learned the full extent of their depravity, he killed them and left to start a new life in America. | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_7b454a57 | featureApplicability |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_7b454a57 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_7c4f6612 | type |
Comic-Book Adaptation | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_7c4f6612 | comment |
A 2011 Comic-Book Adaptation simply didn't refer to him by name at all. | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_7c4f6612 | featureApplicability |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_7c4f6612 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_863fa679 | type |
What Happened to the Mouse? | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_863fa679 | comment |
What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to the rats? The titular rats. A horde of rats that burst forth on the countryside centuries ago is part of the legend of Exham Priory. But at the time of setting, in the 20th Century, Delapore hears rats scrabbling and scratching inside the (stone) walls of the castle. Even his cat Nigger-Man hears them and reacts, fiercely. Poison is set out for them, to no effect. But the rats never appear in the story — they are not even present in the cavern below the priory where so many hideous things are revealed. (Delapore later again hears rats in the walls of the insane asylum, but that can be dismissed as a madman's hallucination.) | |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_863fa679 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_89b8822f | type |
Go Mad from the Revelation | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_89b8822f | comment |
Go Mad from the Revelation: It's more or less left up to the reader whether the narrator was driven mad by what he found or the madness was inherit in his blood and only needed a slight push to go spiraling out of control. Thornton the psychic researcher ends up in the cell next to the narrator, possibly after seeing him cannibalize Norrys. One of the folk tales about the estate revolved around a servant going insane from seeing something in the Priory in broad daylight. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_89b8822f | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_8ed5c6e4 | type |
Asshole Victim | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_8ed5c6e4 | comment |
Asshole Victim: Most of the protagonist's ancestors ended up murdered by the White Sheep of the family. Notably, the locals considered him a hero and made no effort to apprehend him. | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_8ed5c6e4 | featureApplicability |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_8ed5c6e4 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_90abf35b | type |
Formerly Sapient Species | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_90abf35b | comment |
Formerly Sapient Species: The de la Poer family sated their cannibalistic appetites by breeding "human pigs" in immense underground food pens. The breeding stock was so inbred and twisted towards the end that some of them had devolved into quadrupeds, and they had largely lost the capacity for thought. | |
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| The Rats in the Walls | hasFeature |
The Rats in the Walls / int_90abf35b | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_95c2a9dd | type |
Outliving One's Offspring | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_95c2a9dd | comment |
Outliving One's Offspring: The narrator lost his son, Alfred, who succumbed to injuries he had sustained in World War I. For most of the story, the narrator doesn't dwell too much on it, and it appears to be mostly an innocuous background detail to explain how he knows Edward Norrys, who was a friend of his son as the two of them met on the front. But it gets a dark twist later, when the narrator snaps and attacks Norrys, revealing that he resented him for ultimately surviving the war, while Alfred didn't. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_95c2a9dd | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_96144372 | type |
Aristocrats Are Evil | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_96144372 | comment |
Aristocrats Are Evil: The protagonist's ancestors fit the bill quite nicely, save for the Defector from Decadence that became his direct ancestor. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_96144372 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_9c1f758a | type |
Kill It with Fire | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_9c1f758a | comment |
Kill It with Fire: de la Pore's ancestor came to the conclusion that this was the only remedy for his family's excesses. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_9c1f758a | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_b02f996a | type |
Town with a Dark Secret | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_b02f996a | comment |
Town with a Dark Secret: Technically a family with a dark secret - It is implied that throughout its history any family member let in on the secret that didn't react well or any member who simply didn't 'fit in' was gotten rid of. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_b02f996a | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_b51b5d | type |
Deteriorates Into Gibberish | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_b51b5d | comment |
Deteriorates Into Gibberish: Used to terrifying effect as described above. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_b51b5d | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_cb70651c | type |
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_cb70651c | comment |
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's one of the few Lovecraft works that only hints at the supernatural - nothing concrete ever appears despite all the foreshadowing. It's not even stated whether exploring the caverns awakened the evil in the narrator's bloodline or he simply snapped like a twig upon discovering his ancestors were a cannibal cult. Even the most obvious supernatural implication in the story, the presence of chiselmarks going up from the limestone grotto under Exham Priory, is immediately undercut by the discovery of faults in the cliff face outside. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_cb70651c | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_d791dbbb | type |
Cannibal Larder | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_d791dbbb | comment |
Cannibal Larder: Basically the entire hollowed out limestone cavern found underneath the Exham Priory but also specifically the ancient English building Capt Norrys inspects and presumably many more, which not only served as a Cannibal Larder, kitchens and disposal grounds for the degenerate, cannibalistic De La Poer family, but also contained breeding pens where the family had raised generations of human "cattle", some of which so completely bred into food that they had regressed to walking on all fours as shown by the bones remaining in the ruins. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_d791dbbb | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_dae3844e | type |
Hidden Disdain Reveal | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_dae3844e | comment |
Hidden Disdain Reveal: The narrator tears Norrys to pieces cursing him that he lived while his son died. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_dae3844e | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_dba4ae4f | type |
Arc Welding | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_dba4ae4f | comment |
Arc Welding: The Atlanta Radio Theater Company version mentions that the cult of the Magna Mater is associated with The Great Old Ones of the larger Cthulhu Mythos. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_dba4ae4f | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_dda99fa8 | type |
Despair Event Horizon | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_dda99fa8 | comment |
Despair Event Horizon: The climax implies this is what happens to the protagonist, as the horror of what he's uncovered combined with the loss of his family, finally brings him over the edge. When he attacks one of the supporting characters, he rants about how "the War ate my boy, damn them all, and The Yanks ate Carfax with flames and burnt Grandsire Delapore". | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_dda99fa8 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_e8ca5cb3 | type |
Freudian Slip | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_e8ca5cb3 | comment |
Freudian Slip: In the Dark Adventure Radio Theater production, Delapore accidentally calls Norrys by his son's name, Alfred. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_e8ca5cb3 | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_f88f2449 | type |
Downer Beginning | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_f88f2449 | comment |
Downer Beginning: The main character's son is horribly injured in World War 1 and left an invalid. The main character spends two years taking care of him before he dies, leaving the main character alone, as his wife had died years ago. It's implied that him taking it upon himself to restore Exham is at least partially to keep distracted from his grief. | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_f88f2449 | |
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ItemName | |
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The Rats in the Walls / int_name | |
| The Rats in the Walls / int_name | itemName |
The Rats in the Walls |
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