The paranormal presence of the rats in the story “rats in the walls” can be tracked and is a moving point for the story. Insanity and paranormal presence go hand in hand throughout H.P Lovecraft’s story “Rats in the Walls” the paranormal presence of rats drive Delapore to insanity.

“He roved from room to room, restless and disturbed, and sniffed constantly about the walls which formed part of the old Gothic structure” (Lovecraft 80) this quote describes the first incident of paranormal activity. The cat is wondering about the house late at night, sniffing the walls and searching for something. It is clear that he can sense a presence that is unknown, for now, to everyone even Delapore. Though this seems so incredibly insignificant, for maybe the cat was just restless due to his new surroundings or some other explainable reason this night sticks with Delapore and he “cannot consistently suppress it” (Lovecraft 80). This is important because it is now subconsciously in his mind that there is something wrong with the house. “The following day a servant complained of restlessness among all the cats in the house” (lovecraft 80) the other people noticed the cats wandering about the house. Knowing this the incident seems less crazy. Delapore concludes to the fact “I told the man that there must be some singular odor or emanation from the old stonework, imperceptible to human senses, but affecting the delicate organs of cats even through the new woodwork” (Lovecraft 80). With this the idea of a paranormal presence is pushed to the back of Delapore’s mind. The idea that there may be the presence of mice and rats is denied and dismissed by Delapore “and when the fellow suggested the presence of mice or rats, I mentioned that there had been no rats there for three hundred years, and that even the field mice of the surrounding country could hardly be found in these high walls, where they had never been known to stray” (Lovecraft 80).  Even though Delapore dismissed this idea of the possibilities of Rats in the walls the thought still sticks with him. Though it may be subconscious this idea is now in Delapore’s head and will be something that he can now conclude to when strange things begin to happen.

That night Delapore dozes off in his study with Nigger-man. He is awoken when the cat stirs violently from his place and is staring at a point on the wall with an arra on it. “Whether the arras actually moved I cannot say. I think it did, very slightly. But what I can swear to is that behind it I heard a low, distinct scurrying as of rats or mice” (Lovecraft 81). The cat is in a sort of trance as he is staring at the wall and attacks the arra only to reveal that there is nothing behind it. Though Delapore can still hear the scurrying of the rats.  The next morning, he questions the servants only to realize he was the only one that had noticed anything unusual. “The odd incidents—so slight yet so curious—appealed to his sense of the picturesque, and elicited from him a number of reminiscences of local ghostly lore” (Lovecraft 81). This quote represents the fact that all of these incidents may not seem significant but they represent the paranormal activity that is happening. They also represent the building of severity in the incidents. From the cats being restless to the slight sound of scurrying in the walls. 

A few nights later Delapore is again awoken in the night but this time from a strange dream about rats raining down on the abyss when his cat Niggerman bites him and is hissing and snarling at the walls. “This time I did not have to question the source of his snarls and hisses, and of the fear which made him sink his claws into my ankle, unconscious of their effect; for on every side of the chamber the walls were alive with nauseous sound—the verminous slithering of ravenous, gigantic rats” (Lovecraft 80). This quote supports the idea of paranormal presence because in one moment the room is alive with sound and shaking and when the lights are turned on it all stops. Delapore follows Nigger-man out of the room and down the stairs. “Reaching the bottom, I switched on the light, which did not this time cause the noise to subside. The rats continued their riot, stampeding with such force and distinctness that I could finally assign to their motions a definite direction” (Lovecraft 82). The noises of the rats are so overwhelming that they are too loud to even track where they are heading. This is important to my analysis because if they are this loud then everyone in this house should be able to hear them, but it seems as though he is the only one. As he is following the sounds he runs into a couple of the servants who say they are searching for an unknown disturbance that has caused all of the cats to be thrown into a snarling panic. With this statement Delapore must realize that he is the only one that can hear the scurrying rats in the walls. It is confirmed that they cannot hear the rats as he can when he asks if they have heard them and they reply and say no. The idea of being alone or the only on that can hear/see something is a common way to drive someone to insanity and each one of these events that have occurred it seems as though Delapore is the only one who can hear what is happening in the house. 

These events of paranormal activity continue to escalate. From just the stirring of the cats in the night to the roaring sound of rats scurrying in the walls. Each event has made Delapore realize more and more that he is the only one who can hear them thus driving him further and further to insanity. Delapore invites his friend Capt Norrys to further investigate these strange occurrences. They plant themselves in the vault and wait to see if the rats are coming from down there when they realize this is all a bit much for just the two of them they head back upstairs and form a plan. A few nights later He, captain Norrys and five other men head down to the deepest of the cellars. “There now lay revealed such a horror as would have overwhelmed us had we not been prepared” (Lovecraft 83) as they descended down to the basement they found a horror of skeletons and bones that were just left there after all of these years. Death is a sign of paranormal activity if there was once life that existed there and they died they may still be existing there as a ghostly presence. This is reassurance for Delapore that he isn’t insane and that the rats do indeed exist. To everyone else they just see death and horror.  “All the bones were gnawed, mostly by rats, but somewhat by others of the half-human drove” (Lovecraft 84). This is evidence of rats actually being in the house at some point. As they wander further and further into the basement Delapore begins to lose sight of everyone but capt Norry. ”My searchlight expired, but still I ran. I heard voices, and yowls, and echoes, but above all there gently rose that impious” (Lovecraft 85). The sounds of the rats begin to rise around him and he begins running with them. He thinks they are going to eat him. Running with the rats and having these thoughts drives him to complete insanity he begins speaking gibberish and is lost in the basement. “when they found me in the blackness after three hours; found me crouching in the blackness over the plump, half-eaten body of Capt. Norrys” (Lovecraft 85). His insanity drives him to his breaking point of killing and eating his friend.

The paranormal presence within the priory drove Delapore to insanity. Each little event and occurance pushed him further and further toward his breaking point. They may have seemed insignificant but they changed his entire life. They made it impossible for him to focus on anything but what was causing them. The sounds were so loud he questioned within himself why he was the only one who could hear them. The rats drove him to insanity. 
