H. P. Lovecraft’s The Rats in the Walls was written in 1924, as a short horror story set in 1923 (H.P. Lovecraft). The narrator is a descendent of the de la Poer family, who inherited an estate in England named Exham Priory.  The man renovated the estate despite the disapproval of the nearby residents, which led to the events that followed his moving into the house.  The work is obviously horror story, but Lovecraft’s context that he applies to the story and his use of word choice add to the overall theme of horror.  

No story can be understood without the context.  The context provides background for the story that allows the reader to understand what the author is writing and what they intend for their meaning.  In Lovecraft’s case, he sets the scene in a town in England with a dilapidated family estate that the narrator renovates.  The house has history that dates back to Roman times, when it was initially built, and inhabited by the first de la Poers.  The use of a house that was built close to a thousand years ago provides the reader with some sort of idea as to why the townspeople are frightened by its renovation.  Old houses are commonly associated with being scary frightful places, with unknown darkness around every corner, and the horrific idea of the house being haunted.  The townspeople’s fears of the house being haunted to some degree are quickly confirmed.  The narrator’s cats are the first ones to be set off by the house.  They act nervous and frightened, staring ceaselessly at the walls during the night.  Soon after, the narrator begins to understand the cat’s anxiety as he himself begins to hear noises that he believes are the rats in the walls.  The narrator’s realization that the house is haunted shows that even for a de la Poer, the house is a bad omen, and is haunted for all who would attempt to live in it.

The de la Poer family has a deep rooted history that is described as Druidic, and helps to further build the context surrounding the plot.  This mention is a definitive foreshadowing to the climax of the story, where the narrator essentially transforms into an animal like version of himself and eats his friend, Captain Norrys.  Both the Roman history and Druidic descriptions that the context of the story is based around have an almost mystical association.  The Roman history that especially comes into play in Lovecraft’s story is the use of Latin.  Latin is a dead language that has not been spoken in hundreds of years, outside of Roman Catholicism.  This rarely used language is mentioned only in words that are written in the estate, but is spoken during the narrator’s transformation and ravenous rampage.  The contradicting manner of a religious use of Latin and a murderous man’s Latin slurs that devolve into gibberish help to show its use.  The mystique that surrounds both Druids and Roman history helps to establish the theme of horror that Lovecraft is attempting to instill in the reader.

This theme is further enforced by the word choice throughout the story.  One such example is Lovecraft’s use of the word, plump, to describe Captain Norrys.  At its first occurrence, the word seems innocuous and describing the man as fat.  Because the word plump is usually used in relation to food, it seems a bit out of place when used to describe a man’s weight.  The word choice wouldn’t get as much as a second glance, however, because it does the job that it is expected to do in describing a man who is larger than usual.  The second appearance of the word causes a realization for the reader that this specific description is important and purposeful, since its use is after the narrator declares, “I must be very deliberate now, and choose my words.”  Some sort of event is about to take place at this point in the story so momentous that the narrator had to acknowledge the importance of his word choice.  After this use, the word, plump, is not seen again until the its sequential repetition in the final three paragraphs of the story.  This is during exploration of the catacombs of the estate, and the climax of the story, where the narrator turns animalistic and begins to eat Captain Norrys.  This repetition of word choice during the climax and conclusion of the story help to show the importance that this choice of description played in the story.  While the word plump itself doesn’t directly contribute to the theme of horror in The Rats in the Walls, the way Lovecraft uses it repeatedly, first foreshadowing of Captain Norrys being eaten, but then to build the effect during the climax and show the aftermath of the conclusion, creates a real sense of horror for the reader in the realization after the initial reading.

Lovecraft aimed for The Rats in the Walls to be a horror story, and accomplished this by the nature of the story.  He accomplished this further by including specific elements that built this theme.  The context of a family with a Druidic and Roman history provides the reader with where the story is taking place and how history comes into play in his story.  With only one example of Lovecraft’s word choice, in his use of the word, plump, you can see that that word and every word that he uses in his story is purposeful and malleable in meaning.  His use of context to create such a horrific story coupled with repetitive and targeted word choice caused this story to be even more impactful than the surface reading would appear. 
