It can be universally stated and proven that the paranormal aspects of the world are not entirely distinguished in their entirety. Does this mean that what an individual perceives as supernatural is automatically false until evidence or proof is established, or can it be left to interpretation? H.P. Lovecraft is known for his gruesome and horrific depictions of fictional experiences that leave readers shaken with fear and filled with apprehension about the unknown. In his spine-chilling work, “The Rats in the Walls”, Lovecraft continuously makes references to otherworldly beings and preternatural circumstances to push the psychological boundaries of the reader. The main perspective is that of Delapore, a man whose secret lineage led him on the path of being possessed by the spirit of his cannibalistic ancestor.

Over the course of his early life, Delapore portrays how his interest in his family’s past was never exceptionally major: “…as I merged into the greyness of Massachusetts business life I lost all interest in the mysteries which evidently lurked far back in my family tree” (76). There is never an instance where he is piqued with mild curiosity or intrigue. However, Delapore’s attention is immediately captured when he is introduced to Exham Priory, an estate previously owned by his long deceased forefathers, and becomes drawn to restore its former grandeur by the unearthly beckoning of his ancestors: “On July 16, 1923, I moved into Exham Priory after the last workman had finished his labours. The restoration had been a stupendous task, for little had remained of the deserted pile but a shell-like ruin; yet because it had been the seat of my ancestors I let no expense deter me” (75). 

After moving into Exham Priory, Delapore delves into the “fireside tales” that depicted his ancestors to be “a race of hereditary daemons” and “cursed of God” (77-78). Lovecraft uses these lines to shroud readers in a veil of mystery as to whether Delapore’s family should actually be visualized as described, introducing the first instances of a supernatural presence. A disturbed Delapore laments, “These myths and ballads, typical as they were of crude superstition, repelled me greatly. Their persistence, and their application to so long a line of my ancestors, were especially annoying” (78). Delapore’s casual ignorance is what eventually led to his spiritual possession. 

 Delapore begins having recurring “dreams of the most horrible sort…where a white-bearded daemon swineherd drove about with his staff a flock of fungous, flabby beasts…the swineherd paused and nodded over his task, a mighty swarm of rats rained down on the stinking abyss and fell to devouring beasts and man alike” (81). These nightmares were the first attempts at contact made by his ancestor’s spirit. The “white-bearded daemon swineherd” was the psychological interpretation Delapore’s mind conjured to represent the spirit, whose cannibalistic nature was trying to possess. The “fungous, flabby beasts” are the restless spirits of his family’s victims, whom Delapore later describes as “quadruped things—with their occasional recruits from the biped class—had been kept in stone pens…great herds of them, evidently fattened on the coarse vegetables whose remains could be found as a sort of poisonous ensilage at the bottom of huge stone bins older than Rome” after finding their long-hidden bones (87).

What does it feel like to become possessed by an otherworldly apparition? As Delapore’s cautious excavation crew continues into “Nightmare chasms choked with the pithecanthropoid, Celtic, Roman, and English bones of countless unhallowed centuries”, he becomes separated from the party (88). Wandering alone, he begins describing his terror in a way that is alarmingly descriptive, signaling to the reader the inception of spiritual possession and evidence of a paranormal presence, “I heard voices, and yowls, and echoes, but above all there gently rose that impious, insidious scurrying; gently rising, rising, as a stiff bloated corpse gently rises above an oily river that flows under endless onyx bridges to a black, putrid sea” (88). In the deep dark of the Priory, Delapore is dominated and preoccupied by the ancient, cannibalistic ghost of his ancestor: “Something bumped into me—something soft and plump…” (88). He mistakes this for the ghosts of the “rats; the viscous, gelatinous, ravenous army that feast on the dead and the living” (88) which constantly plagued his household and initially led to his descent into the “sightless Stygian worlds” of the Priory (88). 

Often over the course of history, cats were seen as connections to the supernatural world and advocates to the paranormal occurrences of the world. As seen throughout the “Rats in the Walls”, Lovecraft used Delapore’s honored collection of cats to create events where the reader could witness circumstances of the preternatural world. It began with “A servant complained of restlessness among all the cats in the house” and eventually led to Delapore’s revelation that they could also hear “The verminous slithering of ravenous, gigantic rats” to which he bore great aversion to (80-81). These rats were not heard by the other human beings present in the story because the spirits made themselves known only to Delapore. However, this did not exclude the notable sensitivities associated with felines and the ethereal. Lovecraft also exhibited this hypersensitivity through Nigger-man, a cat whom Delapore held in high reverence. The fearless feline seems to have a compulsive and needy obsession with the paranormal spirits. Lovecraft displays an instance where Nigger-man attempts to save Delapore from the ancestral spirit that occupies his body: “…me crouching in the blackness over the plump, half-eaten body of Capt. Norrys, with my own cat leaping and tearing at my throat” (89). 

“The Rats in the Walls” contained numerous experiences with the “other world” and H.P. Lovecraft never failed to leave readers speechless. After submerging his readers in a haunting perspective, he concludes the ghastly tale with a final disclaimer where a piteous Delapore states, “That is what they say I said when they found me in the blackness after three hours… they accuse me of a hideous thing, but they must know that I did not do it. They must know it was the rats; the slithering, scurrying rats whose scampering will never let me sleep; the daemon rats that race behind the padding in this room and beckon me down to greater horrors than I have ever known; the rats they can never hear; the rats, the rats in the walls” (89). His inability to recollect his gruesome descent into cannibalism and insanity accompanied with the reference to the “rats” is Lovecraft’s final link to the paranormal, ultimately leading to the conclusion that the spirit left Delapore’s body after satiating his ‘unfinished business’.
