H.P. Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls" is a hard story to grasp because of how he chose to write the ending.  The idea that the narrator is an unreliable source of information is brought to mind; but if one marks Lovecraft's use of imagery, allusion, and symbolism, the narrator's experience can be viewed as Lovecraft's depiction of how the human mind is home to sinister thoughts once a person gets beneath the surface level pleasantries, rather than the simply being the delusions of a crazy person.

The very beginning of the story details Exham Priory as a haunted house.  Lovecraft says that the narrator's ancestor had been "shaken by some horror greater than that of conscience or the law" and had "a frantic wish to exclude the ancient edifice from his sight and memory" (Lovecraft, 41).  Additionally, due to having been abandoned for decades by the de la Poer family, the house is described as a "shell-like ruin," furthering this image of the stereotypical haunted house (41).  The haunted house image is one most readers are familiar with and the image serves to boost the reader's expectation of something negative happening inside of it. This depiction of the house isn't an isolated event of Lovecraft's use of imagery to impart a sense of meaning on the setting.  Towards the conclusion of the story, the narrator and his exploring party encounter a subterranean cavern that was home to the ancient de la Poer's foodstuffs.  This world's most striking feature is a massive bone pile, "like a foamy sea they stretched, some fallen apart but others wholly or partly articulated as skeletons; these latter invariably in postures of daemoniac frenzy, either fighting off some menace or clutching other forms with cannibal intent" (52).  Lovecraft's use of the word "sea" in describing the bone pile gives the reader a clear image of how vast this pile actually is, lending itself to the horror experienced by all the explorers upon witnessing a perversion of such a vast scope.  Throughout the story, the setting is always described with an eye to detail, which lends itself to the idea that the narrator isn't insane, but was totally aware of what he did to the "plump" Capt. Norrys; with "plump" serving as a way to link Capt. Norrys to the image of food (42).

This idea that there is something dark and savage inside of the human mind is furthered through Lovecraft's use of allusion.  Throughout the work, the narrator gives examples of the house being the site of taboo religious practices beginning with the fact that it "stood on the site of a prehistoric temple; a Druidical or ante-Druidical thing which must have been contemporary with Stonehenge" (43).  Then the Romans brought with them the worship of the Magna Mater, a forbidden goddess.  The Magna Mater is also known as Cybele and was a symbol of balance, but the fact that she was relegated to the subterranean portion of the house seems to suggest that there is an imbalance at work, and as most mythology shows, snubbing a god or goddess has dire consequences.  In addition to the cult that followed Cybele, a Saxon cult followed, and made the temple on which Exham Priory was built "the centre of a cult feared through half the heptarchy" (43).  Lovecraft talks of two cults that were known to use the site of the house for their practices, along with the suspicion of Druidical use.  These religions weren't selected at random by Lovecraft but rather, he used these religions to allude to the stereotypical perception of pagan or cult myths that non-scholars know.  These lesser-known religions are often associated as having violent rituals and sacrifices, which is why these religions must be kept secret.  Lovecraft uses the aforementioned allusions to show that there is a history of violence in this location and the cultish practices are a direct parallel of the mental turmoil that is happening within the narrator's mind.

The most important rhetorical device Lovecraft utilizes to convey his point of the human mind being a place of sinister repressed thought is symbolism.  Looking at the story through this lens, Nigger-Man becomes extremely significant.  He is the only cat of the nine to have come from America to England.  From the real life behavior of cats, it's natural that Nigger-Man tries to get to the rats.  These rats therefore, must be the opposite symbol of what the cat stands for.  The conflict between cat and rat occurs only after the narrator has descended into a veritable hellscape, further symbolizing the idea of the mind containing ugly and foul thoughts the deeper one dives into it.  The symbolic significance of both the rats and the cat are realized during the death of Capt. Norrys.  The narrator claims that it was the rats that killed and partially devoured the Captain, while the other explorers assumed it was Delapore since they found him "crouching in the blackness over the plump, half-eaten body of Capt. Norrys," with Nigger-Man "leaping and tearing" at the narrator's throat (55).  The cat is attacking the narrator for something he claims the rats did.  If the rats did kill Norrys as the narrator claims, then it can be symbolically understood that it was the dark repressed part of the human mind that killed Norrys, it wasn't conscious thought.  For those actions, Nigger-Man attacked the narrator, symbolically showing that his conscience is attacking him for letting such dark thoughts successfully being acted upon, a conscience that was with him his whole life since Nigger-Man was an American cat.  Furthermore, the narrator relates to the reader that Nigger-Man was taken from him and the rats have followed him to the asylum where he currently resides (55).  This suggests that Delapore has symbolically become acutely aware of his inner darkness and has lost his conscience, and ultimately will not be able to regulate his sinister side.

Through his use of imagery, allusion to cult religion, and symbolism, Lovecraft has crafted an ominous story that posits the theory that the human mind is only good on the surface level; but if a person experiences a trigger that sends thought deeper into the subconscious, there will be dire and violent consequences.  Lovecraft also suggests to the reader that those changes are permanent, a thought that makes one wonder what they will do if their trigger is ever encountered.

