The Cats of Ulthar by HP Lovecraft – Literature Review

AH. P. Lovecraft wrote a short story called “The Cats of Ulthar.”

This is the story of how Ulthar came to the decision to make it unlawful to kill cats. The narrator recalls an elderly cotter and his wife trapping and killing their neighbors’ cats before the ban was enacted. Because they were terrified of confronting the elderly couple, residents kept their cats at home and out of harm’s way.

Ulthar was then one day visited by a caravan of strange aliens. They dressed strangely and recited weird prayers that the villagers couldn’t comprehend. Menes, a small orphan child, and his favorite kitty followed the travelers.

Menes was unable to locate his kitten on the third day of the caravan’s stay. He searched the entire village but eventually gave up and began crying. Menes’ cat had been killed, and the villagers felt bad for him and told him about the cotter and his wife’s cat-killing rampage. When Menes learnt of the old couple’s atrocities against cats, he stopped crying and prayed, which caused the clouds in the sky to change shape and darken owing to an unknown force.

The caravan vanished that night, never to be seen again, and when the villagers returned home, they discovered that all of the village cats had vanished as well. The villagers thought the caravan had cursed them and seized their cats in retaliation, but by the next morning, all of the cats had returned to their homes. Surprisingly, all of the cats were obese and had been rejecting food for days.

As a result, a new law was established: “No one may murder a cat in Ulthar.”

In Lovecraft’s other Dreamworld stories, that law is mentioned in passing. Ulthar’s streets are filled with happy, well-cared-for kittens by the time Randolph Carter arrives on his Dream-quest.

H. P. Lovecraft was one of history’s most ardent cat lovers. He was dedicated to his beloved black cat during his childhood, but once it ran away in 1904, he never had another pet. After that, he wrote novels like “The Cats of Ulthar” and “The Rats in the Walls,” as well as poetry like “Sir Thomas Tryout” and “Little Sam Perkins,” and the essay “Cats and Dogs,” in which he convincingly establishes cats’ total superiority over dogs (“The dog is a peasant, and the cat is a gentleman”). For the first time, all of Lovecraft’s cat-related writings are collected in this volume.

It also includes excerpts from hundreds of Lovecraft’s letters, in which he talks of Old Man (an extremely old cat he discovered while wandering the streets of Providence, R.I. ); the pets of his friends and employees, particularly Clark Ashton Smith and E. Hoffmann Price; and the many cats of the “Kappa Alpha Tau” fraternity near his home at 66 Coventry Street. S. T. Joshi, a well-known Lovecraft expert, put the book together. Jason C. Eckhardt, whose art has graced Lovecraftian magazines for decades, has lavishly illustrated it.

“Nigger-Man,” was HP Lovecraft cat name, that come up several times in discussions of Lovecraft’s racial ideas. Lovecraft had a cat named that till 1904. Lovecraft’s cat was most likely named when he was roughly nine years old.

What Does H.P. Lovecraft Stand For? Who Is H.P. Lovecraft?

H.P. Lovecraft, or Howard Phillips Lovecraft, is one of history’s most significant authors. You’ll understand why he’s a horror legend if you’ve read any of his stories.

Lovecraft was the father of horror and the brother of mystery as a prolific writer. His stories have lasted for decades and are certain to do so in the future, as his creatures can be found in almost every modern horror story.

Howard Phillip Lovecraft was born in the year 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island. When Lovecraft was approximately three years old, his father acquired a mental illness as a result of untreated syphilis. He was committed to Butler Mental Hospital, where he resided until 1898.

Due to a poor immune system, Lovecraft spent most of his boyhood at home reading. As a result, he became fascinated with Edgar Allen Poe’s works, which later served as a major source of inspiration for Lovecraft. As he was accepted into high school, but he had a nervous breakdown and dropped out before graduating.

He went into hiding after collapsing, staying inside to read and write away from the world. He didn’t publish most of his early work, with the exception of a few newspaper articles about astronomy, which he was fascinated with as a child.

For a long time, Lovecraft focused on nonfiction before dabbling with fiction in 1917. His first big break came in 1823, when he was published in Weird Tales. He had a brief marriage that ended just as he was about to complete The Call of Cthulu, one of his most famous works.

He went on to spend the rest of his life creating terrifying monsters and realms that continue to inspire people to this day.

In the same way that his boyhood had been terrible, so was his death. Lovecraft couldn’t afford to live because he lacked sufficient funds. He didn’t achieve literary success until after he died.

“The Cats of Ulthar” summary

A short story called “The Cats of Ulthar” was written in June 1920 and published in November of same year.

The narrator remains unidentified, like in most Lovecraft stories, as they tell the story of Ulthar, a place where killing cats has suddenly become forbidden. It dates back to when the neighborhood housed an old couple. The two had a lot of fun catching and killing the cats owned by the Ulthar residents.

As the caravan passes through town, Menes, an orphaned child, is among the passengers. Menes is accompanied by a little black kitten, who is also thought to be an orphan. Cat is concerned when the tiny black kitten goes missing one night. Menes feels enraged when the townspeople tell him about the old couple, and he prays before the caravan leaves town. The elderly couple is attacked and devoured by the town’s final cats.

The residents of the neighborhood are completely unaware of what has occurred. The town cats refuse to eat and lie around for a few days. When the lights in the old couple’s house don’t switch on, the villagers rush inside, hoping to find the couple’s disfigured corpse. Ulthar’s town council then approved a statute against cat murder.

In his early years, Lovecraft authored “The Cats of Ulthar.” Other writers influenced him more during this time. Lord Dunsany, an Anglo-Irish writer, was significantly influenced by “The Cats of Ulthar.” His work influenced early Dunsany stories such as “The White Ship,” “The Street,” “The Terrible Old Man,” (written 5 months before “The Cats of Ulthar”), and others.

When it comes to mystery and the flow of words, Dunsany was a source of inspiration for Lovecraft. Lovecraft was open about his influences, and he made it clear that he aspired to write in the vein of Dunsany. Stephen King, who prefers to write in the manner of the book he’s presently reading, is another well-known novelist who imitates writing styles.

Edgar Allan Poe, who was not directly connected to Lovecraft but was his favorite author and inspired every one of his stories in some way, shape, or form, was another significant inspiration for “The Cats of Ulthar.”

The caravan is being accompanied by Menes, an orphaned teen. He is accompanied by his only sense of belonging, a little black kitten. When the kitten goes missing one day, the locals inform Menes of an elderly couple who murders cats. Menes grows enraged as the caravan departs and begins chanting to the sky. Menes is said to cause the town cats to eat the old couple at night, though this hasn’t been proven. Because he is unseen and unheard, the reader is uninformed of his plea, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks. Cats traces his ancestors all the way back to Egypt. Menes is credited with uniting lower and upper Egypt, and he was Egypt’s first recorded pharaoh. Menes is a Greek word that roughly translates to “perseverance.”

The ancient Egyptians regarded cats as nobles and praised them. To safeguard the pharaoh, cats were reported to have destroyed poisonous snakes. We learn early in the story that the kitten is the boy’s only property, and vice versa. In the same way that cats and monarchs did in ancient times, the two are guarding each other.

In ancient Egypt, anyone who murdered a cat was put to death, even if the killing was unintentional.

Given all of the details surrounding Menes, it’s plausible that the orphan Menes in the story lays a curse on the old couple and possibly the entire village of Ulthar. It is reported that after the couple was killed, a law was created in Ulthar forbidding the killing of cats. Will the murderer face the same fate as the old couple if another cat is slain in town? Also checkout: Types of Digital Marketing

The old couple’s fate is the same as anyone who killed a cat in ancient Egypt, but with a terrifying Lovecraftian twist: Ulthar’s cats ate them rather than humans. The reader is left with a terrifying and emotional vision as a result of the twist. We’re expected to find satisfaction in their horrific demise in some bizarre, twisted way.