Beast in the Cave

Of many of Lovecraft's works, this one keeps haunting me. It is classified as juvenalia, but it was accepted as an adult work. I find several issues with the story.

First, if one applies decostruction and form criticism to the work, it clearly is a heavily edited work. Mr. Joshi declares that it is edited and can be proven, though I have yet to see several versions in print. I do believe that it had several editions.

First, I believe that the weeping scene is an allusion to the death of Lovecraft's Grandfather at Eastertime (Mary clutches Jesus and weeps: John 20:11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre ... 17Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not..). I believe it would be a typical Baptist sermon to mention this passage at Eastertime. More so, if Lovecraft's Grandfather died at Easter and therefore the funeral would have been centered about this theme.

OK, that's sheer conjecture.

There is also the elusive figure of Alphaeus Spring Packard, Jr. lurking throughout The Beast in the cave. A reknowned Brown University professor, Packard spent much of his life advocating evolution and used the cave systems - notably Mammoth Cave - to prove his theories.

It can be no coincidence that Lovecraft worked hard on this story, placed it in the far off Mammoth Cave, and ended up with an albino cave creature which distinctively was man devolved back to an apish creature.

This is no horror story, per se, it is a scientific adventure. It was Lovecraft's way to work out his concepts of biology. Just as he wrote numerous astronomy columns after meeting Brown University's Upton; just as he wrote chemical treatises after meeting Brown University's Appleton; so to I believe he wrote Beast in the Cave after corssing paths with Brown University's Packard. Coincidentally (or not) Packard died about the time Lovecraft wrote Beast in the Cave.

A little later, I'll discuss why I believe that the original story actually had a cave cat, and not an albino man as the monster. He lost his beloved cat in 1904, too.