The Dunwich Horror

The unnamed entity that bursts free from the Whateley house is actually Wilbur Whateley’s brother. The entity is the product of a strange ritual, in which Old Whateley summoned the cosmic entity Yog-Sothoth to his own daughter, Lavinia. She gave birth to twins: Wilbur and the entity. While Wilbur has a basic human form (or, at the very least, can hide away his more monstrous aspects), the entity is not human. It is invisible, it feeds on cattle, and it is locked in the Whateley house for the majority of its life. The presence of the entity in Dunwich adds to the mood of dread and fear. The mutilated cattle, the strange noises, and the hideous odor emanating from the Whateley house frighten passersby. They do not know what lurks inside the house, but they know that it makes them feel uncomfortable and afraid. In this sense, the entity symbolizes Cosmic Horror. The entity represents the hideous unknown that lurks beyond the scope of human comprehension. Just as the Old Ones exist in another dimension, the entity is locked away on the periphery of a village community that is already on the periphery of the regional community.