37 pages • 1 hour read
H. P. LovecraftAt the Mountains of Madness
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1936A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Scientific Equipment
Scientific equipment has an important symbolic value in At the Mountains of Madness. At the beginning of the expedition, Dyer takes a long and detailed inventory of everything the team plans to take. Their equipment is so advanced and so cutting-edge that brand new tools have been invented especially for this trip. Dyer’s proud descriptions reflect the misplaced confidence and arrogance of the scientists. They believe that they are among the smartest people in the world, and that their equipment will finally allow them to demonstrate their intellect to the academic community. The detailed list also symbolizes their level of preparedness. Dyer is happy to suggest that the scientists were once arrogant, but he does not want anyone to believe that they were underprepared.
At first, the equipment functions well. The scientists’ initial explorations are rewarding, and Lake soon makes an important discovery. Not long after this, however, the equipment begins to fail. The surgical tools are not sharp enough to cut through the Old Ones’ skin, while the radio ceases to work. The presence of the Old Ones drives even the dogs into a rage. The scientists and their equipment might have seemed cutting-edge and ready for anything, but the failure of their equipment now suggests that this confidence was misplaced. The equipment failures symbolize the humans’ pathetic attempts to measure up to the Old Ones.
These attempts fail and Lake’s team is killed. The Old Ones use the scientists’ surgical tools to perform their own dissections and then help themselves to whatever they find interesting. The equipment switches hands, revealing how the power dynamic has shifted; the dormant Old Ones awaken and turn the humans’ tools back on them. For all their preparedness and all their confidence, the repurposing of the scientists’ equipment symbolizes how they were never going to be able to match up to the Old Ones. Instead, the humans are weak, ill-equipped, and doomed to suffer.
Antarctica
Dyer initially describes Antarctica as an unknown land ripe for a team of explorers. The continent is white, pristine, and untouched, as though it has not endured the contamination of humanity. In a symbolic sense, Antarctica is a blank slate. The scientists can use the continent to write their names into the history books more easily than they could in regions that have already been explored. This depiction of Antarctica primes the reader to see the continent as an innocent and uninhabited place. This symbolism contrasts with what follows, as the scientists realize that the continent is neither uninhabited nor innocent.
Ultimately, Antarctica represents the unknown. This quality, which first attracted the scientists to the continent, takes on a new and more terrifying meaning in light of their discoveries. They viewed the unknown, unexplored nature of Antarctica as an opportunity to make their reputations. Instead, the unknowability of the continent should act as a warning; the violence and death the scientists experience in the unknown land symbolize the futility of trying to conquer the unknown. By definition, the scientists cannot properly plan or prepare for what they don’t know or understand. The intimidating, hostile atmosphere of Antarctica turns on them, exposing their lack of humility and their overconfidence. The pristine, unexplored nature of Antarctica becomes a symbol of the men’s arrogance, reflecting the emptiness of their knowledge and the endless nature of their hubris.
When Dyer talks about Antarctica in the present tense, he adopts a more resigned tone. He is aware of the two symbolic meanings of the continent as both an opportunity and an ominous warning. However, Dyer also understands human nature. Looking at other scientists, he sees the same arrogance and narcissism that prompted him and his colleagues to make the journey. Dyer tries to warn people about venturing into the unknown, but he knows that they will go anyway. To him, Antarctica has become a symbol of the inevitable arrogance of humanity. For all his warnings, he knows that he will not be able to overcome the opportunity that Antarctica represents to these hubristic people.
The City
The Old Ones’ city is a symbol of existential horror. Dyer first passes over the city by plane and is astonished by what he sees. When he and Danforth land, however, he becomes increasingly unsettled. The city is a physical space that is inhospitable to humans, evoking the danger the Old Ones pose to our species. The size of the doorways, the bridges, and even the layout of the rooms reveal to Dyer that nothing was built with humans in mind. This is a reminder to him that the Earth does not belong to humanity. The Old Ones arrived much earlier and demonstrated knowledge and technology far beyond anything humanity has ever achieved. Dyer comes to feel like an unwelcome guest on his own planet, with the city forcing him to reckon with the irrelevance and insignificance of man.
Though the city fills Dyer with a sense of dread at the power of the Old Ones, he also realizes that it is entirely abandoned. As he views the Old Ones’ artworks, he realizes that they had to abandon their city after most of their civilization collapsed. The emptiness of the city is a symbolic reminder that even the most powerful species can fall. Humanity does not have a fraction of the Old Ones’ power or technology, but some unknown force was nevertheless able to ruin the Old Ones’ city. This realization prompts Dyer to worry even more about his species. If the Old Ones could not survive or endure, he does not have any hope for humanity.
Dyer eventually learns about the existence of another city beneath the continent of Antarctica. This second city is where the Old Ones retreated when their main city became uninhabitable. The sunken city is a symbol of the fear of the unknown. The world beneath the sea is even less explored and even less understood than Antarctica. Dyer realizes that even though he has already witnessed terrible things on the land, he cannot comprehend what dreadful things might reside in the sunken city. Instead, he populates these unknown, explored places with his most fearful thoughts, believing the sunken city may be filled with dormant Old Ones waiting to take over the Earth again.
Related Titles
By H. P. Lovecraft
