Randolph Carter is a recurring protagonist in H. P. Lovecraft's fiction. A thinly disguised alter ego of Lovecraft himself, the first tale in which Carter appears--"The Statement of Randolph Carter" (1919)--is based on one of Lovecraft's dreams.
Carter shares many of Lovecraft's personal traits: He is an uncelebrated author, whose writings are seldom noticed. A melancholy figure, Carter is a quiet contemplative dreamer with a sensitive disposition, prone to fainting during times of emotional stress.
In Lovecraft's writings, Carter appears or is mentioned in the following tales:
- "The Statement of Randolph Carter" (1919)
- "The Unnamable" (1923)
- "The Silver Key" (1926)
- "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" (1926-1927)
- "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (1927)
- "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (1933)
- "Out of the Aeons" (1933)
Character
Randolph Carter is an antiquarian and one-time student of the fictional Miskatonic University. Based on clues from various stories, he was probably born around 1874 and grew up in and around Boston. At the age of ten, he underwent a mysterious experience at his great-uncle Christopher's farm and thereafter exhibited a gift of prophecy. However, like all things Lovecraftian, much about his life is left vague.
In "The Statement of Randolph Carter," Carter joins his friend Harley Warren in the latter's investigations of a mysterious crypt in an ancient abandoned cemetery. Warren believes the crypt may contain evidence that could confirm some of his speculations. The details of these speculations are never revealed. We are told only that they come from a mysterious book written in an unknown language and relate to the fact that "certain corpses never decay, but rest firm and fat in their tombs for a thousand years."
Upon reaching the cemetery, Carter and Warren uncover the crypt by lifting an immense granite slab, revealing a set of stone steps leading downward into the earth. Warren insists that Carter remain at the surface. He descends the steps alone, but remains in communication with Carter via a portable telephone set. Shortly thereafter he tells Carter that he has discovered a monstrous unbelievable secret and pleads with his companion to replace the stone and run for his life. When Carter asks what he has found, his queries are initially met with silence and then by the voice of an unknown entity who informs him that Warren is dead.
"The Unnamable" begins with Carter in conversation with his friend, Joel Manton – principal of a New England high school – discussing the supposedly mythical creature that bears the story's name. The tale is set in a seventeenth-century cemetery as evening falls. Initially, Manton is skeptical and ridicules Carter for thinking that such a being may be possible. However, as darkness encroaches – and as Carter's descriptions become more detailed and supported by facts – his flippant dismissal gradually gives way to fear. The two are attacked by the monster but survive the experience. "The Unnameable" is notable for containing extensive quoted dialog between the characters, something which Lovecraft scarcely used at all in the rest of his fiction.
There is some question as to whether "The Unnamable's" protagonist is in fact Randolph Carter. He is named only as "Carter" and described as an author of weird fiction.
"The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" – one of Lovecraft's longest tales – follows Carter for several months searching for the lost city of his dreams. The story reveals Carter's familiarity with much of Lovecraft's fictional universe. Carter is also shown to possess considerable knowledge of the politics and geography of the dream world and has allies there. After an elaborate odyssey, Carter awakes in his Boston apartment, with only a fleeting impression of the dream world he left behind.
"The Silver Key" – perhaps the most overtly philosophical of Lovecraft's fiction - finds Carter entering middle age and losing his "key to the gate of dreams." No longer is Carter able to escape the mundane realities of life and enter the Lovecraftian dreamworld that alone has given him happiness. Wonder is gone and he has forgotten the fact that life is nothing more than a set of mental images, where there is no fundamental distinction between dreams and reality and no reason to value one above the other. In an attempt to recover his lost innocence, Carter returns to his childhood home and finds a mysterious silver key, which allows him to enter a cave and magically emerge again in the year 1883 as a child, full of wonder, dreams, and happiness. He remains in this condition until 1928, when he again disappears, presumably having found a way to transcend space and time and travel in other dimensions.
"Through the Gates of the Silver Key," written in collaboration with Lovecraft admirer E. Hoffman Price and generally regarded as greatly inferior to its predecessor, details Carter's adventures in another dimension where he encounters a more primordial version of himself (implied to be Yog-Sothoth) who explains that Carter - and indeed all beings - are ultimately nothing more than manifestations of a greater being. Carter's mind ends up trapped in the body of an alien, another facet of the higher being.
"Out of the Aeons" by Lovecraft and Hazel Heald features a brief appearance by Carter, still trapped in the alien body. He visits a museum exhibiting an ancient mummy from a long-forgotten civilization.
Non-Lovecraft appearances
Randolph Carter also appears in The Clock of Dreams , a Cthulhu Mythos novel by Brian Lumley.
Randolph Carter appears in "Allan and the Sundered Veil", a serialized prose backup in the first six issues of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book as well as in "The New Traveller's Almanac". In it, he is stated as being a faculty member of Miskatonic University as well as a relative of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter. In Moore's "The Courtyard", Randolph Carter is the name of a female singer who is the head of a band called the Ulthar Cats.
Randolph Carter is portrayed as a member of the Miskatonic Project in the graphic novel, The Miskatonic Project: Bride of Dagon. In the story, it is revealed that Carter is the anonymous narrator of Lovecraft's "The Festival."
Carter is the main character in the movie adaptation of Cool Air , taking the place of the unnamed narrator in the original story.
Carter appears three times in the Lovecraft-themed musical parody A Shoggoth on the Roof , including in the opening number.
In Hans Rodionoff's comic Lovecraft , Randolph Carter is the name Lovecraft uses while traveling in Arkham and battling the Old Ones. He tells his wife, "They can't know my Christian name here."
In the parody RPG Pokéthulhu , the main protagonist is a young boy named Randy Carter.
In Chaosium's collectible card game MYTHOS and its MYTHOS: Dreamlands expansion, Randolph Carter appears as an ally card.
Gene Wolfe's short story "Game in the Pope's Head" follows a man named Randolph Carter, though his introduction in the book in which the story is published states that it is about Jack the Ripper.
In Thomas Lapperre's book The Uncertainty , Randolph Carter appears as a main character, following up after "Through the Gates of the Silver Key".
In the fifth issue of the comic American Virgin , a gravestone in the Glade of Eden Cemetery in Miami is marked Randolph Carter.
The character Randolph Carter is the protagonist in the 1988 film The Unnamable which was loosely based on the short story and then again in the film's 1993 sequel The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter . Randolph Carter was played by Mark Kinsey Stephenson. Stephenson portrayed Carter as an intellectual in the search for adventure, although Carter's character was described as 'a bag of nerves' in the statement of Randolph Carter.
Randolph Carter is the main character in two short stories, both included in the volume "Los Espectros Conjurados" by Spanish author Alberto López Aroca: El ojo que repta (The Crawling Eye) and Randolph Carter y el Trono de Ópalo (Randolph Carter and the Opal Throne), which features other H.P. Lovecraft's characters, as Richard Upton Pickman. Carter also makes a cameo appearance in Los Sabios in Salamanca (The Sages in Salamanca), a short novel by the same author and included in the same volumen, starring professors Challenger and Abraham Van Helsing.
Chronological appearances
This list is based in the An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia .
- "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath": here Carter is, presumably, twenty years old. This is the "first" of Carter's stories (See The Silver Key section).
- "The Statement of Randolph Carter": here Carter's age is unspecified, but the events are set after The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath .
- "The Unnamable": This story occurs shortly thereafter The Statement of Randolph Carter .
- "The Silver Key": here Carter is thirty, but in the story he finds himself transformed into a nine-year-old boy. Then, at fifty-four, he finds the Silver Key.
- "Through the Gates of the Silver Key": sequel to The Silver Key .
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia doesn't mention anything about the chronology of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and "Out of the Aeons".
References
- ^ "The Statement of Randolph Carter" in H.P. Lovecra
Table of Contents for Envision & Create, LLC (Site Map)
Please choose one of the navigation points at the left or below to obtain important information about personal, life, business and executive coaching.
Create Your Life!, LLC
Create Your Life!, home of The Dream Party™, is devoted to helping people identify, nurture, and manifest their dreams. If you’re not sure what you dream of, we help you ...
re:Create
PO Box 3938 · New York, New York 10185 Site design and content copyright © 2007-2008 re:Create LLC. All rights reserved. re:Create webmail · Client issue tracker
Kay Zurn Professional Coach with Envision & Create, LLC
Envison & Create, LLC and Kay Zurn, Professional Executive, Business, Life and Personal Coach, providing customized coaching that helps transform individual and team ...
Creating Financial Literacy, LLC
Jennifer is a dynamic motivational speaker who provides clear, easy to implement information to help clients and customers move their finances from where they are to where they ...
Create LLC
Create a Limited Liability Company (LLC): It’s Easy at IncFile.com! Create a Limited Liability Company (LLC) - it helps protect owners’ personal
Creating & Managing Wealth, LLC - The Company
Who We Are - Our Company & Staff ... The CMW Philosophy. At CMW, our vision is of clients having a financially secured retirement for the full length of their lives, where all ...
Creating an LLC Operating Agreement - Small Business
Find Creating an LLC Operating Agreement - Small Business legal information and lawyers at FindLaw
Cassie Premo Steele, Ph.D. || Co-Creating, LLC
Biography Dr. Cassie Premo Steele, Ph.D., is pleased to offer her services in Co-Creating to Columbia, South Carolina and surrounding communities.
C3: Creating Connections Consulting, LLC | Facebook
Welcome to the official Facebook Page of C3: Creating Connections Consulting, LLC. Get exclusive content and interact with C3: Creating Connections Consulting, LLC right from ...