Gothic Elements
"The Damned Thing" presents a number of Gothic elements throughout the short story. Some of the gothic elements include revealing what culture does not want to tell or admit and spreading social anxieties.
"The Damned Thing" reveals what culture does not want to tell or admit because one of the main premises of the story was to show how the human race takes the view of the natural world for granted because they expect certain things in nature from what only they could see and hear. Culture doesn't want to admit animals have a great advantage over the human race and their "imperfect instruments" because that means the human race can no longer be looked at as the most superior and intelligent life form. The human race can now be seen as a fragile, weak species who is susceptible to any animal in nature.
This revealing realization can also be incorporated into widespread social anxieties because knowing the human race is at disadvantage when it comes to animals, the anxiety of fear and terror can quickly set in. The human race now knows animals could be capable of anything human beings could never detect, see or sense until it's possibly too late.
The story has some similarities with a French story "Le Horla" by Guy de Maupassant, published in 1887, about an invisible, terrible creature, called Horla, perhaps alien or supernatural, intent on conquering the world; in the story, the protagonist complains that we cannot see the Horla because our senses are inadequate.
Read more about this topic: The Damned Thing (short Story)
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