Toward the end of the story West goes into full “mad scientist” mode, thinking up “what if” scenarios in his mind. Once West murdered to produce is needed biological material, even his foundation grounded in the Scientific Method began to erode. Herbert West used the embryonic cells of an exotic reptile in his experiments (illustration by Steve Maschuck) This jump from a scientist working with biological material that happens to come along his way, to one who actively produces the needed biological material is Lovecraft’s example of what happens when a scientist is the “frigid and impersonal investigator…” completely devoid of any humanity, compassion or empathy. While his extreme materialism may have fostered his general amoral attitude toward life and humanity, West was always grounded in the Scientific Method and that the ultimate goal of the reanimation serum is to bring people back to life. Although West’s general philosophic perspective was consistently described as that of an absolute mechanistic materialist, this was still a major shift in his scientific endeavors. When the salesman was revived, it was obvious from his reaction that West murdered him. West killed and the preserved the salesman with an embalming fluid and waited for his friend to return to inject his reanimation serum. West’s obsession with conquering death and need for a fresh body eventually led to him actually murdering someone – a salesman traveling to Bolton Worsted Mills.

Each experiment with a human corpse revealed that the body must be very fresh with little or no decay. West started his experiments with animals and then moves to human cadavers. However, as the story proceeds, West’s fanatical pursuit of knowledge is only exacerbated and pushed to the extreme. Lovecraft’s story “Herbert West – Reanimator.” Initially West is your typically cold scientist, closely following the rigors of the Scientific Method. As the protagonist suggested in “From Beyond,” a scientist should be a “frigid and impersonal investigator…” While Crawford Tillinghast did not exhibit these traits as a scientist, this certainly described Herbert West, at least in the initial chapters of H.P.

Hp lovecraft herbert west