Talk:The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Curwen's vampirism
I just re-read the "Case..." and I believe it contains an evidence that Curwen's vampirism is a side effect of his resurrection from the "essential salts". Shorlty after Charles resurrects Joseph, Charles' mother hears some fragments of a conversation between her son and Joseph (she thinks that Charles speaks to himself, but it is pretty obvious whom the other voice belongs to). Joseph says something like "... 3 months ... need blood ..." (I am not sure about his exact words). I interprete these words in a way that Joseph needs to drink blood the first 3 months after his resurrection. Just as with many other things, Lovecraft gives us just a hint of what is going on in the storyline, but this hint seems to be quite transparent. I will however leave it to someone more knowledgeable about the story to update the article. 212.92.145.7 (talk) 12:07, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Ending
I read The Case of Charles Dexter Ward as it appears in the recent Penguin Classics edition (ISBN 0 14 21.8003 3) and the story does not end in the way described in this article. There is no mention of "a gust of wind" that blows Curwen's ashes away, and no talk of news reports. Willet suggests that the entity that was raised in the crypt would likely seek out and deal with Curwen's associates, but what actually happens is left for speculation. The final line of the story is: "For like his accursed picture a year before, Joseph Curwen now lay scattered on the floor as a thin coating of fine bluish-grey dust." If there is a different version of the text which includes additional material, this would be worth noting in the article. Otherwise, the error should be corrected.


 * The opening chapter: "When they opened the door the patient was not there, and all they found was the open window with a chill April breeze blowing in a cloud of fine bluish-grey dust that almost choked them." 71.166.147.191 (talk) 20:54, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Appropriateness
Parts of this article read more like Cliff's Notes than like an encyclopedic description of a novella. Attempts to psychoanalyze the fictional character of Curwen ("he is in sum, utterly evil") seem to be of questionable appropriateness. It seems to me that it's not the role of an encyclopedia to give potential readers a guide to interpreting a story, but merely to note its existence, meaningful facts about its authorship and publication, and to note its overall plot and major themes.

Curwen's personality
The 'character' section on Joseph Curwen contains an assessment that he has civic pride, warmth and human feelings. I believe this is based on Curwen's later historical phase when he seeks to integrate into Providence social life. However, his civic spirit was a facade designed to (1) avoid persecution by the townsfolk and (2) father descendants, one of whom would eventually resurrect him. This followed his success with the formula to resurrect the dead. To attribute this to human feelings, warmth or civic pride in Curwen, a torturer, is to misunderstand his motives. I'll leave it to the editor to decide whether to correct this error. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.233.64.112 (talk) 13:46, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Totally agreed
I'll leave part of it but I'll amend the text. Whoever wrote this last paragraph of the section misunderstood Curwen completely. Walter Sobchak0 (talk) 18:55, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

Incantation Translation
The translation of the "Adonai Eloim..." incantation was a choppy Google translation. It's an actual spell from Eliphas Levi, so I added the translation given by him. I hope I sourced it all right. I don't contribute to Wikipedia much. Later! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mham1981 (talk • contribs) 22:19, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Willet's character
Does not at all strike me as pompous, arrogant and self-important. I realise joshi is meant to be a topnotch hpl scholar but on the strength of this I am not very convinced. 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:3551:2C20:C3A3:D60E (talk) 19:43, 6 September 2023 (UTC)