Wilbur Whateley

Wilbur Whateley is a fictional character created by H. P. Lovecraft for his short story "The Dunwich Horror".
==Background==
In the rural town of Dunwich, Massachusetts on February 2, 1913 at 5 a.m., Lavinia Whateley gave birth to a son named Wilbur Whateley. The date of his birth is noted for the night before the hills rumbled and dogs barked incessantly. Dogs continued to show an instinctual hatred for him for the remainder of his life. Wilbur was immediately recognized for his hideousness, described as a "dark, goatish-looking infant".
He displayed unnaturally rapid physical and mental development: At seven months he could walk unassisted and eleven months could speak. At four and a half, he appeared fifteen and he began to grow facial hair.
"Though he shared his mother's and grandfather's chinlessness, his firm and precociously shaped nose united with the expression of his large, dark, almost Latin eyes to give him an air of..well-nigh preternatural intelligence,.. something almost goatish or animalistic about his thick lips, large-pored, yellowish skin, coarse crinkly hair, and oddly elongated ears."
At a young age he takes to wearing very concealing clothes. He also has a revolting odor about his person, a defining characteristic of the Great Old Ones. Wilbur's voice is distinctive for its "Strange, resonant fashion which hinted at sound-producing organs unlike the run of mankind's". This presumably allows him to speak the language of the Great Old Ones. At 15 years he had grown to 9 feet tall and showed no sign of stopping. 
Prior to his grandfather’s death he left him with the responsibility of raising his twin as well as ensuring he opens the gates to Yog-Sothoth. He could only accomplish this by finding the summoning ritual on page 751 of the Necronomicon. He then travelled to the Miskatonic, Cambridge, and Widener libraries in search of a complete version of this book. They all, under the guidance of Dr. Armitage, denied him access. He was then forced to return to Miskatonic University to steal their copy. This attempt ultimately proves his downfall, when a watchdog savagely kills him. It succeeded solely because Whateley's revolver failed to fire. 
It is then that several disturbing truths of his biology were revealed. In place of blood he had a greenish-yellow ichor. Yellow and black markings covered his back. From the waist down his body was covered in coarse black fur. A sort of rudimentary eye was positioned on each hip. 
His final words were the excerpt from the Necronomicon which he had been searching. Immediately afterward his corpse disintegrated into a sticky white mass, apparently having no true skeletal structure. Out the window a swarm of Whippoorwills were heard shrieking in anticipation for his soul. They soon fled after witnessing their intended prey. 
Afterwards, Wilbur Whateley's journal and the contents of his library were transported to Miskatonic University to be studied. (: "The Dunwich Horror")
==Film Adaptations==
Wilbur Whateley was a central character in the 1970 film The Dunwich Horror. His depiction in the film differs greatly from the story, in that he is depicted as a normal-looking human with none of the unnatural characteristics described in Lovecraft's tale, except that he does possess the supernatural ability to influence people's minds, particularly that of his intended victim, Nancy Wagner, whom he intends to impregnate with the child of Yog-Sothoth. Wilbur was played by actor Dean Stockwell, who would later play Armitage in the 2008 remake. In the remake, Wilbur was played by Jeffrey Combs.
==In the Demonbane series==
Wilbur Whateley appears as an antagonist in the Demonbane series by Nitroplus, sharing many similarities with Lovecraft's original depiction.
Daijūji Kurou had an encounter with Wilbur Whateley at Miskatonic University. On that day, Kurou was given permission to view the Necronomicon in the secret library but was interrupted by Wilbur, who wanted to steal the grimoire for himself. After Wilbur transformed into a goat-like monster and attacked him, Kurou was traumatized to point where he had to leave Miskatonic University, as well as abandoning all occult practices in general. 
It is later revealed that Kurou was saved by Al Azif during that incident. Although Wilbur was severely injured by her, he still managed to free himself from Al, using the Latin translation of the Necronomicon that he stole from the library. However, before he could exit the area, Wilbur was ultimately killed by Etheldreda, the spirit of the Pnakotic Manuscripts who took the form of a mysterious black dog. (: Deus Machina Demonbane)
== Behind the Mythos ==
Wilbur Whateley's death scene bears a marked resemblance to that of Jervase Cradock, a similarly half-human character in Arthur Machen's "The Novel of the Black Seal": "Something pushed out from the body there on the floor, and stretched forth, a slimy, wavering tentacle," Machen writes. Will Murray notes that the goatish, partly reptilian Wilbur Whateley resembles a chimera, a mythological creature referred to in Charles Lamb's epigraph to "The Dunwich Horror". Robert M. Price points out that Wilbur Whateley is in some respects an autobiographical figure for Lovecraft: "Wilbur's being raised by a grandfather instead of a father, his home education from his grandfather's library, his insane mother, his stigma of ugliness (in Lovecraft's case untrue, but a self-image imposed on him by his mother), and his sense of being an outsider all echo Lovecraft himself." 
==Gallery==
==References==
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Category:Characters Originating From Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Other Supernatural Beings
Category:Deceased (In Mythos)
Category:Dunwich