The Secret History
question
Character's analysis and discussion
Mariam
Dec 17, 2019 05:08PM
hey guys I really would love to discuss this book and its fascinating characters.
which are your favorite characters from the book? do any characters stand out as particularly evil?
my favorite two characters are Richard & Francis
here is my own analysis of Richard:
Richard contact with the group is his contact with the sublime. He leaves behind the ordinary people like him and his friends from the dorm and he becomes so isolated from real life into this magical illusion that he wants so desperately to be true. despite getting so close there has always been a line he has been unable to cross. Some barrier that still set him apart from the group and renders him terribly lonely. He is desperate to belong. to feel like he is part of this big thing, but he is always caste out, never quite reaching them and its so heartbreakingly lonely; To be surrounded by everything he has ever wanted and still be a little out of place. Perfectly when he got shot and no one paid any attention to him. So, agonizing so terribly terribly sad. No matter what he does, how far he goes, he will always be a little skewed out of place. He is unable to break through their emotional barriers. He does so much for henry, begging for their affection and attention. He wants to be part of the big plan, helping them, he imagined that a shared experience would be the strongest binding thing. he went through that experience and ran to help them with killing bunny. However, at the end of the day, after experiencing his first murder for them when he calls Francis begging for support he finds him and henry drinking together and Henry ices him out again, he is so dismissive of him giving him some stupid advice about thinking in another language.
There are so many sad scenes in the book however surprisingly one of the scenes that broke my heart is when Charles and Richard are talking about after college. Charles says that they all might move into Francis’ country house and Richard assumes that he now part of the group and in his mind it is a given that he is part of this “us” but then Charles finishes talking and asks him “ what about you? What are you going to do after college? And Richard is confused before his heart sinks . For some reason this scene struck me as so horribly sad. He assumed that after keeping their life shattering secret he is now really part of the group. He has somewhere to belong. That he now has a family that he chose.
He is the sanest of them maybe because he is ordinary. The most ordinary watching this group. The Greek group are the sublime. They are picturesque but so terror striking.
He tried to define himself in terms of the group and because he was constantly iced out, he has always had a bit of himself that he never really grasped. If only he understood that he has been the most self aware out of the group, that He was the least self destructive, the least psychotic. He is ordinary. It might be boring and less dramatic, but it is real and solid, and he graduated and had a girlfriend and lived on this average ordinary life.
which are your favorite characters from the book? do any characters stand out as particularly evil?
my favorite two characters are Richard & Francis
here is my own analysis of Richard:
Richard contact with the group is his contact with the sublime. He leaves behind the ordinary people like him and his friends from the dorm and he becomes so isolated from real life into this magical illusion that he wants so desperately to be true. despite getting so close there has always been a line he has been unable to cross. Some barrier that still set him apart from the group and renders him terribly lonely. He is desperate to belong. to feel like he is part of this big thing, but he is always caste out, never quite reaching them and its so heartbreakingly lonely; To be surrounded by everything he has ever wanted and still be a little out of place. Perfectly when he got shot and no one paid any attention to him. So, agonizing so terribly terribly sad. No matter what he does, how far he goes, he will always be a little skewed out of place. He is unable to break through their emotional barriers. He does so much for henry, begging for their affection and attention. He wants to be part of the big plan, helping them, he imagined that a shared experience would be the strongest binding thing. he went through that experience and ran to help them with killing bunny. However, at the end of the day, after experiencing his first murder for them when he calls Francis begging for support he finds him and henry drinking together and Henry ices him out again, he is so dismissive of him giving him some stupid advice about thinking in another language.
There are so many sad scenes in the book however surprisingly one of the scenes that broke my heart is when Charles and Richard are talking about after college. Charles says that they all might move into Francis’ country house and Richard assumes that he now part of the group and in his mind it is a given that he is part of this “us” but then Charles finishes talking and asks him “ what about you? What are you going to do after college? And Richard is confused before his heart sinks . For some reason this scene struck me as so horribly sad. He assumed that after keeping their life shattering secret he is now really part of the group. He has somewhere to belong. That he now has a family that he chose.
He is the sanest of them maybe because he is ordinary. The most ordinary watching this group. The Greek group are the sublime. They are picturesque but so terror striking.
He tried to define himself in terms of the group and because he was constantly iced out, he has always had a bit of himself that he never really grasped. If only he understood that he has been the most self aware out of the group, that He was the least self destructive, the least psychotic. He is ordinary. It might be boring and less dramatic, but it is real and solid, and he graduated and had a girlfriend and lived on this average ordinary life.
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I found myself fascinated with Julian and how he fit into all of this. Throughout the book, he is constantly in the student's thoughts but surprisingly out-of-touch with their lives.
I think he's got way more to play in all that happens since he has so much influence over them, but doesn't realize or acknowledge it. He could have stopped their spiral and saved them, but due to "cowardice" he ignored them in their time of need. Heck, he didn't even notice how bad Bunny got till he was gone.
In a way, I also think a lot of what happened was spurred on by him. The students- particularly Henry- were trying so hard to please him. In a way, I wonder if they were making it so dramatic and overdone for Julian.
I think he's got way more to play in all that happens since he has so much influence over them, but doesn't realize or acknowledge it. He could have stopped their spiral and saved them, but due to "cowardice" he ignored them in their time of need. Heck, he didn't even notice how bad Bunny got till he was gone.
In a way, I also think a lot of what happened was spurred on by him. The students- particularly Henry- were trying so hard to please him. In a way, I wonder if they were making it so dramatic and overdone for Julian.
Mariam, I really love your post. It's beautiful and moving and helped me feel more deeply into an aspect of this book which I recently read and which still fascinates me... sometimes a book fascinates me and I can't even completely understand why. I felt like your comment helped me understand a piece of it. There are little bits that I missed-- I don't even think I caught the depth of the sorrow in that last conversation you mentioned.
Richar and Francis are my favourite characters, also. As far as Richard is concerned, I think the reason I love him so much is that his descriptions and thoughts on every matter, the way he portrayed the rest of the group, they were all ridiculously sublime and fever dream-like. None of it felt real for most of the time, which I think suits his role perfectly - he was always the person who doesn't really know anything. A lot of times it turned out he wasn't 100 per cent in and it is a little bit heartbreaking because he actually had a lot to do with the outcome of the whole story. Henry, if I think about it, is also a very interesting and complex character. He was the one who pulled the strings and everyone went along with it for some reason, that they were also unaware of. He quite often struck me as indifferent and detached, however, I no longer think he was. The scene in the hotel room completely baffled me. I couldn't think of a reason why he would do what he did. Now, my bet is on trying one last time to be a hero, to save all of them, himself included.
Francis, I loved with my whole heart. He was the person I rooted most for and I do think he deserved a softer epilogue. From the way he carried himself to the way he reacted to things, everything about him was beautiful.
Francis, I loved with my whole heart. He was the person I rooted most for and I do think he deserved a softer epilogue. From the way he carried himself to the way he reacted to things, everything about him was beautiful.
yes! i recently just read The Secret History and I found it so impressive how Tartt wrote each character with a complex background and personality and connecting each of them in some way. i think my favorite characters would be Francis or Camilla. Francis was always there with a weird sort of love triangle that involved Charles, Camilla, and Henry which was never resolved and had a lasting impact on the group, and his involvement with Charles was surprising to me and still surprises me today. Camilla's backstory, in my opinion, is the saddest. Her relationship with Charles while being in love with Henry made her life insane, and she continued to be strong throughout which I love.
For the question of if any of the characters stand out as evil, I think one of Tartt's main points she was making in this book is that nobody is necessarily good or evil, but morally grey and there is never going to be an ideal good person or bad person. For example, all of the students looked up to Julian, especially Henry, as an idol and father figure, making him look like a good person in their eyes but that fantasy is crushed when he hears of what the group has done to Bunny and leaves for fear of involvement. Speaking of Henry, he could be the best example in the Secret History of a morally grey character in Secret History. He is the mastermind behind Bunny's death and participated in the bacchanal, which would make him seem like an evil person/character, but you read on and in the ending chapter he goes out, so to speak, a martyr. Henry is never specifically going to be a character that can be defined in one category.
For the question of if any of the characters stand out as evil, I think one of Tartt's main points she was making in this book is that nobody is necessarily good or evil, but morally grey and there is never going to be an ideal good person or bad person. For example, all of the students looked up to Julian, especially Henry, as an idol and father figure, making him look like a good person in their eyes but that fantasy is crushed when he hears of what the group has done to Bunny and leaves for fear of involvement. Speaking of Henry, he could be the best example in the Secret History of a morally grey character in Secret History. He is the mastermind behind Bunny's death and participated in the bacchanal, which would make him seem like an evil person/character, but you read on and in the ending chapter he goes out, so to speak, a martyr. Henry is never specifically going to be a character that can be defined in one category.
I am so glad you commented on The Secret History. I am obsessed with this book and have read it three times. The enigmatic Henry is my favorite character because he defies categorization. Narcissistic and brilliant, Henry still possesses a modicum of humanity in his loyalty to Julian and his redemptive sacrifice at the end.
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