The Secret History- Donna Tartt

Synopsis:

Richard Papen, a college freshman from California, wanting to distance himself from his emotionally abusive parents, relocates to the elite Hampden College in Vermont, where he plans to study English Literature. However, upon his arrival, he meets a mysterious group of exclusive classics students, and is immediately drawn to their persona. Proving himself by helping these students with a Greek translation, he is enrolled into their class, yet without realizing, this sole event becomes the catalyst for his tragic downfall. Playing with classic ancient Greek literary structure, Tartt cleverly exposes the dangers of the pursuit of knowledge, whilst simultaneously highlighting the false visage of morality towards those we idolize.

An Introduction to Ancient Greek Literature:

“Does such a thing as ‘the fatal flaw’, that showy, dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside of literature, and if beauty is terror, said Julian, then what is desire? We think we have many desires, but in fact, we have only one, what is it?” “To live, said Camilla, to live forever.”

It is one thing reading a book superficially, however, I believe the truest and deepest way to fully immerse ones self in the plotline of a novel is to understand the context behind a theme: in this case, Ancient Greek. In crafting a novel based around the study of such subject, Tartt cleverly interweaves the foundations of classic Greek literature into her own writing- creating a dual structure, and plunging a reader into the lives of the students, Bunny, Charles, Camilla, Francis, and Richard.

Aristotle, the famous ancient Greek philosopher, determined that a tragedy must contain these three elements in its plotline: unity of action (this ensures that all elements of the plotline are interconnected and contribute to the central conflict), peripetia (this marks a sudden reversal of fortune for the protagonist, which is often a shift from good to bad), and finally, anagnorisis (which represents a moment of critical discovery or recognition-leading to a significant change in the protagonist’s understanding). Without a doubt, it is clear that Tartt follows this structure in her writing; the central theme in her book is the persuit of knowledge and its consequences, which is carefully interweaved throughout this novel, peripetia is displayed when the 5 college students partake in their rabid experiment- leading them down a path of guilt-ridden insanity, and lastly, anagnorisis is arguably represented whence Henry confesses to Julian regarding the heinous crimes he has committed.

Greek tragedies like Oedipus Rex center their plot around characters fulfilling their fate, yet also examine man’s desperate desire to avoid it. Much like Oedipus frantically denies his destiny, the five college students attempt to thwart theirs’ by murdering Bunny- a panicked action resulted by the overly-ambitious and immoral experiment. Similarly, many critics argue that Oedipus was not ignorant of his true identity, but rather was too proud to admit it to others, but more significantly, himself- indicating that to some extent, he was living a lie; his eventual recognition of this matter marks the anagnorisis in this play. Arguably, Tartt mirrors this very concept in the revealing moment at the end of her novel. The students have no choice but to confide in Julian Morrow regarding their murder of Bunny and the ambiguous farmer, however, he does not react in the way that they anticipated. Rather than collapsing in tears, or portraying any sign of emotional decay at this harrowing truth, he simply flees the state- taking with him any sense of responsibility for the corruption he has created within his students. Thus, in doing so, the lives of these Classics students crumble too; the false reality in which Julian created for them has deteriorated, leaving them to grapple with the uncertainty of their future, and also the reality that their closed-off way of living, was essentially a lie; everything their mentor claimed to be was evidently false, the very person they looked up to the most, has proven to be somebody else entirely.

The duality of beauty:

“Death is the mother of beauty”- Henry Winter

Early in the novel’s plotline, Julian gives a speech on the complex relationship between beauty and terror- a concept which links clearly back to the Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who argues that notions which are terrifying in real life- such as murder- can be elevated to beauty when perceived in the realm of art. Henry, one of six Classics students responds to Julian’s inquiry into what beauty is, by referring to it as “terror”. Thus, his persuit of such subject, and his obsession with beauty in the form of death, leads him to the murder of the farmer during his ‘experiment’, and eventually, the killing of his once best friend, Bunny. However, Aristotle clearly emphasizes the fact that one can only find beauty in terror when it is portrayed through art, not reality. Thus, Henry’s obsession with this horror is arguably a false reality- he is not following the teachings of Ancient Greek, rather deviating from it- therefore making his dangerous actions, actually, just terror itself. Similarly, these students experience terror when confronted with the aftermath of their actions; because they deviated from Aristotle’s views on artistic representation, they receive this conceptualization in the form of guilt and mental deterioration.

Finally, perhaps Tartt herself embodies the notion of turning beauty into terror within her novel. When examined more closely, her work actually contains many horrific events; perhaps the most striking being the aftermath of the groups’ experiment- whereby the students’ white clothes are covered head to toe in the blood of the man that they murdered. However, Tartt subtly ‘dresses up’ lots of these events, and only mentions them briefly, making them less striking to a reader as entirely problematic. Thereby, violence is a central theme to this novel, yet ostensibly, it is never overwhelming; the beautiful parts of her writing shine more vibrantly than the terrifying.