As October casts its enchanting spell, the time for melancholy tales and wistful thinking draws near. Spooky stories and old haunts slink out from hiding places and fill the air with that oh so familiar feeling that a new season will soon be joining us. It’s an interesting thought that within the autumn months, the most recognizable forms of spirits and stories come with the traditions of Hallows’ eve and jack o’lanterns sitting atop window sills. I’m more reminded of the so called spirits of autumn when my gaze turns to a certain shelf tucked away in the corner of my library. Thus bringing me to select the dusty spine of an older novel whose story resembles terror in a much more striking form: truth and beauty.
“‘Death is the mother of beauty,’ said Henry. ‘And what is beauty?’ ‘Terror.’ ‘Well said,’ said Julian. ‘Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.'”
p. 37, The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The characters, whom I will refer to as the students, are Richard, Henry, Camilla, Charles, Frances, and Bunny. In the novel, when knowledge acts as a key to understanding the greater unknown, an obsessive nature commences in the mind of the beholder. In this instance, Julian’s students immerse themselves so far into the pages of historic manuscripts and mythologies that they quickly forgo rational thinking and trade reality for a more imaginative and haunting existence.
“After Gatsby’s death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes’ power of correction. So when the blue smoke of brittle leaves was in the air and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line I decided to come back home.”
p. 175, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Much like Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby, Richard is swept into the closed society of his fellow classmates and immersed into their world of intelligence, secrecy, and elitist knowledge. He watches with doe eyes as the once polished elegance of his peers’ lives disintegrates into tragedy.
“We don’t like to admit it, but the idea of losing control is one that fascinates controlled people such as ourselves more than almost anything. All truly civilized people–the ancients no less than us–have civilized themselves through the willful repression of the old, animal self.”
p. 38, The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The characters in the novel focus on the draw of Greek culture that has laid the foundation for much of the characters’ belief systems and perceptions of the world. Professor Julian encourages his students to delve into the classics with all of their energy as he becomes their counselor and teaches nearly all of their courses. Much like Plato was apprenticed by Socrates, so are Henry, Camilla, Charles, Francis, and Bunny taught at an intimate level by Julian. These five students carry an elitist mentality as they study the ancient texts. Julian tells them, “The Greeks, you know, really weren’t very different from us. They were a very formal people, extraordinarily civilized, rather re-pressed. And yet they were frequently swept away en masse by the wildest enthusiasms—dancing, frenzies, slaughter, visions” which plants a seed in the students’ minds to immerse themselves further into their studies by participating in the same activities that they read about in their books (40). Richard acts as the narrator of the story and shows the reader how his interest in Greek culture turns into a fascination once he joins the class.
One of the appeals of studying any culture in historic context is that there is a defined difference between ancient civilization and the current state of the world. A culture’s progression is evident through its prolonged time of existence, and because the Greeks were very innovative with their studies, sports, and architecture, looking back on their livelihoods feels like a privilege to the selected students. They seek freedom and an escape from the mundane society they’re surrounded by and find solace in the ancient texts presented to them by professor Julian. He tells his students that the rituals in common day “would seem clinical madness, irreversible. Yet the Greeks—some of them, anyway—could go in and out of it as they pleased” (40). Henry looks at the ancient Greeks as if they were invincible and truly gods of their era. He and his friends keep their noses in their books as they search for meaning and answers on their quest to become infinite.
“Ancient Greek is a difficult language, a very difficult language indeed, and it is eminently possible to study it all one’s life and never be able to speak a word; but it makes me smile, even today, to think of Henry’s calculated, formal English, the English of a well-educated foreigner, as compared with the marvelous fluency and self-assurance of his Greek.”
p. 201, The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The students take their readings in a literal sense and perform a Dionysiac ritual one night of the semester. In Greek history, such a ritual is also referred to as Bacchanalia. During the night of the ritual, the students act like the written Greeks and lose themselves in a hedonistic atmosphere of euphoria and freedom of the senses. Their desire to transcend their physical limitations of knowledge and power through such an exceptionally impassioned act proves to be a dangerously enlightening experience for all of the students, even affecting the ones who didn’t partake in the ritual.
Henry lives in a state of disillusionment after the ritual and recluses into his mind and novels. Although Richard admires the culture he studies in class, he sees it only as history and wonders why his classmates act so strangely around the stories. Henry asks Richard, “What if you had never seen the sea before? What if the only things you’d ever seen was a child’s picture—blue crayon, choppy waves? Would you know the real sea if you only knew the picture?” as he explains that he saw the god Dionysus before him (168). Henry recalls the wildness of the ritual and the uncertainty that the group felt during the night with passion and earnest. His greatest desire is “[t]o live without thinking” during the time he spends on earth (493). The students’ obsession with Greek culture stems from their desires to embody the myths of old and leave their own eternal mark on the world.
The novel beautifully captures the essence of the autumn season and its association with spooky stories and haunting atmospheres. Tartt effectively illustrates themes of obsession, escapism, and the allure of Greek mythology through her compelling exploration of the pursuit of beauty and the significance of ancient cultures.
During such a season when the wind whispers songs and the moon casts its light toward the shadows, the possibility of limitless imagination blooms across the minds of many. To lose yourself, through any medium available, suggests not a discontentment with the surrounding world but rather a draw to what lies just beyond reach. Tartt’s novel leaves us wondering: what did the Greeks discover in this pursuit of beauty that we’re failing to find for ourselves?
Ars longa, vita brevis – art is long, life is short.