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From the beginning of the novel, Richard admits that his fatal flaw is a longing for the picturesque. It is exactly this quality that leads Richard to attend Hampden, join Julian’s Greek class, and become involved in the central conflict of the novel. Having grown up in California in a lower-middle-class family, Richard has a romantic view of the ancient and elegant, to him the antithesis of what he has experienced on the west coast. This attitude is why he decides to transfer to Hampden College simply after coming across a brochure depicting an idyllic New England campus. Upon arriving at Hampden, Richard feels a snobby, and hypocritical, disdain for anyone with a similar background to his, such as Judy Poovey. Though he took ancient Greek only out of convenience at his college in California, he becomes determined to join Julian’s class after observing Julian’s five students, who seem extremely classy and sophisticated to him. Even after Richard is accepted by the group, he can still never truly be himself around them. He acts as though he is just as wealthy as the rest of them for fear of not being accepted. 

Richard’s idolization of his classmates is what makes him a bit of an unreliable narrator, as he presents them through a romantic lens. Even after learning that four of his friends have committed a murder and planned to flee the country, Richard does not for a moment consider turning them in or even think any less of them. This idolization is also why he does nothing to stop their murder of Bunny, in the end even assisting them with it. After Bunny is dead, Richard realizes that he was being manipulated by Henry, Camilla, and Julian, perhaps since the very first time he met any of them, because they saw how susceptible he was to their beauty and charms. However, even this knowledge does not stop Richard from loving and admiring them long after the events of the novel. Though Richard becomes more self-aware of his flaws, he does nothing to try to improve them.

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