The Secret History: Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Dangers of Isolation

The events of The Secret History show what can happen when people are cut off from much of society. The entire student body of Hampden is already somewhat isolated, living in rural Vermont. The students in Julian’s class become even more isolated because Julian requires that they take only his classes. Not only do his students have classes just with each other, but, aside from Bunny, they also do not spend much time socializing with anyone else. They retreat to Francis’s country house, an even more isolated location, nearly every weekend. As a result, the six students begin to have warped views, including on morality, and they take desperate measures to protect themselves. The four who participate in the bacchanal feel no guilt over killing a man, having become so self-absorbed that they can worry only about their futures rather than the man they killed. Bunny, the only one to have friends outside their group, is perhaps the least isolated and therefore the most perceptive. However, feeling they are safe from any potential consequences, his friends show that they will stop at nothing to hide their secret.

The Superficiality of Appearances

Julian and his students all have a rather unhealthy obsession with outer beauty, and this obsession leads to the main conflicts of the novel. Richard admits that he is susceptible to superficiality, as he is drawn to Hampden by its beautiful campus and New England charm. This preoccupation with beauty is also what leads them all to study Greek. It feeds their fascination with the ancient and the divine, although as Greek scholars, they all appear rather naive. When Richard observes them from afar, he is taken in by how classically beautiful and sophisticated they all seem. However, it is their fixation on achieving a certain aesthetic that drives Henry and the others to attempt a bacchanal, leading to an innocent man’s death and proving their beauty exists only on the outside. Even before the death of the farmer, things between the friends were not at all as they appeared. There were the violence and incest between Charles and Camilla, Francis’s shame over his hidden sexuality, Bunny’s homophobic and racist remarks, and Henry’s tactical manipulation. In the end, the beauty and sophistication that Richard so admired about both Hampden and his classmates were only ever surface level.

The Consequences of Secrets

The weight of keeping secrets is one cause of the major conflicts of the novel and the reason Richard is recounting the story in the first place. The first major secret is that of the farmer’s death. Richard at first feels left out when discovering four of his friends have made plans to go to Argentina, wondering what secret they are keeping from him. He then feels included when he is let in on the secret. Meanwhile, Bunny is angry not because his friends killed someone, but because they did not trust him with their secret. Secrets, therefore, can impact relationships and eventually have devastating consequences. The next major secret is Bunny’s death. Even after the friends feel they have gotten away with his murder, most of them feel a sense of guilt. It manifests itself in excessive drinking, in the case of Richard and Charles, and intense anxiety, in Francis’s case. This secret leads to Henry’s suicide and the dissolution of the relationships among the four who remain living. Throughout the novel, there are seemingly smaller secrets that make life difficult for the characters and make it harder for them to be their true selves, such as Francis’s sexuality and Richard’s economic status. Any secret, big or small, can have a major impact on someone’s life and relationships.

Reality Versus Illusion

One of the fatal flaws of Julian and his students is their inability to distinguish reality from their illusions. Richard, for example, sees the other students as somewhat mythological figures, and he is enamored of Camilla because he sees her in this light. Henry in particular is living an illusion. Both Julian and Henry seem to see life as a reenactment of a Greek drama. For this reason, Julian encourages Henry to have the bacchanal, and Henry fails to see the dead farmer as an actual person instead of a side character who is merely collateral damage. This misguided sense is also why Henry seems to see his friends as expendable, killing Bunny, nearly killing Charles, and planning to use Richard as a scapegoat. Though Julian does not play an active role in any of these events, he seems to be more of a director, pulling the strings from behind the curtain and taking perverse pleasure in it all, only to leave when it becomes clear that reality has taken over and there may be consequences. In the end, Henry’s suicide is not out of protection for his friends, but to ultimately fulfill the role of a tragic Greek hero.

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