The Secret History

Henry Winter is the wealthiest of Julian’s students, coming from a prominent family in St. Louis. He is evasive about his background, however. Like Richard, he is “not happy” (84) with his home and origins, even though he is considerably wealthier than the narrator and protagonist. Henry is remarkably intelligent and distinguishes himself as the most gifted classics student in Julian’s group. He also establishes himself as the leader of the students, for he is always the first to articulate a plan when his fellow students are in doubt. Henry’s role as leader is supported by a certain dark fearlessness, which he demonstrates early in the novel by viciously beating up a man who threatens Camilla. As the leader of Julian’s group, Henry encourages Camilla, Charles, and Francis to hold bacchanals in an attempt to achieve altered states of consciousness bordering on frenzy, repeating the ritual over and over again with the hope of “los[ing] control completely” (42). His dark character is confirmed when he easily forms a plan to conceal their accidental killing of a farmer.

As Bunny’s former roommate and arguably his closest friend, Henry develops an ambivalent perspective on their relationship. On one hand, Henry is disgusted with Bunny’s habit of borrowing money from his friends. He is irritated by Bunny’s loud, ostentatious personality—which directly threatens the group’s well-being when Bunny learns of the farmer’s murder. On the other hand, Henry feels a complex, conflicted fondness for Bunny. The Secret History also illustrates Henry’s complicated relationship with Julian, suggesting that Julian strongly influenced Henry’s decision to lead the bacchanal. After Julian learns the truth about Bunny’s murder and abandons the group, Henry experiences an internal crisis. He ultimately responds by shooting himself when Charles attempts to kill him.

Bunny is an outlier among the classics group in numerous ways. He is not academically talented, and he struggles with his Greek assignments. He is known as a jovial, fun-loving person who is not especially intelligent. He also leeches money from his friends, frequently “inviting” them out for extravagant meals, then asking them to pay because he has no money. Bunny derives his attitude toward money from his parents’ influence. As Henry explains: “What the Corcorans did with their sons was to send them all off to the most expensive schools they could possibly get into, and then let them fend for themselves once they were there” (195). Although Bunny’s family is middle class, their attitudes have taught him to live beyond his means, pretending (and on some level, believing) that he is wealthy.

Thus, Bunny displays a performative sense of entitlement, which drives him to lash out fiercely and loudly whenever he feels threatened. When Bunny discovers the students’ murder of the local farmer, he viciously chides and undermines Henry, Francis, Camilla, Charles, and Richard, pointing out their greatest weaknesses. For example, he frequently mocks Richard for wearing a second-hand, out-of-season jacket, sensing that Richard is sensitive about his class background. Bunny’s duplicitous personality generates a complicated aura around his death. Although Bunny’s cruel aggressions make his death feel necessary—even inevitable—to the students, they also love and value him as a friend. Richard feels particularly haunted by Bunny’s death, frequently recalling the incident of his murder and missing him deeply.

Charles and Camilla Macaulay are twins who were orphaned as children and have grown up living with their wealthy old aunt in Virginia. Charles is handsome and charming, endearing himself to anyone he meets. He and Camilla enjoy acting as hosts and caregivers for the classics group, holding a weekly dinner at the apartment they share.

When Bunny learns about the farmer’s murder, he incites Charles’s anger by teasing him about his relationship with Camilla. The novel later reveals that Charles is engaged in an incestuous relationship with Camilla, and that he is controlling and even physically abusive toward her when she attempts to extricate herself from the relationship.

After Bunny’s death, Charles spends a great deal of time being interviewed by the police. Charles feels a great burden of responsibility to use his charm and diminish police suspicion, feeling that Henry’s odd personality and behavior threaten all members of the group. Charles’s anger toward Henry deepens when Henry becomes romantically involved with Camilla and sets her up in a hotel away from her brother, paying for her room. Charles’s mental condition quickly deteriorates after the students’ murder of Bunny, and he struggles with alcohol addiction. Eventually, in the midst of heavy drinking, Charles confronts Henry and threatens to kill him. In the resulting struggle, Henry seizes the gun and dies by suicide.

Camilla is the sister (and twin) of Charles Macaulay. She is intelligent and beautiful, but there is a distinctive sadness and coldness about her beauty. Julian highlights this quality in the beginning of the book, inviting her to read a speech from the murderous Clytemnestra in Agamemnon. Upon hearing her “harsh and low and lovely” (38) voice, Henry reflects that “[d]eath is the mother of beauty” and beauty is “terror” (39). Henry is also very protective of Camilla, aggressively defending her at Judy Poovey’s party and tenderly caring for her on an occasion when she accidently steps on a shard of glass. Even in their early interactions with Camilla, Henry and Charles appear to compete with one another, with Henry always assuming the dominant position.

Richard is also in love with Camilla, though he never summons the courage to confess his love until the end of the book, years after Henry’s death. Ultimately, Camilla rejects Richard, telling him that she can’t be with him because she is still in love with Henry, thus suggesting that this love prevents her from changing, developing, and moving on with her own life.

Francis has a complex codependent relationship with his wealthy mother, who abuses substances and is romantically involved with a man much younger than she is. Francis feels equally conflicted feelings toward his friends in the classics group. He is gay, and he is romantically fixated on Charles even though Charles does not return his affections (and in fact often manipulates Francis’s feelings). As Francis explains to Richard: “We don’t run much to looks in my family […] Maybe that’s why I equate physical beauty with qualities with which it has absolutely nothing to do” (457).

Francis greatly struggles to process the deaths of Bunny and Henry. Years after Henry’s passing, he writes Richard and Camilla to announce his plan to die by suicide, as his life has never fully recovered from this loss. Ultimately, he does not go through with this plan, but his letters serve as a means of reuniting him with Richard and Camilla.