In Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History,” a group of college students at a prestigious Vermont college become captivated by the allure and aesthetic of Greek philosophy with the guidance of their professor. Drawn to ancient ideals of beauty, intelligence, and the pursuit of superiority, these students form an exclusive circle that isolates them from everyone. The narrator reflects on beauty’s intense and terrifying pull, delivering a quote that I found incredibly beautiful and perfectly captures the book’s unsettling appeal:
“Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves?” (p. 45)
I am fascinated by how well this quote captures the danger of pursuing ideals to the point of obsession, demonstrating how beauty is not just an aesthetic but something powerful that can become destructive and can make people cross moral and legal boundaries in search of something perfect or divine, which is exactly what happens in the book.