Winter
For the months of December, January, and February, Richard stays in a decrepit old room and walks to and from campus to work and make use of facilities there. He has to endure a brutal New England winter with minimal shelter, and no access to heat. Richard is also almost entirely alone during this time. Tartt evokes this agonizing period by using vivid imagery to evoke snow, bitter winds, freezing temperatures, and solitude and mental anguish. Through the use of pathetic fallacy, the bitter and frozen landscape mirrors Richard's emotional and intellectual life during this time. The imagery of winter helps readers to feel sympathy for Richard, and reflects how he can vividly recall this period many years later. Winter imagery is also important because it symbolizes the isolation that Richard endures when he no longer has contact with Julian and the other students, and the longing he feels for them; as Elaine Showalter explains, "in a certain kind of ... academic novel, winter is a time of heightened privacy, inwardness, even eroticism" (14). The imagery of the freezing and lonely winter that Richard endures primes him to become willing to do anything, even kill, in order to never be cast out of the friend group again.
Country House
After getting to know the other Greek students, Richard is invited to begin joining them for weekends at a beautiful old country house owned by a relative of Francis. Richard and the other Greek students spend many happy weekends there during the months of October and November. Imagery conveys the beauty and the elegance of the house, the refined furnishings, and idyllic autumn days spent on the grounds, including woods and a lake. The imagery of the house reveals why Richard becomes entranced by the lifestyle of someone who is wealthy, and comes from generations of wealth, like Francis. Richard has always felt ashamed of his upbringing in California because he feels it lacks beauty, glamor, and sophistication. He is seduced by the idea of being a cultured, educated, and wealthy individual who lives surrounded by beauty. However, the imagery of the beautiful house disguises that dark and violent rituals are also occurring there.
Julian's Office (the Lyceum)
The first time that Richard visits Julian's office, he is struck by the carefully curated and elegant space. The Greek classes meet there as part of Julian's efforts to create a carefully controlled environment for his pupils. The office space is described using imagery of sight, sound, taste, and smell; it involves fresh flowers, elegant art and furnishings, fresh tea, and the stimulating intellectual discourse of the classroom discussions. This imagery reveals that being in Julian's class is an immersive and seductive experience; once Richard has had a taste of this world, he never wants to leave it. Because of how beautiful and elegant this space is, it is easy for the Greeks students to begin to believe that they lead a different existence, separate from quotidian daily life and common morality. The imagery also shows that Julian cares deeply about aesthetics, but creates a juxtaposition with how he is later revealed to be morally hollow. Julian cares about maintaining the appearance of beauty, but when confronted with the ugliness of crime, he flees.
The Bacchanal
Richard is not present at the bacchanal ritual, but he hears about it from the others who were there, including Henry, Francis, and Camilla. Between the different accounts, Richard comes to have a vivid impression of the ritual, involving imagery of blood, chaos, and a transcendent mental state. Richard can't fully understand what it was like to be there, but the imagery is important to show that the experience was powerful. All of the other Greek students truly believe they achieved some sort of higher plane of reality, and as a result, they don't feel morally accountable for the death of the farmer. They instead worry about not getting caught. The imagery surrounding the bacchanal shows how Richard could be seduced into remaining friends with the group even after finding out what they have done. While the crime might be grotesque, the rest of the night is described as sensual, unconstrained, and even beautiful, and because it is represented in this way, Richard is not as repulsed as he perhaps should be. The imagery of the bacchanal represents a case where the Greek students focus on beauty rather than looking deeper at the moral implications of a situation.
