Summary
After an idyllic fall semester, Richard faced a problem. He dreaded the idea of going back to California for the winter break, especially since the break lasts all of January and February. The other Greek students were going to various places: Bunny and Henry were traveling to Italy together, while Francis was going home to Boston, and Charles and Camilla were going home to Virginia. While Richard had invitations to stay with his friends, he couldn't afford not to work during the break, so he had to stay in Hampden.
Richard took the cheapest housing he could find, which ended up being an unheated room. Because he was ashamed of his poverty, he didn't tell any of his friends about the details of his circumstances. Richard spent several miserable months alone, working for Dr. Roland and barely surviving freezing to death. He contracted pneumonia and collapsed on the side of the road; he likely would have died, but fortunately, Henry had returned early from Italy and happened to find him. Henry rushed Richard to the hospital, where he received treatment.
After Richard was released, since the dorms were not still open, Henry brought Richard back to stay at his apartment. During the time they stayed together, Henry revealed that he did not enjoy his time in Italy because Bunny was crass, vulgar, and fixated on spending as much money as possible. When Bunny returned from Italy, he came to visit Henry, and Richard noticed that things seemed tense between Henry and Bunny. When Francis also returned, Richard overheard an argument between Francis and Henry.
Richard moved back into his dorm and waited for classes to start, puzzled by the fact that none of the other Greek students contacted him or turned up on campus. Richard realized that he had left his Greek textbook back at Henry's apartment, so early one morning Richard let himself in to retrieve it. No one was at home, and Richard noticed a piece of paper with information about a flight. Impulsively, he phoned the airline, and by posing as Henry, he confirmed that Henry had recently purchased four one-way tickets to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The flight was scheduled to depart from Boston the following day. Richard became obsessed with the idea that the other Greek students were going to flee the country without him. He even called Francis's mother to see if Francis was in Boston, but simply created confusion because Francis's mother assumed her son was at school, and became alarmed. Bunny mentioned to Richard that he had also not seen any of the others; when Bunny brought up his trip to Rome, Richard became hopeful that he would learn more information, but Bunny merely complained about Henry being resentful of giving him money.
On the first day of Julian's class, Richard was stunned and relieved to see Charles, Camilla, Francis, and Henry all present. When Julian asked why he hadn't seen them on campus, Charles and Camilla told a bizarre story about getting stuck at Francis's country house. Richard was confused, and after class, Henry invited him for a drive. Henry revealed that he knew Richard had contacted the airline, and learned about the tickets. Henry also mentioned cancelling the tickets; later, Henry and Richard went back to Francis's apartment, and Henry provided more information. Henry, Francis, Charles, and Camilla were all ready to fly to Argentina with no plans to return; they travelled to Boston together in preparation for the flight, but they were depending on money from Francis, and at the last minute, they learned that Francis did not have as much money as he expected. Without the money, the group cancelled their plans and returned. Upon hearing this story, Richard tried to understand what could have driven the group to fleeing, and guessed that they killed someone.
Henry confirmed that they did indeed kill someone, and told Richard the story: inspired by Julian's lectures, Henry, Charles, Camilla, and Francis decided to recreate an ancient Dionysian ritual in which worshippers tried to achieve a state of transcendence through intoxication, group sex, music, and generally removing all social constraints. They pursued these rituals during their time at the country house, which explains some of the strange things that Richard had noticed. They initially included Bunny in the plan, but became annoyed with him not taking the rituals seriously enough, and started leaving him out. After many false attempts, Henry, Charles, Camilla, and Francis finally achieved a sort of trance-like state in which they ran through the woods, having visions and attaining a kind of spiritual enlightenment. However, when they came to, they realized that they had somehow killed a farmer, although no one has a clear idea of how it happened. Unsure what to do, they fled, leaving the body in the woods. Henry told Richard that they had almost gotten away with their crime, but Bunny intervened.
Before Henry could say more, they were interrupted by the arrival of Francis.
Analysis
The change of seasons marks a change of mood in the novel: while the scenes set in autumn evoke a blissful and idyllic mood of youthful friendship and happy college days, cruel realities set in with the arrival of winter. Tartt uses pathetic fallacy to draw a comparison between the brutal New England winter and the ultimately ruthless atmosphere of Hampden, where weakness and vulnerability can readily be exploited. Richard has been so successful with his lies that he now has to face the consequence of maintaining the illusion. His choice to spend weeks alone nearly freezing to death rather than humble his pride, or risk exclusion from the clique, shows just how obsessed Richard is with maintaining appearances and staying close to his friends. This masochistic willingness to risk his life foreshadows how Richard will later be willing to go along with murder for similar reasons.
The winter weather also reflects Richard's state of mind during this time: just as the landscape is frozen and waiting for spring to renew and become productive again, Richard is suspended in a state of anticipation and not even fully alive without the community and stimulation of Julian and the other Greek students. This deep attachment shows why Richard experiences complete panic when he thinks the other students are leaving the country. He's had a taste of what life would be like with them, and can't endure the idea that this reality could be permanently taken from him.
Thus, when Richard learns the shocking truth that Henry and the others have killed a man, he is not as horrified as many people would be. Richard and Henry show how their elitism has led them to see some individuals as less than human: because the dead man is a local farmer, who was likely not well educated or leading any sort of remarkable life, they aren't really concerned about his death. They never consider that he likely had family and friends who would grieve this loss. The fact that Richard guesses that Henry and the others have killed someone reveals that he may have actually had more suspicions about his friends than he reveals. While buying plane tickets to flee the country certainly suggests that they have something to hide, it is still a fairly big leap to assume that they have killed someone. Richard seems to have observed a certain ruthlessness or even violence to their actions which makes it possible for him to even suspect his closest friends of such an action. Because Richard guesses about the murder, and then has his suspicion confirmed by Henry, the reveal of the crime actually heightens the sense of intimacy between Richard and the group. He feels that he knows them so well that he can guess even this shocking secret.
The bizarre nature of the crime also explains why Richard is initially confused about how to respond. Julian had innocently introduced the idea of a Dionysian rite, or bacchanal, to his students, carelessly focusing on the transcendent and aesthetic aspects of the experience without discussing the need for moral responsibility. Julian seems to have had some idea that the students were pursuing these rites, and he did not warn them to be careful or try to temper their actions. Despite his position as a teacher and a kind of parental surrogate, Julian does not feel any real responsibility towards his students. Because they see themselves as special, elite, and deserving of heightened experiences no matter the cost, Henry and the others recklessly pursue a state of transcendent ecstasy. Perhaps because they are all quite privileged and usually have access to the best of everything, they need an intense sort of stimulation in order to actually provoke a reaction. When Henry describes the events of the night, he focuses on the temporary state of spiritual enlightenment he achieved, and sees the death of the farmer merely as a kind of annoyance they encountered. Perhaps because Henry is so calm and detached about the murder, Richard is also not particularly shocked or upset. What Richard is actually upset and afraid about is the possibility that his friends might get caught, and therefore no longer be part of his life. He is fresh from a terrible period of seeing what his life might be like without them, and his primary priority becomes helping them to safeguard their secret so that he is not abandoned.
Richard's commitment to protecting his friends means that Bunny becomes his antagonist as well as theirs. Richard has observed right from the beginning of his time at Hampden that Bunny has a strange relationship to the group, and Richard has never admired or respected Bunny the way that he does the others. Part of the tension is likely that Bunny and Richard are actually quite alike, since they both lack wealth and refinement. Richard might be quicker to take Henry's side of viewing Bunny as an annoying danger because he also would not mind being rid of someone who plays on his own insecurities. Much like how the farmer's death is dismissed because of his lack of social taste, Bunny's lack of sophistication and refinement make him much more disposable to the group. Henry's disgust with Bunny's lack of appreciation for the history and elegance of Rome shows that Henry judges him for being unworthy of the rest of the group. As a Classics student, Bunny should be moved and enthralled by a city where there is still a strong presence of the ancient past, but all Bunny cares about is spending money. Bunny's vulgarity shows an important indication of how class functions in the novel: while characters such as Henry, Francis, and Julian clearly have access to ample money, they spend that money judiciously and with meticulously curated taste. Someone lacking money, like Bunny, instead focuses on vulgar and showy displays of wealth.
