Instability In The Secret History

A key difference between the two texts is the acceptance of their instability. The Bell Jar is clearly about Ester’s mental breakdown and she never seems in denial of this; whereas Richard in The Secret History ignores and hides his instability and it is only through the inconsistencies in his portrayal of the events that reader is able to infer it. This inconsistency is shown through heavy use of the passive voice and the halting, slow admittance of his involvement with the murder combined with the sudden, surprising reveal of Henry’s suicide – which isn’t full picked up again in the rest of the novel. It is only through this that the reader notices his instability , denial of events – whilst under the facade of a memoire and his obsession with the other characters in the novel which then leads to a mild distrust of Richard’s portrayal of events and the acceptance on
This sense of being forced is emphasized with the immediate subject change to a stream of consciousness style deviation: “tripping about in those same size seven patent leather shoes I’d bought in Bloomingdale’s one lunch hour [...]” This elongated, plosive sentence with a clear fast rhythm is such a sharp change and involves such strong deviation and unnecessary description that it feels very much like Ester is trying and failing to change the subject which emphasizes this forced feeling. Yet whilst Ester isn’t comfortable at the beginning of the novel by the end she certainly is and in part due to this forced admittance she never seems