The Secret History Assignment 6; Henry Winter, a loveable psychopath in its truest form An essay by Tim Wijnhoven In this essay I will talk about Henry Winter, a character from the novel A Secret History by Donna Tar, and how he is a genius, yet a severely disturbed person. Although this book has all the elements of an intellectual murder-mystery novel, it is not so much a tale revolving around ‘who did it’. In fact, you are prey much told the bad thing that happens in the prologue, and you can see it coming like a giant comet for much of the book. And when the deed finally does happen, it is deliciously awful. When you look up the name Henry in the Name Database, the entry you find is, I think, a very good descripon of Henry Winter: HENRY (m) "home ruler" from the Germanic name Heinrich, which was composed of the elements heim "home" and ric "power, ruler". Henry is one of the members of a very exclusive Ancient Greek studies class taught by professor Julian Morrow, and it is safe to say he is the leader (or; ruler) of this class. He is the wealthiest student in the group of intellectual delinquents, which adds to his role as ‘ruler’. “Henry, too, was said to be wealthy; what's more, he was a linguisc genius. He spoke a number of languages, ancient and modern, and had published a translaon of Anacreon, with commentary, when he was only eighteen.” Henry is a very charismac character, and by far my favourite character in this novel. As you progress throughout the novel, he will make you love, hate, fear and respect him all in the same me. He is the person ulmately behind every awful event, and his odd but compelling charisma makes the others to always go along with whatever he says goes. The best descripon for Henry would probably be ‘perfectly evil’, and more dangerously so because we are drawn under his spell and find it hard to resist loving him despite the fact that he is so selfish and manipulave. He is probably the smartest person in the exclusive alliance of Greek scholars. He is very tall, but geeky. More than once he is described as being a nerd, your typical bookworm. “Two of the boys wore glasses, curiously enough the same kind: ny, old fashioned, with round steel rims. The larger of the two – and he was quite large, well over six feet – was dark-haired, with a square jaw and coarse, pale skin. He might have been handsome had his features been less set, or his eyes, behind the glasses, less expressionless and blank. He wore dark English suits and carried an umbrella (a bizarre sight in Hampden) and he walked sffly through the throngs of hippies an beatniks and preppies and punks with the self-conscious formality of an old ballerina, surprising in one so large as he. “Henry Winter,” said my friends when I pointed him out, at a distance, making a wide circle to avoid a group of bongo players on the lawn.” But there is so much more to him. He is the leader of the pack, all the characters look up to him. All events that make you gasp and put down the book to exhale extensively every now and then; he is the one who comes up with the idea of the bacchanal, and he is the mastermind behind the murder of his friend, Bunny.