The Museum Exhibit Symbol Analysis

In the epilogue of The Secret History, Richard sees an unnamed museum exhibit in his dreams, and this exhibit symbolizes his inability to move on from the past. The exhibit is a machine that repeatedly folds in on itself to create new images. The images are all great feats of architecture built by ancient and medieval cultures, including the Colosseum, the Pyramids, and St. Mark’s Basilica. Around the machine are a group of men staring at it in awe. The men, like Julian’s students, are transfixed by the wonder and beauty of the past. However, as the novel reveals, this fixation can prove dangerous. Henry’s desire to emulate the ways of the past lead to several deaths, including his own. Meanwhile, for Richard, the past morphs into an inescapable terror. Though Richard would like to find pleasure in the manifold beauties of ancient civilizations, his view of the past has narrowed; his past, and his life, now revolves around the murder he committed. Ultimately, then, the museum exhibit is revealed to be a sort of purgatory that Richard and Henry appear unable to escape.