The Secret History/Characters

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Richard Papen

• Contemplate Our Navels: As an observant outsider, Richard constantly analyzes his behavior and motives regarding what he did before he knew exactly what the other characters were up to.
• Embarrassing Old Photo: Richard destroys the only photo of his mother that he owns, for fear that Bunny will see it and realize that Richard grew up relatively poor.
• Fish Out of Water
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Richard as the narrator does this a few times.
• Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: Whenever he's reminding us that he's only attracted to women.
• Pass Fail: Of the class variety.
• Pinball Protagonist: Oh, very much so.
• Scholarship Student: He goes to great lengths to hide his lower-middle class upbringing from his rich friends.
• Sixth Ranger
• Stranger in a Strange School
• The Ishmael
• Unreliable Narrator: By his own admission.

Henry Winter

• Affably Evil
• Anti-Villain
• Badass
• Byronic Hero: His large-scale character flaws are exactly what make him so interesting.
• The Chessmaster
• Ditzy Genius: He can be incredibly impractical (not that he'll see it that way), which is one of the reasons the Gambit Pileup ultimately topples.
• Evil Is Sexy: Camilla is devoted to Henry in spite of his personality flaws.
• Genius Bruiser: Henry tends to hit harder than he means to. A major plot point.
• Genius Cripple: Has a limp because he was hit by a car as a child.
  • Handicapped Badass
• Heroic Sacrifice
• Intelligence Equals Isolation
• Lonely Rich Kid: In his childhood.
• Magnificent Bastard: The classic cold-but-charismatic mastermind.
• Man of Wealth and Taste
• Pet the Dog: Henry does save Richard from freezing to death in the Vermont winter, taking him to the hospital and bringing him to his apartment to recuperate.
• Raised Catholic
• Renaissance Man: Henry, though he's more of an old Roman than a Renaissance man. He "can grow flowers, repair clocks like a jeweller, add tremendous sums in his head." He also speaks eight languages and can read hieroglyphics.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Julian's, and therefore Henry's, general attitude.
• The Stoic
• Sociopathic Hero: Heavily deconstructed and subverted.
• Stoic Spectacles
• Tall, Dark and Snarky
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: To Charles, and apparently Richard.

Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran

• Asshole Victim
• Big Screwed-Up Family: The Corcorans. Oh God, the Corcorans.
• Boisterous Bruiser
• Book Dumb: He's a terrible scholar but a gifted artist and an astute observer.
• Conspicuous Consumption: Bunny's Big Screwed-Up Family.
• He Knows Too Much
• He-Man Woman Hater: And not afraid to show it.
  • Although with a mother like his it's hard to blame him.
• Idiot Ball: Bunny picks it up when he realises the truth about the farmer's death and refuses to put it down.
• Too Dumb to Live: Bunny Corcoran, boy detective. Knowing too much doesn't always make you smart.

Francis Abernathy

• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Francis is extremely fond of sporting it.
• Bath Suicide: Attempts one in the epilogue.
• The Beard: Marries Priscilla to placate his homophobic grandfather at the end of the book.
• Big Screwed-Up Family: Judging from his iron-fisted grandfather, Absurdly Youthful Mother and even more absurdly youthful stepfather, Disappeared Dad, and assorted Crazy Cat Lady aunts.
• Brilliant but Lazy: How Bunny describes Francis, who is a gifted scholar but lacks the motivation to get himself out of trouble (or stand up to Henry). After his grandfather discovers that he's gay, he prefers to get married to a ditzy woman rather than be disinherited and actually have to work for a living.
• Fiery Redhead
• Hands-Off Parenting: From his mother in his childhood.
• Momma's Boy: Francis's relationship with his mother is slightly more complicated.
• Princely Young Man
• Raised Catholic
• Upper Class Wit

Charles Macaulay

• Bastard Boyfriend: To Camilla.
• Beware the Nice Ones: With the possible exception of Richard, Charles seems to feel the worst about Bunny's murder, which is one of the reasons he has the most pronounced Freak-Out.
• Bi the Way: With some Depraved Bisexual leanings.
• Different As Night and Day: Charles and Camilla, who at first seem very similar. Their personality differences intensify over the course of the book, and at the end, years after the resolution of the main plot, they barely speak to each other anymore.
• Gray Eyes
• Hair of Gold
• Half-Identical Twins: Charles and Camilla initially appear to conform to this trope. As the plot unravels and their personality differences emerge they lose their united front. In contrast to their earlier descriptions, a minor character remarks that for twins they don't look much alike at all.
• I'll Tell You When I've Had Enough!: Really doesn't appreciate his friends pointing out his alcoholic tendencies.
• Light Is Not Good: Charles and Camilla wear a lot of white, in addition to looking like a pair of angels.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Charles gets very jealous over Camilla, mainly because he wants her all to himself.
• Raised by Grandparents
• Raised Catholic
• Twincest
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Charles is made the group's unofficial CCO in the furor after Bunny's death. After he snaps under the pressure (among other things), Henry begins looking for a way to dispose of him.

Camilla Macaulay

• The Chick: Richard describes Camilla as "the Queen who finished out the suite of dark Jacks, dark King, and Joker." She deals with being the only woman in the classics clique with intelligence and verve, for the most part, but being the object of three men's lust and love takes its toll after a while.
• Damsel in Distress: Devolves into one after Charles becomes abusive.
• Different As Night and Day: Charles and Camilla, who at first seem very similar. Their personality differences intensify over the course of the book, and at the end, years after the resolution of the main plot, they barely speak to each other anymore.
• Gaussian Girl: Camilla, despite that fact that The Secret History is a book rather than a film. Her true character is hard to make out through the veil of Richard's adoration.
• Gray Eyes
• Hair of Gold
• Half-Identical Twins: Charles and Camilla initially appear to conform to this trope. As the plot unravels and their personality differences emerge they lose their united front. In contrast to their earlier descriptions, a minor character remarks that for twins they don't look much alike at all.
• Light Is Not Good: Charles and Camilla wear a lot of white, in addition to looking like a pair of angels.
• Pretty in Mink: Camilla seems to own a few fur coats.
• Raised by Grandparents
• Raised Catholic
• Twincest
• Unkempt Beauty: At least some of the time. Richard notes how beautiful she is even when she's wearing her brother's clothes or her hair is a mess.

Julian Morrow

• Broken Pedestal
• Cool Teacher
• Expy: Julian looks very much like an expy from almost every single movie made about an inspirational teacher. From the start, however, we can see that this is going to be quite heavily deconstructed.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: If people apart from his students admire Julian, this is probably why.
• Immortality Seeker: "Live Forever" is a favorite toast of Julian's.
• Selective Obliviousness: Julian wants to believe the best of everyone, until confronted with evidence to the contrary. Unless his obliviousness is only a pretense.

Marion

• Long Hair Is Feminine
• Dead Guy, Junior: An odd case; her daughter is named after her late boyfriend.
• Settle for Sibling: In the epilogue she's married to Bunny's brother Brady.
• Tsundere

Cloke Rayburn

• Not Helping Your Case
• The Stoner

Judy Poovey

• Valley Girl