Julian Morrow: Who is He? What is he?

Today, I came across a passage that I knew I had to write about. Julian talks with the students about human nature but speaks so intimately I felt that the author was trying to talk to me instead of her character...

"He was a marvelous talker, a magical talker, and I wish I were able to give
a better idea what he said, but it is impossible for a mediocre intellect to
render the speech of a superior one-especially after so many years- without
losing a good deal in the translation. The discussion that day was about
loss of self, about Plato's four divine madnesses, about madness of all
sort; he began by talking about what he called the burden of the self, and
why people want to lose the self in the first place. 'Why does that obstinate little voice in our heads torment us so?' he said, looking round the table. 'Could it be because it reminds us that we are alive, of our mortality, of our individual
souls-which, after all, we are too afraid to surrender but yet make us feel
more miserable than any other thing? But isn't it also pain that often makes
us most aware of self? It is a terrible thing to learn as a child that one is a being separate from all the world, that no one and no thing hurts along with one's
burned tongues and skinned knees, that one's aches and pains are all one's own.
Even more terrible, as we grow older, to learn that no person, no matter how beloved, can ever truly understand us. Our own selves make us unhappy, and
that's why we're so anxious to lose them, don't you think?...And how can we lose
this maddening self, lose it entirely? Love? Yes, but as old Cephalus once heard
Sophocles say, the least of us know that love is a cruel and terrible master. One loses oneself for the sake of the other, but in doing so becomes enslaved and miserable to the most capricious of all the gods. War? One can lose oneself in the joy of battle, in fighting for a glorious cause, but there are not a great many glorious causes for which to fight these days.'" (Tartt,36)

After reading this passage I began to wonder immensely about human nature, and about Julian's role in the story. I first believed that he was playing the minor role of the students' teacher, but as the story progresses he is put higher and higher on his pedestal above the rest. In the very beginning of the passage he is characterized as being a "marvelous talker; a magical talker," which immediately made me want to know: What made him so great? Why is this Greek professor worshiped so much, even by the author? Does he play some important role later in the story? WHY? So many questions go unanswered at the moment so I can only speculate:

After reading his words, I realized his intellect and his profound knowledge made him all the greater. I found myself admiring his character just as the characters in the book did. He speculated but used logical examples to back up his reasoning. He is a man who makes a statement and has all of the evidence to prove that it is true. The funny thing about him is that the evidence is there for all of us to see, he is just the only character that helps us find it.

As to question number 2, I began to think that he is admired by the author so much because he expresses some of her own views. I actually don't know this but that level of passion was completely different from the rest of the novel. Even though a character is technically giving the narration, I saw the author come out in this particular passage. The tone wasn't strictly factual and telling the story, but it was with so much emotion and it focused on influencing our minds. This passage talks about human nature and it really made me think because I've never addressed this aspect of my character. It made me question who I was as a person...To go so far as to say that we as humans want to lose ourselves because we make ourselves the most unhappy is so far fetched but the reasoning feels so true. When we love, we give ourselves to that lucky person and put them before us, losing ourselves in the mist of teddy bears and flowers. And when we lose that love, are we depressed because we loved them so much? Or are we depressed because now there is nobody to help us escape from ourselves? But let's not forget about war. War is such a disastrous thing, but when it's done for a "glorious cause" it's not as bad as it seems. People become joyous and often lose themselves in fighting. It stops being about the war and morphs into the need to kill.

I've never in my life explored the depths of human qualities. I think that Donna Tartt created this character and wrote this part specifically to help her audience look into themselves and see what they could find. I found a lot. So why not worship this man who helps us delve into our inner souls?

My third question is based only on guess work, but I believe that he plays a huge role in the story. At this point it is very obvious that his students look to him as if he were God. I think that they will hover on his every word, maybe a little too seriously. I believe that he will tell them something about humans, and they will follow what he says. At this point I can't find any reason for the friends to murder Bunny, so I think that they murder him based on something that Julian says.

Only time will tell...