Kevin McCollum
Richard came from humble beginnings but constantly tried to appear wealthier than he actually was. For the first time, Richard is given a large amount of money and can spend it as he chooses. The money suddenly thrust upon him is a responsibility he has never had to deal with before and he has to figure out how he will spend the money. Richard’s shopping spree is a representation of Dark Academia and how it is about aesthetics with no real substance within the ‘subculture’ by showing that Richard spends his money on a falsified appearance and is overwhelmed by the opportunities he is presented with.
The passage conveys a sense of wonder and excitement at the sudden fortune that has appeared in Richard’s life. The phrase “glorious day” and the descriptions of “Harris tweed overcoat and a pair of brown wingtips” highlight the newfound status that Richard is able to experience now (Tartt 26). He has a glorious day buying a Harris Tweed coat because it makes him appear wealthy when he is still poor. His status hasn’t improved, but he considers it a good day because his appearance has. Even after his initial shopping spree, he “still had nearly a hundred dollars” after buying clothes to appear rich (26). The hundred dollars he has left is half of what he was given to start with. Instead of being satisfied with the amount that he has already spent, he is still considering ways to spend his money for the sake of spending it with no real purpose. This represents a theme of Dark Academia: having things for no real purpose other than to show them off.
After buying clothes, Richard shows indecisiveness about how to spend his money, demonstrating the excitement and anxiety that comes with having money and how little experience he has. Eventually, he is “swarmed by the flock of possibilities that drifted up” (27). The possibilities seem to swarm him like a flock because he has reached the end of his limited knowledge when it comes to wealth. He does not understand what to do with himself after buying what he considered the most important part of being wealthy. Richard describes himself as “a farm boy flustered by a bevy of prostitutes” to show how unfamiliar he is with his situation (27). The money is as unfamiliar to him as the prostitutes would be to a farm boy. Even though he is so unfamiliar with wealth, he still wants to appear as if he is. He is falsifying his appearance without any actual experience dealing with large amounts of money, representing the facade that is Dark Academia.
The sudden gift of a large sum of money to Richard and his struggle to spend it appropriately is a good example of Dark Academia and how surface-level the culture is. There is no deeper meaning to the things that Richard tries to spend his money on. He is purely focused on appearing as something that it is not. Dark Academia is similar, showing many things that have to do with science or literature when in reality is purely created to have the appearance of Academia, which it is not.
