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Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith has created a character who is both charming and disturbed, but the reader gets involved because we see everything from Ripley's point-of-view.
From the author shows us a young man who is willing to break the law, although he does not seem dangerous. He wonders, "Was this the kind of man they would send after him? ... He didn't look like a policeman ... " (p. 3). By the beginning of the second chapter we find out what Tom Ripley's crime is: he sends out fraudulent IRS bills to vulnerable individuals, and keeps the checks. He doesn't try to cash them, because the people keep insisting on making them out to the IRS instead of to his pseudonym for this scam: "A pity that ... some idiot hadn't paid in cash yet, or made out a cheque to George McAlpin ... " (p. 13). Ripley holds the checks, but does not want to get caught. He has no intention of going to jail. So far Ripley seems to flirt with serious crime, but he hasn't done anything that would truly harm anyone when Mr. Greenleaf asks Tom to travel to Italy, all expenses paid, to convince Greenleaf's son Dickie to come back home.
Throughout the book the author finds ways to keep the...
We find out that Tom is afraid to sail to Europe because both his parents drowned when he was very young. She says it gave him a "sick, empty feeling at the pit of his stomach" (p. 25) to imagine being on the boat. This reveals a greater truth about Ripley, however: he is completely selfish. He worries often, but only about his own welfare.
Gradually, Highsmith lets us see Tom's more menacing traits. He becomes obsessed with Dickie Greenleaf. He seems to fall in love with Dickie and becomes jealous of his female friend Marge: "Dickie was kissing her ... he had to strain to see ... what disgusted Tom was that he knew Dickie didn't mean it ... " (p. 77). Tom is convinced he has become more important to Dickie than Marge ever could be to him. "That kiss -- it hadn't looked like a first kiss." (p. 77) In a rage, he throws Dickie's art supplies out the window. Then Tom shows the depth of his growing obsession. He puts on Dickie's clothes and imagines himself as Dickie, telling Marge he doesn't love her: " ... you must understand I don't love you ... " (p. 78) and then imagines himself, as…
Tom has impersonated people before. He gathers up Dickie's personal papers along with his clothes, his jewelry, and his insurance policy. He tells Marge a story he finds credible, that Dickie just suddenly decided he wanted to live in Rome. It is similar to the story he told a young woman in New York City to explain why Tom was leaving. This story reveals something else about Tom: because he is completely self-absorbed, he mistakes Dickie's happy-go-lucky character as similar self-absorption. But Marge knows Dickie truly cared about her, and she is baffled by Tom's explanations. However, she sees through Tom, writing in a letter to Dickie that he will never read, "He'll never help you or anyone else to get straightened out about anything. In fact it's greatly to his interest to keep you muddled and string you along and your father too." (p. 123).
By using the device of this letter, we see Tom through Marge's eyes. Highsmith manages to keep the reader interested in Tom through the rest of the book because the reader wonders if, and how, Tom's pretenses will collapse. The reader has no sympathy for Tom, but we want to know what happens to the people he has abused. Tom Ripley, charming but disturbed, holds our interest to the end as we see the world through his unique, amoral, view.
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley. New York: Random House Vintage Books, 1955.
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He is a little shy of his sexuality in the novel since it was written in 1950s when homosexuality was still found repulsive. While in the novel, Ripley never admits his homosexuality, he is more confident on the same in the movie. He seems to desire Greenleaf however the same overt declaration is missing in Highsmith version. Instead of clashing, the differences of the film and novel versions seem
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"Dickie's money had given him only an added momentum on the road he had been travelling" (Highsmith). This quotation shows two key facts. One is that Ripley indeed murdered Greenleaf for the money the latter possessed, which Ripley appropriated. The second is that this appropriation of money and wealth was the direction Ripley's life was "travelling" -- which underscores the fact that he desires material wealth. By having him