Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith

TALENTED MR. RIPLEY

Patricia Highsmith created arguably the most 'charismatic psychopath' of the 20th century when she wrote Talented Mr. Ripley in 1955. First in a series of five novels, Talented Mr. Ripley revolved around Tom Ripley, the cold, callous and amoral protagonist whose main objective in life was to achieve a higher social status at any cost. The psychopath however is no ordinary con-man. Ripley is a calculating murderer whose cheats, deceives and kills with premeditated intent. There is nothing accidental about his actions and yet for some odd reason, we don't hate him. The first-person narrative may have a role to play in how readers' emotions are manipulated to side with the killer; still there appear to be some other factors at work. How can we possible not hate a person who impersonates a rich young man after casually killing him and then lives a life of crime to suit his ruthlessly ambitious lifestyle? The answer lies in the careful depiction of the killer and his ability to convince us of the righteousness of his actions despite the fact that they were anything but righteous.

Patricia Highsmith, the author of this immensely engrossing thriller, wrote in her diary in 1942, something that might explain the casual abnormality of Mr. Ripley's actions: "The abnormal point-of-view is always the best for depicting 20th-century life, not only because so many of us are abnormal, realizing it or not, but because 20th-century life is established and maintained through abnormality." (Gray: 2003) The central theme of the Ripley series and nearly all other works that followed was also delineated in her diary: "I should love to do a novel...about one abnormal character seeing present-day life, very ordinary life, yet arresting through it, abnormality, until at the end the reader sees, and with little reluctance, that he is not abnormal at all, and that the main character might as well be himself." (Gray: 2003)

In the novel, Ripley is simply portrayed as a rational human being with an irrational desire to get to the top at any cost. Ripley is fully capable of rationalizing his actions and as horrible as it sounds, the readers seem to warm up to him despite his obvious callousness. Tom Ripley is also immensely fortunate for every time we feel he has come really close to getting caught, he manages to escape with some stroke of luck. And we somehow heave a sigh of relief when he does. Amazing, intriguing and truly fascinating, Tom Ripley is a psychopath with a difference. The story really takes off when Ripley who had so far been impersonating as an income tax officer is approached by Herbert Greenleaf, the fairly wealthy father of an acquaintance. Ripley is asked to track down Dickie Greenleaf and bring him back home.

Tom thought, Dickie was probably having the time of his life over there. An income, a house, a boat. Why should he want to come home? Dickie's face was becoming clearer in his memory: he had a big smile, blondish hair with crisp waves in it, a happy-go-lucky face. Dickie was lucky. What was he himself doing at twenty-five? Living from week to week. No bank account. Dodging cops now for the first time in his life. He had a talent for mathematics. Why in hell didn't they pay him for it, somewhere? Tom realized that all his muscles had tensed, that the match cover in his fingers was mashed sideways, nearly flat. He was bored, God-damned bloody bored, bored, bored! He wanted to be back at the bar, by himself." (p. 9)

Dickie was enjoying a bohemian life in Italy and money and status are things he takes for granted. Ripley finds him in an enviable position in life and starts living off Dickie's money. But the twist comes when it appears to Ripley that Dickie might soon shun his company. "He was bored, God-damned bloody bored, bored, bored! He wanted to be back at the bar, by himself." To lose everything that he had hitherto enjoying meant going back to square one, and that is what motivates Ripley to kill Dickie and impersonate him. The disturbing pungency of the murder scene is never lost on the reader: "Tom swung a left-handed blow with the oar against the side of Dickie's head. The edge of the oar cut a dull gash that filled with a line of blood as Tom watched. Dickie was on the bottom of the boat, twisted, twisting. Dickie gave a groaning roar of protest that frightened Tom with its loudness and its strength. Tom hit him in the side of the neck, three times, chopping strokes with the edge of the oar, as if the oar were an axe and Dickie's neck a tree."

Ripley manages to convince Marge, an acquaintance of Dickie that he needed a few days off and is gone on a vacation. At the same time, Ripley cuts off all correspondence and connection with Dickie's friends and forges his signature for various purposes. In his last desperate attempt to save himself from trouble, he forges Dickie's will and succeeds yet again. The Greenleaf family never detects any foul play and Tom legally becomes a wealthy person. Near the end of the novel, he envisions sailing to Crete as "it was no joke. It was his! Dickie's money and his freedom. And the freedom, like everything else, seemed combined, his and Dickie's combined" (p. 289).

As we mentioned above, Ripley's actions are so absolutely thrilling and craftily planned that when he succeeds, the readers feel like applauding his genius. Otto Penzler, former publisher of Highsmith's, sheds light on this evil-hero oxymoron: "...these superbly crafted tales about the unfailingly charming but entirely reprehensible criminal are irresistible, much like watching Mike Tyson in a boxing ring (or out of it, for that matter). You know it's wrong to be titillated by it, and you feel guilty about enjoying the spectacle, but it's impossible to avert the eyes." (Bowman: 2003) It is widely believed that Highsmith shared some characteristics with the protagonist. Her replies to questions about Ripley were mostly cryptic. It appeared that she wanted to justify his actions which were obviously unjustifiable. When asked about the insanity of his protagonist, Highsmith called it actions motivated by a sense of mystery: "I don't really understand murder, but perhaps that's what fascinates me about it. If one drowns a kitten in a bucket of water, for instance, suddenly the kitten is dead. Something is gone. This to me is a mystery." (Bowman: 2003)

Tom is not presented as an innocent protagonist who is corrupted by circumstances. He is an evil mind who works with an evil intent and what makes it all interesting is the fact that Ripley considers himself highly talented and takes his wrongdoings casually. In an attempt to woo Dickie, he confesses:

Oh, I can do a number of things -- valeting, baby-sitting, accounting -- I've got an unfortunate talent for figures. No matter how drunk I get, I can always tell when a waiter's cheating me on a bill. I can forge a signature, fly a helicopter, handle dice, impersonate practically anybody, cook -- and do a one-man show in a nightclub in case the regular entertainer's sick. Shall I go on?" Tom was leaning forward, counting them on his fingers. He could have gone on. (p. 58)