Highsmith introduced Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) as a young man making a meager living as a con artist. The novel also supplies him with a back story: orphaned at age five when his parents drowned, he was raised in Boston by his aunt Dottie, a cold, stingy woman who mocked him as a "sissy."
Highsmith's creation of Tom Ripley as a central character is problematic, for Tom is elusive and decisively absent despite his omnipresence throughout the story. Tom's journey to Europe illustrates a Canadian journey into the "heart of darkness," for Tom's desires become horrific in their realization.
The Ripley novels have also been adapted for television and radio. The Talented Mr. Ripley was adapted for a January 1956 episode of the anthology television series Studio One, and Jonathan Kent played Ripley in a 1982 episode of The South Bank Show titled "Patricia Highsmith: A Gift for Murder", dramatizing segments of Ripley Under Ground.
Because Dickie and Tom are the same age and have a similar appearance, Tom finds it easy to take on Dickie's identity. Marge Sherwood is smart, moralistic, and self-respecting, but because readers learn about her only from Tom Ripley's viewpoint, it's not always easy to see her attributes.
Tom Ripley's sense of identity is tenuous at best. He desperately wishes for attention and approval, particularly from Dickie Greenleaf, with whom he's obsessed. Tom also covets Dickie's lifestyle and would give—or do—anything to become independently wealthy like Dickie and his friends. Finally, enraged by Dickie's indifference and consumed with envy, Tom murders him and assumes his identity. Tom thrives on risk. He has a brilliant mind and repeatedly finds ways to avoid getting caught for his crimes. He also is a consummate liar who fabricates confusing and convincing stories that throw others off his trail. His calculated lies and outrageous risk-taking eventually make him a rich man.
Tom detests Marge because he thinks she's having an intimate relationship with Dickie. Whether or not this is the case, she is definitely in love with Dickie. Marge disrupts Tom's relationship with Dickie Greenleaf by telling Dickie she thinks Tom is gay. Tom denies this, but the damage is done. Dickie becomes distant from Tom, leading Tom to murder him. Later, however, Marge seems rather gullible when she accepts Tom's story about why he has Dickie's rings.
Freddie Miles, one of Dickie Greenleaf's friends in Italy, is an extravagant, even flamboyant, expatriate. He's cultured and rather snobbish. He looks down on Tom Ripley, who in turn detests him. Freddie's dislike of Tom makes him quickly grow suspicious when Dickie fails to show up for a skiing holiday. Freddie is persistent about finding Dickie and tracks Tom down in Rome. When it seems Freddie has figured out that Tom is impersonating Dickie, Tom murders Freddie.
Tom Ripley is a secretive, troubled young man in New York. He makes his living by scamming elderly people and artists, but lies to his group of friends, fabricating careers and talents in order to seem accomplished. He has many acquaintances but no close friends, and his parents have been dead since he was young. Tom resents the aunt who raised him in Boston, though he relies on the small checks she sends him. One day, Tom is cornered in a bar by Herbert Greenleaf, the wealthy father of his friend Dickie. Herbert is under the impression that Tom and Dickie were once very close, although Tom barely remembers Dickie. Mr. Greenleaf is distraught because his son has gone to live in an Italian village and refuses to return home, even though his mother—Herbert Greenleaf's wife—is very ill with leukemia. Greenleaf asks Tom to write to Dickie and ask him to return, suspecting that Tom will have more influence than his parents. As their conversation continues, Greenleaf's request transforms: he wants to pay for Tom to sail to Italy and speak with Dickie in person. Tom agrees, tempted by the offer of money and travel. After a dinner at the Greenleafs' apartment, in which it becomes clear how desperate Dickie's parents are for their son to come home, Tom sets sail.
This is a calculated risk, but, just after sending the letter, Tom learns that the police have discovered Dickie's possessions in storage at the American Express. He worries that his fingerprints will be found on the luggage, and that this, in conjunction with the forged will, could be his downfall.
Dickie loses his temper, accusing Tom of being homosexual, and explaining that Marge believes he is. Tom denies this, but is wounded. Soon after, he takes a trip to San Remo with Dickie, though Dickie is now reluctant to spend time with Tom.
The police do not seem suspicious, but soon after, Tom reads in the newspaper that a bloodstained boat has been discovered in San Remo. He realizes that the police might find Dickie's body as well. If so, they will assume that the body is Tom's and believe that Dickie has killed both men.
Marge disagrees at first, but accidentally finds Dickie's rings in Tom's apartment. Tom tells her that Dickie gave him the rings in Rome before his disappearance, explaining that he wanted Tom to keep them in the event anything happened to him. This explanation convinces Marge that Dickie committed suicide.
Tom them elaborately stages a scene of revelry in the apartment, leaving half-drunken cups of alcohol and cigarette butts scattered about. He carries Freddie's body outside to Freddie's car, trying to look as if he is merely supporting a drunk man. He drives the body to a location outside of town and abandons it.
Tom agrees, tempted by the offer of money and travel. After a dinner at the Greenleafs' apartment, in which it becomes clear how desperate Dickie's parents are for their son to come home, Tom sets sail. His arrival in Mongibello, Dickie's town, is awkward.
At the same time, his homosexuality is evident to many of his peers, but Tom does not fully acknowledge it even to himself. His murder of Dickie, and his choice to disguise himself as his victim, stems from both a longing to possess and control the object of his subconscious desire and from a wish to have Dickie's money, status, and confidence. Though Tom ultimately gains all of Dickie's wealth and manages to go undiscovered by the police, his need for luxury and validation is more or less insatiable.
When Tom has a visible moment of emotional crisis at Peter's apartment because of his feelings of guilt, fear, and confusion in the wake of his murder spree , Peter comforts him, believing that Tom is merely grieving for his friend.
After his parents drowned, Tom was sent to live with his aunt in Boston. Dottie treated him harshly and teased him about his sexuality, accusing him of being a "sissy." As an adult, Tom justifiably resents this, although his fury applies even in instances where Dottie has not been cruel—for instance, he feels righteously indignant because his aunt sends him small checks rather than the large ones he would prefer.
Peter is one of Tom's closest friends in Venice. An Englishman living abroad, he is friendly and generous. When Tom has a visible moment of emotional crisis at Peter 's apartment because of his feelings of guilt, fear, and confusion in the wake of his murder spree, Peter comforts him, believing that Tom is merely grieving for his friend. Though the scene—and Peter 's presence in the novel—is brief, this is the only instance in which another character responds to Tom's emotional turmoil after Dickie's death.
Herbert Greenleaf is Dickie's father and a wealthy New York City shipbuilder. He is desperate to see his son again, especially since his wife is sick. Yet Greenleaf is unsure how to communicate with Dickie, leading him to ask Tom to do so on his behalf. Mr. Greenleaf is gruff but trusting and generous, and this, in combination with his desperation, leads him to not only send Tom to Italy, but also to give Tom a great deal of money. He never appears suspicious of Tom. However, Greenleaf clearly feels frustrated with his son, whose absence he considers an abandonment. Even when it seems that Dickie has either killed himself or gone into hiding, Greenleaf treats the disappearance as an act of stubborn inconsiderateness on his son's part.
The story is told by an omniscient narrator in the third person from the point of view of the main character, Tom Ripley. This perspective provides intimate insight into his thoughts, feelings, motivations, and actions.
The title refers to the exceptional ability of the main character, Tom Ripley, to assume the identity of another person and avoid detection as he commits crimes—including murder—to achieve his ends.
This study guide for Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley offers summary and analysis on themes, symbols, and other literary devices found in the text. Explore Course Hero's library of literature materials, including documents and Q&A pairs.
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Aunt Dottie. Tom's much-loathed Aunt Dottie raised him in Boston after his parents’ death, though she constantly complained about it. She teased and taunted Tom cruelly, and often called him a “sissy,” comparing him to his father… read analysis of Aunt Dottie.
Tom's much-loathed Aunt Dottie raised him in Boston after his parents’ death, though she constantly complained about it. She teased and taunted Tom cruelly, and often called him a “sissy,” comparing him to his father… read analysis of Aunt Dottie
The short answer is no. Tom Ripley is not capable of feeling those emotions because he is a sociopath. He always feels justified in acting solely to further his own best interests. In the early...
While he pretends to be Dickie Greenleaf, the sociopathic character of Tom Ripley encounters several people: Signora Buffi, the wife of the house superintendent, about whom he is worried that she...
Desiring to be another becomes deadly, not only for the one erased from the text, but also for the one inscribed with the identity of another. Tom is cruel, Tom is calculating, Tom is dangerous, Tom is not . . . Tom is elusive because he is constantly naming himself as another; in the beginning of the novel, Tom receives checks made out to fictitious names (like "George McAlpin"), and, by the end of the novel, is accepting checks directed to him by fraud. The first checks could never be cashed, for Tom feared he was being "sought out" by the police, but, by the end of the novel, is confident that his ruse was successful.
Fearing that he has lost Dickie's attention, Tom looks to Dickie to see that Dickie's "blue eyes" "were still frowning" and the "sun-bleached eyebrows white and the eyes themselves shining and empty, nothing but little pieces of blue jelly with a black dot in them, meaningless, without relation to him." Although Tom is alienated from Dickie, he begins to see himself as Dickie: "in Dickie's eyes Tom saw nothing more now than he would have seen if he had looked at the hard, bloodless surface of a mirror." And the similarities between the two characters, and Tom's eventual synthesis of the two, is most telling.
Freddie Miles is an extreme version of Herbert Greenleaf. Freddie has money, but an even greater abundance of arrogance. He first appears as "a young man with red hair and a loud sports shirt," identifiable as "an American." The question then arises if it is his loud sports shirt that signifies his nationality, for the two are instantly connected. As "The American," Freddie is detestable to Tom, for "Tom thought he was hideous" and "hated red hair, especially this kind of carrot-red hair with white skin and freckles." Tom's portrait (mediated by the narrator) is one of hideous characteristics. Freddie represents all that stands in the way of Tom's acceptance into this new society, literally. Freddie first criticizes and then admonishes Tom, first for Tom's intrusion, then for Tom's deception. When Freddie threatens Tom's plan, as the first (and truly only) one to realize the extent of Tom's facade, Tom murders him. Freddie, too, then, is a catalyst; Tom can no longer live as Dickie once Freddie's murder is discovered, for Dickie is then named "murderer." Tom must then become "Tom Ripley" again, but with revisions.
Highsmith characterizes Ripley as a "suave, agreeable and utterly amoral " con artist and serial killer who always evades justice. Book magazine ranks Ripley at #60 on its list of the 100 Best Characters in Fiction since 1900. Ripley is epicurean and sophisticated, living a life of leisure in rural France.
For the English architect, see Thomas Ripley (architect). Thomas Ripley is a fictional character in a series of crime novels by American novelist Patricia Highsmith, as well as several film adaptations. The character is an anti-hero: he is a career criminal, a con artist and serial killer.
In his 2001 book Malignant Self-Love: Narcissism Revisited, Sam Vaknin writes that Ripley (as portrayed in the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley) meets five of the seven criteria for antisocial personality disorder, and displays narcissistic traits.
Ripley ultimately forges Greenleaf's will, leaving himself the dead man's inheritance. The novel ends with Ripley, having narrowly evaded capture, sailing to Greece and rejoicing in his newfound wealth. However, the book's final passages hint that he will pay for his freedom with a lifetime of paranoia, as he wonders whether he is "going to see policemen waiting for him on every pier that he ever approached".
Nationality. American . Thomas Ripley is a fictional character in a series of crime novels by American novelist Patricia Highsmith, as well as several film adaptations. The character is an anti-hero: he is a career criminal, a con artist and serial killer.
Ripley's criminal exploits include a long-running art forgery scam (introduced in Ripley Under Ground and consistently mentioned in later books), an entanglement with the Mafia (in Ripley's Game ), and several murders. In every novel, he comes perilously close to getting caught or killed, but ultimately escapes danger.
In Ripley Under Ground (1970), set six years later, Ripley has settled down into a life of leisure in Belle Ombre, an estate on the outskirts of the fictional village of Villeperce-sur-Seine in France, which Highsmith locates "some forty miles south of Orly ", "some twelve miles" from Fontainebleau, and "seven kilometres" from Moret.
Isn’t he sweet? ... Matt Damon as the title character in Anthony Minghella’s film of The Talented Mr Ripley. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar
Patricia Highsmith manipulates our sympathies in The Talented Mr Ripley so expertly that we find ourselves rooting for a brutal killer
Patricia Highsmith does a fine job of ensuring he wheedles his way into our sympathies. It’s a classic story of someone who starts off down on his luck and disregarded, but who, through force of personality, hard work and sheer determination, manages to make something of himself. He’s had a hard upbringing.
Yet, every so often, there is an uncomfortable reminder that Tom’s view of the world is not entirely healthy - like that murder. It’s a crime that feels all the more terrible because Highsmith has done such a careful job of making sure we also feel sympathy for Dickie.