By Ann Ramsey Day
Ann Ramsey Day is a retired language teacher and school counselor. She is an active member and facilitator of the RVA Classic Book Club. As a member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Richmond, she enjoys nurturing her passion for reading and literature as a participant, a solo instructor of literature classes, or as a co-teacher with Litchatte.com Coordinator, Murray Ellison. The following is her commentary on a recent class she taught for Osher on Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Biographer Andrew Wilson said of Patricia Highsmith, “I think she will be remembered as one of the great mappers of criminal psychopathology.”
Patricia Highsmith at an early age developed a fascination with the psychologically abnormal which would continue for the rest of her life. Many of her novels and short stories contain characters that reflect this, the most famous being Tom Ripley of her novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley. It is important when trying to understand this novel to note that there are many similarities between Highsmith and her infamous character. Both had unhappy childhoods, low self-esteem and identity issues. She projected this in Tom Ripley. When Pat talked about Ripley, she spoke as if he were a real person. She often signed letters, Pat H., alias Ripley.
The Talented Mr. Ripley was published in 1955 and was made into a film in 1999 featuring Matt Damon as Ripley, Jude Law as Dickie, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge. Highsmith won two awards for this novel: Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere International in 1957 as well as the Edgar Allen Poe Scroll Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1956. The Talented Mr. Ripley is the first of five novels in a series called The Ripliad of which Tom Ripley is the main character.
Tom Ripley is both the protagonist and the antagonist of the novel. He is cunning, slippery, charming, and yet very shy and insecure. His talent for forgery, impersonation, and imitation is quite notable. He uses his skills to his advantage at every available opportunity. He does not allow anything or anyone to get in the way of his intentions, even to the extent of committing murder. The novel begins with Tom Ripley living a life of petty crime in New York City where he meets Herbert Greenleaf, a wealthy owner of a shipbuilding company. Greenleaf approaches Tom to help him entice his son, Dickie who is living in Italy, to return to America. His mother, Mrs. Greenleaf is quite ill. Tom decides to accept Mr. Greenleaf’s offer and generous funding to go to Italy.
While in Italy Tom becomes friendly with Dickie Greenleaf and his friend, Marge Sherwood. Tom becomes obsessed with Dickie and his lifestyle. He wants to “become” Dickie himself, but at great cost. Highsmith was enamored with the motif of the double or splintered self and the changeable nature of one’s identity which she illustrated magnificently with the character of Tom Ripley. As the story unfolds, the reader is thrust into Tom’s world of deceit, greed, and murder.
Both Dickie and Tom seem to be trying to escape something. Dickie is in Italy to leave his life in New York and the responsibilities of becoming a part of his father’s shipbuilding business. He is living a carefree bohemian lifestyle. Tom on the other hand is running from a life of poverty, and eventually, as the novel progresses, one crime after another. Highsmith seems to try to manipulate the reader to sympathize with Tom. Despite having physically escaped his crimes, he never truly escapes the magnitude of the destruction he has caused. One might ask, can a physical escape ever equate with a moral one? How does Tom justify his actions?
Highsmith once questioned, “Where does guilt come from? I am interested in whether certain people have or have not a sense of guilt under certain circumstances.” If you would like to leave a response, comment, or question for Ann, please respond on the dialogue box below this column, and she will certainly respond in a timely manner.
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