The Talented Mr. Ripley

After Tom’s ship docks, he takes a train overnight to Italy. When it passes through Pisa, he is shocked to find that the leaning tower is just as astonishing as it has always been represented to be; he expected it to be an exaggeration. He takes this as a good omen. Tom stays the night in a Naples hotel and takes a bus to Mongibello the following morning. When he arrives, he leaves his suitcases at the local post office and asks for directions to Dickie’s house. The housekeeper tells him that Dickie is at the beach, so Tom buys a flashy bathing suit he feels very uncomfortable in and goes down to the beach. He sees Dickie and Marge and introduces himself. Herbert has written Dickie to expect Tom, but Dickie claims to have forgotten. He asks Tom about his plans, which are unformed, and Marge recommends renting a house. After an uncomfortable silence, Tom offers Dickie a cigarette. He tries to remind Dickie how they know each other by mentioning various common acquaintances, but Dickie still does not remember. They all go in the water, with Tom staying in the shallows, and then Marge invites him up to Dickie’s house for lunch. Tom admires Dickie’s signet ring, like Herbert’s, as well as a ring with a large green stone. From the balcony, Marge points out her own house and Dickie’s boat. Tom tells Dickie that he has socks and a bathrobe from his mother, and Dickie asks after her health. But when Tom brings up Herbert, Dickie is dismissive. Tom begins to feel as if the encounter is going terribly. When he announces that he is leaving, Marge recommends a hotel for Tom, and they do not try to stop him. They make no definite plans to see each other again.

Sick from all the travel and strange food, Tom checks into his hotel. From his window, he watches Marge and Dickie getting into Dickie’s sailboat. He realizes that because Herbert wrote to Dickie about him, Dickie was probably predisposed not to like him. He decides to wait a few days before he contacts Dickie again.

After three days, Tom goes back to the beach and finds Dickie in his usual spot, without Marge. Tom asks Dickie back to his hotel for a drink, and Dickie agrees after it becomes clear that Marge is not coming to the beach. Tom gives Dickie the socks and bathrobe from his mother and realizes that, now that Dickie has everything his mother sent, he has no further reason to be in touch with Tom. In desperation, just before Dickie leaves, Tom tells him that Herbert paid his way to Mongibello to convince Dickie to come home. This interests Dickie, and they laugh about it together. They go to the hotel bar for a drink, and then Dickie invites Tom up to his house for Sunday dinner with Marge.

They stop at Marge’s. Tom tells her about Dickie’s father paying for him to go to Europe, and they all laugh about it. At Dickie’s house, Tom does impressions to make them laugh, but only Dickie gets the joke. Dickie invites Tom to see his paintings, and Tom is not impressed, although he does not let on. Dickie gives him a tour of the rest of the house, and Tom notes that there are no signs of Marge sharing Dickie’s living space.

Tom arranges to go to Naples for the day with Dickie soon—without Marge. When Marge leaves the room, he asks Dickie to his hotel for cocktails and dinner, paid for with Herbert’s money. But when Marge comes back, Dickie invites her along as well. Dickie then invites Tom to stay with him, and they make plans to move Tom into Dickie’s house the next day.

The following morning, Tom and Dickie move Tom’s things into Dickie’s spare bedroom. In the afternoon, they go to Naples. Just as they are getting on the bus, they run into a friend of Dickie’s, Freddie Miles. Freddie invites Dickie to go skiing in Cortina in December, and they arrange to see Freddie again later that night, when they return. In Naples, Tom and Dickie sit in a pizzeria for several hours and then go to the Galleria, where Dickie talks about Freddie for most of the time. They see an acquaintance of Dickie’s and accept his offer of a ride to Rome. In Rome, they sit outside a cafe until their music-hall show, and Tom notices that Dickie does not seem to know people in Rome as he did in Naples. They spend the evening drinking and walking around the city.

Tom and Dickie fall asleep in a park and are woken up by two policemen. They get coffee and rolls before boarding the bus back to Mongibello. When they return, Marge is angry with Dickie for not telling her they were spending the night in Rome, and Tom realizes that Marge is jealous.

Marge, in her anger, is cool and reserved with Dickie and Tom. Dickie seems worried about this but brushes it off when Tom brings it up. Tom works to entertain Dickie with stories, trying to be the perfect guest. He writes to Herbert to keep him updated and hints that he could use more money. Dickie arranges for Fausto, a local boy, to teach Tom Italian. One day, Tom and Dickie take his sailboat to Capri, but Dickie is in a bad mood, so they come home early. In his letters to Herbert, Tom offers hope that Dickie might change his mind soon and return to New York. However, he and Dickie have made plans to go to Greece and Majorca that winter. Although Tom does not want her along, Dickie has mentioned their plans to Marge, so they play down the trip so that she will not want to go. But Marge and Dickie have a fight, and she calls off their trip to Cortina with Freddie. Tom thinks this is because Dickie had recently invited Tom to go along to Cortina as well.

Dickie, guilty about his rift with Marge, goes to her house to apologize. Tom spies on them and is upset to find Dickie kissing Marge. He runs back to Dickie’s house and, in Dickie’s room, dresses in Dickie’s clothes, imitating him in the mirror and pretending to strangle Marge. Dickie returns home and is upset to find Tom in his room, wearing his clothes. He tells Tom that he and Marge have made up. He also tells Tom that he is not gay, revealing that Marge thinks Tom is gay. Tom denies it and leaves the room, upset. Later, he tells Dickie again that he is not gay, and he thinks about various gay men he knew in New York. Tom asks if Dickie is in love with Marge; Dickie says he is not but that he wants to keep her friendship, and Tom gets in the way of that by showing his dislike of her. Tom leaves Dickie alone for the afternoon, and in the evening, Dickie’s good humor has been restored. Fausto comes to the house, and he and Tom converse in Italian. Tom has decided he wants his Italian to be as good as Dickie’s.