The Talented Mr. Ripley

“If there was any sensation he hated, it was that of being followed, by anybody. And lately he had it all the time.”

Tom’s paranoia makes sense in light of the IRS scheme he is running. However, although he claims to hate the feeling of being followed, he continues to engage in activities that could draw the attention of the police. And when he is safe and not feeling paranoid, he is bored, which is the paradox of Tom’s life and character.

“That had been the only time tonight when he had felt uncomfortable, the way he might have felt if he had been lying, yet it had been practically the only thing he had said that was true: My parents died when I was very small. I was raised by my aunt in Boston.”

Tom is a consummate liar and role-player, so it is significant that he is only uncomfortable when telling the truth—in this case, when telling the Greenleafs about his upbringing. This discomfort arises throughout the novel whenever he makes himself vulnerable by exposing his true past. This insinuates that his true self—the role he wishes to never play—is that deeply insecure and unloved young boy.

“His parents had drowned in Boston Harbor, and Tom had always thought that probably had something to do with it, because as long as he could remember he had been afraid of water, and he had never learned to swim.”

Tom’s fear of water will come up again and again, and water itself becomes a motif running through the book. This quote shows the psychological origins of Tom’s fear and sets water up as important to the meaning of the text. And yet Tom will find himself constantly, even purposefully, near or on the water, illustrating his need to take risks even in the face of his own fear.

“He began to play a role on the ship, that of a serious young man with a serious job ahead of him. He was courteous, poised, civilized, and preoccupied.”

Tom is on board the ship bound for Europe, where he plans to meet up with Dickie. He has consciously left his friends and the former Tom in New York and realizes that the ship is a blank slate—no one knows him, and he can be whatever he likes. Him Playing Roles is a theme that carries through the story. Here the reader sees it manifest in a small role, but this foreshadows his assumption of Dickie’s identity later in the novel.

“He spent the time examining Dickie’s rings. He liked them both: a large rectangular green stone set in gold on the third finger of his right hand, and on the little finger of the other hand a signet ring, larger and more ornate than the signet Mr. Greenleaf had worn. Dickie had long, bony hands, a little like his own hands, Tom thought.”

To Tom, Dickie’s rings symbolize everything that Dickie possesses that he does not: wealth, class, and sophistication. They will be one of the few things he chooses to keep with him, despite the obvious risk. In addition, here the reader sees one of the first times that Tom notices his resemblance to Dickie, foreshadowing his eventual theft of Dickie’s identity.

“It was his one last chance to amuse Dickie or to repel him, to make Dickie burst out laughing or go out and slam the door in disgust. But the smile was coming, the long corners of his mouth going up, the way Tom remembered Dickie’s smile.”

Tom fails to connect with Dickie at first, mainly, he realizes, because Dickie sees him as Herbert’s lackey. Here, he understands that after he gives Dickie his socks and bathrobe from Emily, he will have no reason to continue their acquaintance. In desperation, he recaptures Dickie’s interest by turning on Herbert and allying himself with Dickie. This illustrates Tom’s intelligence, quick thinking, and gift for mimicry, as he staves off what might have been a disastrous situation and the end of his adventure.

“She seemed to know that Dickie had formed a closer bond with him in twenty-four hours, just because he was another man, than she could ever have with Dickie, whether he loved her or not, and he didn’t.”

Tom believes Marge is jealous of his growing relationship with Dickie, and he is partly right, as he has purposely placed himself between them from the beginning. Whether he and Dickie are as close now as Tom thinks they are is questionable. His willingness to convince himself of it shows the depth of Tom’s desire to develop an intimacy with Dickie and his complete rejection of Marge.

“It surprised him how much he looked like Dickie with the top part of his head covered. Really it was only his darker hair that was very different from Dickie. Otherwise, his nose—or at least its general form—his narrow jaw, his eyebrows if he held them right—”

In this pivotal scene, Tom is trying on Dickie’s clothes and imitating him. He is upset after seeing Dickie kissing Marge and feels betrayed. But Tom is also increasingly seeing the resemblance that exists between Dickie and Tom. When Dickie finds him in his clothing, it signifies the beginning of the end of their friendship as well as Tom’s growing notion of becoming Dickie.

“That was reality, laughing it off, making it silly, something that was more important than anything that had happened to him in the five weeks since he had met Dickie, maybe that had ever happened to him.”

Tom is upset at Dickie’s dismissiveness of Carlo, the man with whom he was conspiring to send them both to Paris in coffins. He is aware that his relationship with Dickie is falling apart and that this episode is hastening the end of the friendship. He is furious but has gathered himself enough to act as though what has happened did not matter in order to salvage their friendship. Notable here is Tom’s assertion that “that was reality,” the idea that he is always playing a role, always acting counter to his feelings, and that was the nature of his life.

“If he killed him on this trip, Tom thought, he could simply say that some accident had happened. He could—He had just thought of something brilliant: he could become Dickie Greenleaf himself.”

At last, the reader sees Tom come, fully and consciously, to the conclusion that has been building since Tom first met Dickie. When he first thinks about killing Dickie, it is because their friendship is dying, and Tom is angry and heartbroken. But the idea of assuming Dickie’s identity gives Tom a new angle from which to view the plan, which becomes a new con, a fresh, risky adventure that can keep Tom interested in life.

“Tom had an ecstatic moment when he thought of all the pleasures that lay before him now with Dickie’s money, other beds, tables, seas, ships, suitcases, shirts, years of freedom, years of pleasure. Then he turned the light out and put his head down and almost at once fell asleep, happy, content, and utterly, utterly confident, as he had never been before in his life.”

Tom has killed Dickie and is now in a train cabin on his way to Naples. He is flush with the success of his plan so far and has none of the anxiety one might expect. His feeling more confident than he ever has in his life is notable, as if, by killing Dickie, he has already assumed not only his possessions but some element of his personality as well.

“Tom held imaginary conversations with Margo and Fausto and Freddie in his hotel room. Marge was the most likely to come to Rome, he thought. He spoke to her as Dickie, if he imagined it on the telephone, and as Tom, if he imagined her face to face with him.”

Tom is now in the position of straddling his two identities: Tom and Dickie. He will need to be quick and flexible, assuming one identity or the other as circumstances dictate. Tom’s comfort in playing roles throughout his life will serve him well in this situation, as well as the quick thinking that is one of his main character traits.

“He felt as he had felt on the ship, only more intensely, full of goodwill, a gentleman, with nothing in his past to blemish his character. He was Dickie, good-natured, naive Dickie, with a smile for everyone and a thousand francs for anyone who asked.”

In this quote, the reader sees an additional element to Tom’s envy of Dickie: he envies his naivete, which may have to do with differences in the way they were raised but also reflects the comfort and protection that wealth offers. Tom strives, throughout the novel, for this comfort, even as he disdains Dickie’s naivete, the very result of a lifetime of that comfort.

“He felt alone, yet not at all lonely. It was […] a feeling that everyone was watching him, as if he had an audience made up of the entire world, a feeling that kept him on his mettle, because to make a mistake would be catastrophic. Yet he felt absolutely confident that he would not make a mistake. It gave his existence a peculiar, delicious atmosphere of purity, like that, Tom thought, which a fine actor probably feels when he plays an important role on a stage with the conviction that the role he is playing could not be played better by anyone else.”

Tom’s sense of playing a role is as strong as ever and has expanded not to just whatever person he is interacting with, but the world at large. His audience has expanded, which also increases his risk. For Tom, however, that feeling of risk is one that he searches for, a theme that is woven throughout the narrative.

“Tom felt quite confident of his safety, but physically he felt awful. He had a hangover, the terrible, jumpy kind that made him stop halfway in everything he began doing.”

Tom’s ability to play a role has served him well so far, as Dickie, and as he sinks deeper into it, he discovers something interesting. He finds that he can play a role so deeply that even he believes it; even his body seems to be convinced. He has given himself all the symptoms of an actual hangover simply because that is the story he has developed, of which he is going to need to convince the police.

“He ran his fingers through his hair, as Dickie sometimes did when he was irritated. He felt better, concentrating on being Dickie Greenleaf for a few seconds, pacing the floor once or twice.”

After discovering that he can convince himself of his own lies and that his body will behave accordingly, Tom takes this notion one step further. He has discovered that he can use his role as Dickie to imbue himself with the confidence that he does not actually possess simply by imitating Dickie’s mannerisms. This realization takes playing the role of Dickie to a new level, as it now serves to give Tom the comfort he has been seeking.

“He wanted to see Greece as Dickie Greenleaf with Dickie’s money, Dickie’s clothes, Dickie’s way of behaving with strangers. But would it happen that he couldn’t see Greece as Dickie Greenleaf?”

Tom is contemplating the need to return to the identity of Tom Ripley, something that he is realizing will be necessary but that truly distresses him. At first, he was only fixated on Dickie’s wealth and social status with his impersonation. But here, he is grappling with the notion that the experience of Greece, and his perceptions of it, will be altered if he has to become Tom again and cannot visit the country as Dickie.

“He hated becoming Thomas Ripley again, hated being nobody, hated putting on his old set of habits again, and feeling that people looked down on him and were bored with him unless he put on an act for them like a clown...”

Tom’s self-loathing shows here in his reluctance to return to his own identity. Notably, one of the things he is reluctant to return to is putting on an act for others, and yet that is exactly what he has been doing with Dickie’s identity. The difference is that his performance, as of now, exists only for his own amusement and advancement, as opposed to a performance designed to ingratiate himself with others.

“Tom felt suddenly innocent and strong, as free of guilt as his old suitcase from which he had carefully scrubbed the Deponimento sticker from the Palermo baggage room.”

Tom is being questioned by the Roman police and has realized that they do not suspect him of anything. He knows he is going to get away with his brief interlude as Dickie and return to being Tom Ripley. He also seems to feel that he can leave Freddie’s murder behind with Dickie’s identity and that when he returns to being Tom Ripley, he will do so with a blank slate.

“It wasn’t necessary to bend over backward, Tom realized. It was as if he were really inviting trouble, and couldn’t stop himself.”

Tom has invited Herbert to stay at his home in Venice. Even though he realizes it is unnecessary and extremely risky, he does it anyway. This reinforces the theme of Taking Risks: The Thrill of the Chase, and Tom’s relationship to it, that is woven throughout the book—even when he is safe, Tom places himself in risky positions in order to feel alive.

“It was strange to read about the people he knew in New York, Ed and Lorraine, the newt-brained girl who had tried to stow herself away in his cabin the day he sailed from New York. It was strange and not at all attractive. What a dismal life they led, creeping around New York.”

Tom is reading a letter from Bob Delancey, an old friend from New York. He has already separated himself so much from his former friends that he can see no attraction in the life they lead. His reaction echoes that of Dickie, who, upon their first meeting, fails to remember anyone from New York, saying that America seems so far away.

“But what seemed to terrify him was not the dialogue or his hallucinatory belief that he had done it (he knew he hadn’t), but the memory of himself standing in front of Marge with the shoe in his hand, imagining all this in a cool, methodical way. And the fact that he had done it twice before. Those two other times were facts, not imagination.”

When Marge finds Dickie’s rings in Tom’s house, he considers killing her. Later, he reflects on the impulse and the “cool” way that he considered it, thinking about how he would dispose of her even as she was talking to him. In this quote, we see one of the few instances of Tom’s recognition of everything he has done and what he is capable of. When he sees it so clearly, it frightens him, and yet he is able, just a few moments later, to dismiss those feelings for the time being.

“The very chanciness of trying for all of Dickie’s money, the peril of it, was irresistible to him. He was so bored after the dreary, eventless weeks in Venice, when each day that went by had seemed to confirm his personal safety and to emphasize the dullness of his existence.”

Tom, having escaped detection for the murders of both Dickie and Freddie, is free. However, as the reader has seen so many times before in the novel, boredom and loneliness inevitably follow. His idea of forging Dickie’s will and trying for all his possessions is unnecessarily risky, and yet he is unable to resist, an impulse that recurs for him throughout the story.