About: Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) published five Ripley novels between 1955 and 1991. She is also the author of Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt, and Nothing that Meets the Eye.
I came to know of this author, first through the Slightly Foxed Podcast on Ronald Blythe (A Life Well Written) there was a brief mention of Ronald knowing Patricia and that they had a one-night stand and remained as friends. Knowing the life of Ronald Blythe, one has to wonder if Ms. Highsmith's most charismatic character, Tom Ripley, was based on Ronald Blythe, but unsure of this, and having researched this online, I found this:
Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley came first, published nearly a decade before her friendship with Ronald Blythe began.
Here is a timeline of the two events:
The Talented Mr. Ripley was published in 1955. Highsmith began writing the novel as early as 1948.
Her friendship with Ronald Blythe started in the mid-1960s, after Highsmith moved to Suffolk, England, in 1964. The two lived just a few miles apart and frequently spent time together; both needed friendship, perhaps. Learn more about Patricia Highsmith here
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The brilliance of Highsmith’s conception of Tom Ripley was her ability to keep the heroic and demonic American dreamer in balance in the same protagonist-thus keeping us on his side well after his behavior becomes far more sociopathic than that of a con man like Gatsby.—unsure if agreeing with this since Gatsby never killed anyone, or I recall wrongly?
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Character analysis of Tom Ripley
His mood was tranquil and benevolent, but not at all sociable; he wanted his time for thinking, and he did not care to meet any of the people on the ship, not any of them, though when he encountered the people with whom he sat at his table, he greeted them pleasantly and smiled. He began to play a role on the ship, that of a serious young man with a serious job ahead of him—getting Dickey to return to the States, and back to his parents, because Mr. Greenleaf had employed Tom Ripley to do just that.
Ripley’s main mistake in his earlier days was that he had never stuck to anything; had he kept that accounting job with the department store, that might have worked out into something, but he was discouraged by the slowness of the department store promotions.
Ripley also blames his Aunt Dottie for his lack of perseverance, never giving him credit when he was younger for anything that he stuck to, like his paper route when he was in his teens. He had won a silver medal from the newspaper for “Courtesy, Service, and Reliability.” Yet, his aunt disliked all that he did, especially when he had a cold; it was as if she would wrench his nose off while wiping it with her kerchief.
I think that Ripley needed to relive these experiences by looking back at himself since he was no longer that skinny, scrawny boy…it fed and sustained him somehow.
Ripley had often thought of killing Dickey, and realizing that he had to…he gives us this reason as to why he had to:
He had failed with Dickie, in every way. He hated Dickie, because, however he looked at what had happened, his failing had not been his own fault, not due to anything he had done, but due to Dickie’s inhuman stubbornness and his blatant rudeness. He had offered Dickie friendship, companionship, and respect, everything he had to offer, and Dickie had replied with ingratitude and now hostility. Dickie was just shoving him out in the cold…and thus the realization that when he killed Dickie, he could become Dickie Greenleaf himself.
So, Ripley steps into Dickie’s shoes once he kills him; he returns to Mongibello as H. Richard Greenleaf and keeps up this appearance throughout the story, until it becomes necessary to be Tom Ripley again which by the end of the book, he changes back and move on to Greece with Dickie’s father’s blessing and Dickie’s inheritance remitted to Tom Ripley in his will.
Another of Tom Ripley as Dickie, brilliant ideas; he thought he should have an envelope in his possession, on which should be written that it was not to be opened for several months to come. Inside it should be a will signed by Dickie, bequeathing him his money and income…and it happened as such.
Throughout this reading, I am reminded of the silver medal from the newspaper given to Ripley when a young teen for his “Courtesy, Service and Reliability”; he may not have been of servitude, but he was always courteous and reliable; coming through in all of his doings; once he set his mind, it was done. Ripley is a formidable character and gender-neutral or a newt.
Tom loved possessions, not masses of them, but a select few that he did not wish to part with. He believed they gave man self-respect. Not ostentation but quality, and the love that cherished the quality. Possessions reminded him that he existed and made him enjoy his existence. It was a simple as that; I matter.
Tom Ripley could also conjure up tears when needing to be convincing; he shed tears for he so missed his friend Dickie…he could remember Dickie’s smiles that first day they began to get along, when he’d confessed to Dickie that Mr. Greenleaf had sent him. Remembering their trip to Rome and while remembering; he realized how he error; Tom thought, if he’d only hadn’t been in such a hurry and so greedy, if he only hadn’t misjudged the relationship between Dickie and Marge so stupidly, or had simply waited for them to separate of their own volition, then none of this would have happened, and he could have lived with Dickie for the rest of his life…as Tom was doing this tirade making his friend more believing of his pain and suffering; this was another thing that Tom was good at; to bring up that old reserve of pain, misery, injury, and suffering…all things that melts the heart of those with sound judgment and reason.
These were his gifts and talents: the formidable and talented Mr. Ripley. The story kept this reviewer engrossed to the very end.
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Well, I hope to return and add to this Art of Writing topic monthly. This month has not been good for this ‘pretender’ who is not a writer, but takes lots of pictures of things of interest to post on another blog. I hope to share something better next time, after all–this is what writing is all about…sharing/stimulating, and supporting one another.
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Thank you!