Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley

Many times have we seen or read stories of the defeat or capture of a criminal from the perspective of the hero, but rarely are we told the story from the perspective of the criminal and rarely do we find ourselves rooting for a deranged, psychopath. Patricia Highsmith’s novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, is a story where we do see these rare qualities in effect. The eerily charming Tom Ripley, like most of us, is finding it difficult to be comfortable in his own skin and desperately craves a new, more enticing identity. What makes Tom different than us in struggling with this normal insecurity, is how he goes about making himself a new identity and that is through murder and assuming his dead, new friend’s identity. Even though Tom commits horrendous
Dickie Greenleaf, Tom’s target of affection and obsession, is ultimately a good person with human flaws, but we do see a lot of his negative characteristics, especially near the end of his life, which makes him not as likable. From a woman’s standpoint, Dickie is a playboy and there’s nothing women find more evil than men who play women. Also, Dickie’s growing detachment and unfriendliness towards Tom as the story progresses doesn’t sit right with the readers since they can sympathize with Tom for just wanting a friend. Although, one should also note Dickie’s good qualities which does at times allow us to see the line between good and evil, but not too often since Highsmith is always able to get things “back on track- by how she effectively zeroes in on Tom’s efforts to conceal his crime that she has us rooting for him all over again.” (Jordison) So even though we have a brief moment where we are able to clear our heads, Highsmith always wants us to go back to not being able to tell the difference between moral and immoral. Dickie’s disregard for his mother’s crippling health is another negative thing we see about him. And When it comes to the character of Freddie, many can agree that we found ourselves rooting for something bad to happen to him. Freddie is a fat, greedy man who we grow to hate due to his rudeness towards Tom and especially since we are learning about him from Tom’s perspective he is painted in a more negative way. We again find ourselves sympathizing with Tom about feeling like the third-wheel friend. None of the characters seem to be painted in a heroic light, not even Marge. Marge’s growing obsession with finding Dickie comes off as a bit annoying and her blatant homophobia, “all right he may not be queer. He’s just a nothing which is worse,”