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'The Talented Mr. Ripley' By Patricia Highsmith

Decent Essays

The Talented Mr. Ripley published 1955 is one of five thriller novels by Patricia Highsmith where first introduces the character of Tom Ripley, a young man with a mental problem . Living lonely in New York he gets an assignment from a wealthy man to return his son , Rickard Dickie Greenleaf , from a long stay in Rome to the family business. Impressed by Dickie's lavish lifestyle Tom seizes an opportunity to belong to the higher social class by killing him and assuming his identity. The author makes a complex and contradictory character of the protagonist whose intelligence and passion for life make readers feel compassion for him as well as the mental disorder evokes clemency on him but his evil actions repel and terrify by their prudence and composure . To begin with, Tom Ripley is very ambitious man who acts with cold calculation. Being focused on own pleasure he accurately …show more content…

These initially attractive traits of character are displayed as evil qualities .Not only the clear state of mind shows him as a dangerous criminal but also that pleasure he gets from his new status. Being Dickie, he indulges himself in the life of luxury and great possibilities which Dickie's money provide him . Tom's rebirth into a successful person brings him satisfaction, relief and "it was impossible ever to be lonely or bored, he thought, so long as he was Dickie Greenleaf"(Andersson and Ernst, Streams in Literature, 2003, p. 45). Still, pleased and leisured, he never goes too far in a joy so to lose control of any situation. For instance, at the French party the protagonist displays the supreme cautiousness when he avoids becoming too friendly with the guests because one of them can know Dickie very well (Andersson and Ernst, Streams in Literature, 2003, p. 47) . This prudence and amorality itself make the audience regard Ripley as a real threat to the

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