The Talented Mr Ripley Analysis

Individuals receive respect in society based on their social class, which causes all to crave a life that greatly differs from their own. In the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley written by Patricia Highsmith, the main protagonist, Tom Ripley runs away from his scanty life in New York and aspires to shadow the life of an upper class gentlemen in Mongibello. Mr. Ripley is an exceptional example of an individual that desires riches and allows his greed to cause him to make rational decisions throughout the entire novel. Through the transition between lower and upper class, Tom attains freedom by running away from authority because of his talent of manipulating and hiding the truth from others. Tom’s unrequited infatuation for Richard Greenleaf causes

His self image reflects the individuals that he frowns upon, as he mentions at various points in the novel. This poor self image is the reason Tom craves to be upper class, as he believes that the self image of an upper class individual is more confident than his own. It explains why Tom desires to become Dickie Greenleaf, and as he adapts to Dickies lifestyle, he goes to the extreme extent of thinking he truly is Dickie. Whenever Tom looked at Dickie, he saw himself reflected in the two awing blue eyes of Dickie , “You were supposed to see the soul through the eyes, to see love through the eyes, the one place you could look at another human being and see what really went on inside, and in Dickies eyes Tom saw nothing more than he would have seen if he had looked at the hard, bloodless surface of a mirror” (Highsmith 84). Tom sees himself as Dicky and uses Dicky to describe himself even before he has taken over his life. As he transforms into the life of Dicky, he displaces his life as Tom prior to moving to Italy, and chooses to pretend that his old self never existed. Tom consistently admires the life that Dickie lives and when as he adapts to the upper class lifestyle, his self image became positive, confident and Tom was completely satisfied. Tom’s happiness came from being able to look at himself in the mirror and be proud of who he is, when he looks and acts like Dicky. When Tom transforms back to his true self at the end of the novel, he has achieved upper class because of Dicky’s will. His dream has been achieved and he is free to travel around the world as an upper class individual. It is because of this transformation from lower to upper class, that Tom is able to secure a positive self