Our discussion today about impersonation made me think about
what exactly drives Tom to kill Dickie and assume his identity. I was trying to
decide whether I thought that Tom killed Dickie in order to achieve Dickie’s social
status, or because Tom is gay and lashes out against Dickie because he is in
love with him. Initially, I had assumed that Tom killed Dickie simply because he
is gay, and Dickie dies as a result of the shame Tom feels due to his
homosexuality, but after today’s class, I think that Tom killed Dickie in order
to assume Dickie’s status.
Tom assumes Dickie’s identity for the purpose of convincing
others that he is Dickie Greenleaf. He wears Dickie’s clothes, Dickie’s rings, and even
has his luggage marked with Dickie’s initials. Just as we saw in the clip of Paris is Burning, success in a portrayal
comes when the individual is able to convince others on the street that he or
she is a man, woman, businessman, or in this case, Dickie Greenleaf. Tom is
able to convince many people that he is, in fact, Dickie Greenleaf due to the
careful attention he places on the details of Dickie’s style, clothes and mannerisms.
I think it’s interesting that Tom is never fully able to
embody Dickie’s real identity since he must remove his created persona of
Dickie away from Rome so that Tom will not be recognized and found out as an
imposter. Since Tom removes “Dickie” from his life in Rome and takes him away
from Marge and the rest of Dickie’s friends, Tom is only able to become a caricature
of how he would like Dickie to be perceived by others. Tom is never able to fully become Dickie since
he removes certain elements from Dickie’s life, and Dickie becomes Tom’s own
creation.
I found the reasoning ambiguous as to why Tom decided to impersonate Dickie. Did he want his money? Did he want his status? Did he just want to BE Dickie? I think I eventually settled on the "being Dickie" part of it, with some more underlying reasons, and the clip we saw about "Realness" definitely helped me to collect my thoughts about why Tom decided to do it in the first place. I definitely thought it was pretty interesting that something like Paris is Burning could be related to The Talented Mr. Ripley so well.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting way to look at it- that he can't fully become Dickie because part of Dickie was his relationships with other people, and since Tom purposely cuts them out of his life, he cannot possibly fully be Dickie. I haven't thought of that before, but it gave me some new insight into the novel.
ReplyDeleteI thought he was so infatuated and obsessed (homosexually) with Dickie that he wanted to be as close as possible to him- so close that he actually goes too far and in a sense morphs into him. It could also be resentment or jealousy- that he wants to be Dickie- and maybe he isn't in love with Dickie as a person, but is in love with what Dickie has. Perhaps, it's not his homosexuality that drives him, but his extreme love for possessions (that Dickie has) that drives him to kill him and take on his identity.
I definitely felt that Tom killing Dickie was so that he could assume his identity. I do think that Tom had sexual feelings for Dickie but I also think he really just wanted to be someone else. I don't even know if it was so much Dickie, as just wanting to be someone better than himself. I think had it been another man who was just as fabulous as Dickie, Tom would have done the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI like your connection that Tom cannot fully be Dickie because he has destroyed certain aspects of his life. I hadn't really thought about that!
Agreed on all counts. There is a definite pressure from society to be of a social status, and Tom can't seem to deal with it. Yes, there is an underlying homosexual theme, but I think the main reason he kills Dickie is to achieve his status and popularity. I think he took more pleasure from acting as Dickie than he ever did actually spending time with the man. Even when he got caught trying on Dickie's clothes, he was doing it to see what it felt like to look like Dickie, not to get closer to him.
ReplyDeleteI think there is also proof in the fact that he felt no remorse after killing Dickie; if he had really cared about him, I feel like we might have seen more of a reaction from him. Instead, his immediate reaction was to plan out how he was going to consume Dickie's life; he was more worried about moving his stuff than moving his actual body.
Bottom line, it was definitely status that made Tom kill Dickie. And it is that reason that will make him kill again.