Hey everyone,
There was an article about NoirCon on philly.com today. The
article discusses how the noir style has expanded from movies like Out of the Past or Double Indemnity, and still currently exists in art, TV shows and
music. It further explains that because of the current pessimism in society due
to the disillusionment brought about by 9/11 and other contributing factors,
the noir style will probably continue to exist in pop culture.
One particular quote in the article caught my attention as a
way to understand the fate of Tom in The Talented Mr. Ripley. In discussing
noir, the author of the article, Tirdad Derakhshani, interviews Otto Penzler, a
noir author. Penzler says noir characters, “may not die in the end … but they
sentence themselves to a life of imprisonment or abject sadness." This
quote helped me categorize exactly how to feel about Tom Ripley. Although Tom doesn't die or get caught by the police, he becomes imprisoned as Tom Ripley at
the end of the novel. In the novel, there is an underlying sense that Tom
wishes to be Dickie because he does not like himself. Since Tom’s wish to
become Dickie is rooted in his desire to take on a new identity to achieve the
social and financial status of Dickie, his “life of imprisonment" comes when
he must stop being Dickie and become Tom again. Although Tom does not get
arrested, he actually does get his comeuppance for his misdeeds since he must give up pretending to be Dickie.
I agree that the characters are almost always imprisoned by their actions, or outright killed. I think it was an interesting touch by Highsmith to make sure her readers know that Tom will 'never' be happy. It's really inventive and true, because Tom will always be pretending he is Dickie, will never have his life back...
ReplyDeleteYeah, and like what we talked about in class today, Tom really just wants to be Dickie because the way Dickie makes people feel, and not necessarily for financial gain. He came to New York originally to act, so obviously he finds passion in becoming/transforming into someone else. In the end, he feels anxious every time he sees the police for fear of getting caught.
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