I found The Talented Mr. Ripley to be a disturbing novel. However, I thought that Ms. Highsmith did a good job with getting me to feel Tom's annoyance and hatred towards Marge. Her character was very unappealing and seemed to me to represent the negative aspects and stereotypes about women. Marge was excessively clingy and how she was described made me resent her. I didn't think that she was a likable character, and maybe that was Ms. Highsmith's intention. From today's class discussion about Ms. Highsmith's personal life, we learned that she was a very open lesbian. I wonder if that had anything to do with her characterization of Marge. Maybe in the past she had an annoyingly clingy girlfriend or was just upset by how some women acted and decided to vent through this character. Did anyone like Marge?
In terms of Tom's sexuality, I don't think that he was necessarily gay. I think that he was more disgusted by Marge as a person than by the whole female population. He doesn't describe his friend Cleo with disgust, only Marge. I felt that there were more hints that Dickie was gay and didn't want to acknowledge this fact, and since he was in denial, decided to pin it onto Tom. I thought that Tom was a psychopath that couldn't form attachments, more than a gay man coming to terms with his sexuality. What does everyone else think?
I would say that I felt indifferent toward Marge. At some points, I thought that she was annoying, but I did feel bad for her since Dickie was leading her on and had no intentions of developing a serious relationship with her. Even though she seemed to be a little too clingy, I don’t think she was entirely at fault. Dickie knew that Marge was in love with him, and he should have ended the relationship with her since he didn’t feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteI actually was under the impression that Tom was almost definitely gay, and Dickie I wasn't so sure about. I'd think Dickie was a little more asexual (?) if anything. But you're point that he fails to acknowledge the homosexuality is a solid point- because if that was so, then obviously there wouldn't be telltale markers of his homosexuality if he won't even acknowledge it. It could also strengthen that argument to say that Marge was a decoy- a symbol to try to prove he wasn't gay- and that's why she was so important to him.
ReplyDeleteI think Tom's disgust with people like his Aunt Dottie and Marge does not arise out of sexism, but rather compliance in conformity. Tom starts to hate Dickie after a while because he realizes that he conforms to the stereotype of a spoiled, rich kid. Likewise, Marge exhibits the stereotypes of female passivity, clingyness, etc. He hates his aunt because she tried to impose conformity on him. By becoming a criminal, Tom rejects the most basic conformity to obey the law in society. Assuming that Tom's true sexuality would be repressed in the 1950s whether he was gay or not, I think Tom's sexuality is meant to be ambiguous since Tom isn't really sure himself whether he is gay or not. Tom doesn't have a desire to confine himself to one clear-cut identity, so it would make sense for him to want to deny the imposed conformity of sexual orientation.
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