The Talented Mr. Ripley

Tom and Dickie set off for San Remo without Marge, who only asks them to bring back a bottle of perfume for her. Tom thinks that Dickie is going to end their friendship after this trip, and, toward the end of the train ride, Dickie disinvites Tom to Cortina as well. They catch the train to Cannes that night, and the next morning, after breakfast, go to the beach. Upon seeing an acrobat troupe performing, Tom is appreciative, but Dickie is dismissive, and it makes Tom angry. On the train back to San Remo, Dickie pretends to sleep. Tom is still angry about Dickie’s response to the acrobats as well as his lack of appreciation for his friendship. While Dickie sleeps, Tom considers killing Dickie and taking his identity and thinks about how he would do it.

The following morning, Tom suggests that they rent a motorboat and take it out. Dickie agrees and drives the boat. When they are in a deserted spot, Tom convinces Dickie to stop the boat so they can go swimming. While Dickie undresses, Tom strikes him with the oar, beating him until he is dead. He takes Dickie’s rings and the contents of his pockets, then ties the body to the boat’s anchor and throws him overboard. In the process, Tom falls out of the boat and nearly drowns before he is able to get into the boat. Because the boat is so bloodstained, rather than return it, he scuttles the boat just a bit offshore, then lies on the beach, regaining his strength.

Tom walks back to their hotel in San Remo. He rests and then works on getting the bloodstains out of his trousers. He packs their suitcase and checks out of the hotel, intent on leaving San Remo that night. After disposing of his bloody clothes and some of Dickie’s personal items, he takes the train back to Mongibello, where he sees Marge immediately. He tells her that Dickie is planning to stay in Rome for a time and has sent Tom to get some of his things. He gives Marge her perfume and tells her that he will be returning to Rome. They say goodbye, and she leaves.

That night, Tom packs most of Dickie’s things and decides what to do with the rest. The next day when Marge stops by, he tells her that Dickie has sent him a letter saying that he wants to move to Rome and might even sell his house. Marge is upset and leaves. Tom wonders if she will try to find Dickie in Rome. He looks through the newspapers but sees no mention of a scuttled boat found in San Remo. The next day, Tom arranges for Dickie’s house and boat to be sold and packs up the rest of his belongings to ship to Rome. Once there, he writes Marge a letter from Dickie, explaining why he wants time away from her. Tom invents a painter, Di Massimo, that Dickie wants to work with in Rome and offers that as an excuse. He uses Dickie’s passport to check in to the hotel and spends the evening practicing Dickie’s signature so that he can sign Dickie’s monthly checks.

Tom changes hotels so that he will not see anyone he or Dickie knows. He practices what he will say, as Tom, to Marge or Freddie if he sees them. He also practices impersonating Dickie. He receives a letter from Marge written to Dickie, responding to the last letter “Dickie” wrote her. She worries about his relationship with Tom and is upset that Dickie did not feel he could be honest about how close he and Tom were.

A few days later, Tom goes to Paris using Dickie’s passport. He has slightly modified his appearance by lightening his hair and practicing the expression Dickie has in his passport photo. In Paris, he meets some people and is invited to a cocktail party. He goes, but refuses other invitations because he is afraid that he will meet somebody who knows Dickie. That night he realizes that he never wrote to Freddie to say Dickie was not coming to Cortina. Tom stays in Paris through December and returns to Rome after the new year. There he finds two letters from Marge to Dickie; she indicates that she will be going back to America soon. Tom worries that Marge may try to find him or Dickie in Rome. He writes letters as both Tom and Dickie to keep her away. Although he does not plan to stay in Rome, he rents an apartment there for a year, just to have a home. “Dickie” gets another letter from Marge, telling him that Fausto will be coming to Rome and would like to see Dickie and thanking him for her Christmas present from Paris. Tom considers opening a bank account in Tom Ripley’s name and beginning to keep some money in it, just in case.

Tom takes Italian lessons until he thinks he speaks it as well as Dickie, keeping even Dickie’s mistakes. He also begins to decorate the apartment he rented and avoids meeting other Americans in Rome. Marge is still writing to “Dickie” weekly. One day, while Tom is packing for a trip to Majorca, his doorbell rings. He thinks it may be Fausto, but it is Freddie, who somehow found someone in Rome who knows where “Dickie” lives. Tom quickly becomes Tom Ripley and tells Freddie that Dickie is at lunch and will be back shortly, but he worries about the landlady, who calls him Signor Greenleaf. Tom tells Freddie that Dickie is packing to go to Sicily.

Freddie notices that Tom is wearing Dickie’s bracelet, and Tom realizes that he is wearing Dickie’s tie tack as well. Freddie asks if Tom is living there, and Tom denies it. But after Freddie leaves, Tom hears him talking to the landlady, and then he comes back up the stairs. When he reenters the room, Tom hits him with a large ashtray and kills him. He empties Freddie’s pockets and realizes that he drove his car, which is parked across the street from the building. Tom arranges the room to look like he and Freddie drank for several hours and douses Freddie’s clothes with alcohol. He decides to wait until dark, then put Freddie in his car, drive him out of town, dump the body, and leave the car somewhere in Rome. Then he will leave, as planned, for his trip.