Punishment In The Talented Mr Ripley

The concepts of crime, guilt and punishment are constantly present throughout Patricia Highsmith’s first Ripley novel The Talented Mr Ripley or in some aspects glaringly absent, through tax fraud, the murder of Dickie Greenleaf, Freddie Miles murder these ideas are explored. Crime is not only seen in Tom, but extends to the moral crimes of Dickie and his refusal to visit his dying mother. The idea of punishment and crime has been hotly debated among philosophers Golash noted there is no reason to think punishment produces any more good than bad and states the confusion that it does is often drawn in the stigma of being declared guilty to the public which may be sufficient to deter people not the punishment it-self. Golash also notes the idea

The overwhelming guilt Herbert, Marge must have at the idea Dickie committed suicide or the financial losses of Toms various victims or perhaps most the character of Dickie pictured as a murderer who’s reputation is destroyed the same one Tom had used to climb the social ladder but conversely Toms reputation is never jeopardized. Tom however avoids any of this admired and respected by Herbert Greenleaf he evades any suspicion almost comically ending the story rewarded with his new financial stability and status in society. This shows us the relationship of crime and punishment and how they are juxtaposed with one another. With the construction of crime, removal from our world the need for punishment would be highly reduced and if extended to the wider parallels of good and evil with the elimination of this moralistic view inherited largely through religion, there would be no need for prison or attached concepts of punishment in our society. Crime is purely a manufactured product of society currently murder is considered fine as long as within the bounds of war whereas murder in the Colosseum arenas for entertainment have been seen as legal. Or in some states capital punishment is outlawed or the hitting of children as discipline at schools whereas in others it is completely legal. What defines crime or what is worthy of punishment is in constant flux in time and space, Highsmith’s character Tom Ripley aims to do away with that whole relationship. The absence of good or evil is obviously utterly fictional once you extend it to wider populations as different world beliefs, religions inherently make moral judgements on many aspects of society and create ideas of the ideal. Whereas punishment seeks to strengthen the moral boundaries of a group and extenuates norms Ripley seeks to confuse this