The Talented Mr. Ripley

by

Patricia Highsmith

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Talented Mr. Ripley makes teaching easy.

Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf Character Analysis

Dickie Greenleaf, an acquaintance of Tom Ripley’s, is the cool, vain heir to a shipbuilding company who has absconded to Italy in order to live a life of luxury far from the watchful gaze of his overbearing parents. Dickie barely remembers Tom upon his arrival, but he nonetheless invites Tom to join his and his girlfriend Marge’s small social circle in Mongibello. Dickie’s luxurious, bohemian life is filled with lavish dinners, parties, trips, and possessions, which inspires awe and jealousy in the naïve, covetous, and sexually conflicted Tom. Tom’s obsession leads him to murder Dickie on a boat in San Remo, sink his body, and assume his identity by claiming his valuable clothes and rings. Though he feels no remorse for the murder, Tom is vaguely haunted by visions of Dickie, drenched and alive, screaming, “I swam!” Dickie is physically absent for a sizable portion of the novel, but his presence inhabits nearly every page, and his influence over Tom, even in death, creates a whirlpool of deceit and greed. Dickie embodies themes of wealth, luxury, excess, and escape.

Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf Quotes in The Talented Mr. Ripley

The The Talented Mr. Ripley quotes below are all either spoken by Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf or refer to Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Obsession, Identity, and Imitation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Tom’s heart took a sudden leap. He put on an expression of reflection. It was a possibility. Something in him had smelled it out and leapt at it even before his brain. He wanted to leave New York. “I might,” he said carefully, with the same pondering expression, as if he were even now going over the thousands of little ties that could prevent him. Tom stared at the gold signet ring with the nearly worn-away crest on Mr. Greenleaf’s little finger. “I think I might.”

Related Characters: Tom Ripley (speaker), Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf, Herbert Greenleaf
Related Symbols: Dickie’s Rings
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“And these—a lot of landscapes,” Dickie said with a deprecatory laugh, though obviously he wanted Tom to say something complimentary about them, because obviously he was proud of them. They were all wild and hasty and monotonously similar. “My surrealist effort,” Dickie said, bracing another canvas against his knee. Tom winced with almost a personal shame. It was Marge, undoubtedly, though with long snakelike hair, and worst of all two horizons in her eyes, with a miniature landscape of Mongibello’s houses and mountains in one eye, and the beach in the other full of little red people. “Yes, I like that,” Tom said. It gave Dickie something to do, just as it gave thousands of lousy amateur painters all over something to do. He was sorry that Dickie fell into this category as a painter, because he wanted Dickie to be much more.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley (speaker), Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf (speaker), Marjorie “Marge” Sherwood, Herbert Greenleaf, Emily Greenleaf
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Dickie walked in his slouching, downhill gait that made his bony knees jut out in front of him, a gait that Tom had unconsciously adopted, too.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:

He suddenly felt that Dickie was embracing her, or at least touching her, at this minute, and partly he wanted to see it, and partly he loathed the idea of seeing it. He turned and walked back to Marge’s gate. Tom stopped as Marge’s window came into view: Dickie’s arm was around her waist. Dickie was kissing her. Marge’s face was tipped up to Dickie’s, and what disgusted Tom was that he knew Dickie didn’t mean it. What disgusted him was the big bulge of her behind in the peasant skirt below Dickie’s arm that circled her waist. Tom turned away and ran down the steps, wanting to scream.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf, Marjorie “Marge” Sherwood
Related Symbols: Marge’s Underthings
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

You were supposed to see the soul through the eyes, to see love through the eyes, the one place you could look at another human being and see what really went on inside, and in Dickie’s eyes Tom saw nothing more now than he would have seen if he had looked at the hard, bloodless surface of a mirror. It was as if Dickie had been suddenly snatched away from him. They were not friends. They didn’t know each other.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Page Number: 86
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Tom sat opposite [Dickie], staring at his hands with the green ring and the gold signet ring. A crazy emotion of hate, of affection, of impatience and frustration was swelling in him. He wanted to kill Dickie. It was not the first time he had thought of it. He had failed with Dickie, in every way. He hated Dickie. He had offered Dickie friendship, companionship, everything he had to offer, and Dickie had replied with ingratitude and now hostility. If he killed him on this trip, he could simply say that some accident had happened. He could—He had just thought of something brilliant: he could become Dickie Greenleaf. The danger of it, even the inevitable temporariness of it, only made him more enthusiastic. He began to think of how.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Related Symbols: Dickie’s Rings
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

This was the clean slate he had thought about on the boat coming over from America. This was the real annihilation of his past and of himself, Tom Ripley, who was made up of that past, and his rebirth as a completely new person… He felt as he had on the ship, only more intensely, full of goodwill, a gentleman, with nothing in his past to blemish his character.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Page Number: 121-122
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Tom saw Dickie smiling at him, dressed in the corduroy suit that he had worn in San Remo. The suit was soaking wet, the tie a dripping string. Dickie bent over him, shaking him. “I swam!” he said. “Tom, wake up! I’m all right! I swam! I’m alive!” Tom squirmed away from his touch. He heard Dickie laugh at him, Dickie’s happy, deep laugh. “Tom!” The timbre of the voice was deeper, richer, better than Tom had even been able to make it in his imitations. “I swam!” Dickie’s voice shouted, ringing and ringing in Tom’s ears as if he heard it through a long tunnel.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley (speaker), Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Motorboat
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

What had he said about risks? Risks were what made the whole thing fun. [And] anticipation! It occurred to him that his anticipation was more pleasant to him than his experiencing. Was it always going to be like that? When he spent evenings alone, handling Dickie’s possessions, simply looking at his rings on his own fingers, or his woolen ties, or his black alligator wallet, was that experiencing or anticipation?

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Related Symbols: Dickie’s Rings
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:

He definitely wanted to see Greece. He wanted to see Greece as Dickie Greenleaf with Dickie’s money, Dickie’s clothes, Dickie’s way of behaving with strangers. The idea of going to Greece, trudging over the Acropolis as Tom Ripley, American tourist, held no charm for him at all. He would as soon not go.Tears came in his eyes as he stared up at the cathedral, and then he turned away and began to walk down a new street.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Page Number: 169-170
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

In a way it was asking for trouble, Tom thought. But that was the mood he was in. The very chanciness of trying for all of Dickie’s money, the peril of it, was irresistible to him.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf, Herbert Greenleaf
Page Number: 259
Explanation and Analysis:
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Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf Quotes in The Talented Mr. Ripley

The The Talented Mr. Ripley quotes below are all either spoken by Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf or refer to Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Obsession, Identity, and Imitation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Tom’s heart took a sudden leap. He put on an expression of reflection. It was a possibility. Something in him had smelled it out and leapt at it even before his brain. He wanted to leave New York. “I might,” he said carefully, with the same pondering expression, as if he were even now going over the thousands of little ties that could prevent him. Tom stared at the gold signet ring with the nearly worn-away crest on Mr. Greenleaf’s little finger. “I think I might.”

Related Characters: Tom Ripley (speaker), Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf, Herbert Greenleaf
Related Symbols: Dickie’s Rings
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“And these—a lot of landscapes,” Dickie said with a deprecatory laugh, though obviously he wanted Tom to say something complimentary about them, because obviously he was proud of them. They were all wild and hasty and monotonously similar. “My surrealist effort,” Dickie said, bracing another canvas against his knee. Tom winced with almost a personal shame. It was Marge, undoubtedly, though with long snakelike hair, and worst of all two horizons in her eyes, with a miniature landscape of Mongibello’s houses and mountains in one eye, and the beach in the other full of little red people. “Yes, I like that,” Tom said. It gave Dickie something to do, just as it gave thousands of lousy amateur painters all over something to do. He was sorry that Dickie fell into this category as a painter, because he wanted Dickie to be much more.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley (speaker), Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf (speaker), Marjorie “Marge” Sherwood, Herbert Greenleaf, Emily Greenleaf
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Dickie walked in his slouching, downhill gait that made his bony knees jut out in front of him, a gait that Tom had unconsciously adopted, too.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:

He suddenly felt that Dickie was embracing her, or at least touching her, at this minute, and partly he wanted to see it, and partly he loathed the idea of seeing it. He turned and walked back to Marge’s gate. Tom stopped as Marge’s window came into view: Dickie’s arm was around her waist. Dickie was kissing her. Marge’s face was tipped up to Dickie’s, and what disgusted Tom was that he knew Dickie didn’t mean it. What disgusted him was the big bulge of her behind in the peasant skirt below Dickie’s arm that circled her waist. Tom turned away and ran down the steps, wanting to scream.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf, Marjorie “Marge” Sherwood
Related Symbols: Marge’s Underthings
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

You were supposed to see the soul through the eyes, to see love through the eyes, the one place you could look at another human being and see what really went on inside, and in Dickie’s eyes Tom saw nothing more now than he would have seen if he had looked at the hard, bloodless surface of a mirror. It was as if Dickie had been suddenly snatched away from him. They were not friends. They didn’t know each other.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Page Number: 86
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Tom sat opposite [Dickie], staring at his hands with the green ring and the gold signet ring. A crazy emotion of hate, of affection, of impatience and frustration was swelling in him. He wanted to kill Dickie. It was not the first time he had thought of it. He had failed with Dickie, in every way. He hated Dickie. He had offered Dickie friendship, companionship, everything he had to offer, and Dickie had replied with ingratitude and now hostility. If he killed him on this trip, he could simply say that some accident had happened. He could—He had just thought of something brilliant: he could become Dickie Greenleaf. The danger of it, even the inevitable temporariness of it, only made him more enthusiastic. He began to think of how.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Related Symbols: Dickie’s Rings
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

This was the clean slate he had thought about on the boat coming over from America. This was the real annihilation of his past and of himself, Tom Ripley, who was made up of that past, and his rebirth as a completely new person… He felt as he had on the ship, only more intensely, full of goodwill, a gentleman, with nothing in his past to blemish his character.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Page Number: 121-122
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Tom saw Dickie smiling at him, dressed in the corduroy suit that he had worn in San Remo. The suit was soaking wet, the tie a dripping string. Dickie bent over him, shaking him. “I swam!” he said. “Tom, wake up! I’m all right! I swam! I’m alive!” Tom squirmed away from his touch. He heard Dickie laugh at him, Dickie’s happy, deep laugh. “Tom!” The timbre of the voice was deeper, richer, better than Tom had even been able to make it in his imitations. “I swam!” Dickie’s voice shouted, ringing and ringing in Tom’s ears as if he heard it through a long tunnel.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley (speaker), Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Motorboat
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

What had he said about risks? Risks were what made the whole thing fun. [And] anticipation! It occurred to him that his anticipation was more pleasant to him than his experiencing. Was it always going to be like that? When he spent evenings alone, handling Dickie’s possessions, simply looking at his rings on his own fingers, or his woolen ties, or his black alligator wallet, was that experiencing or anticipation?

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Related Symbols: Dickie’s Rings
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:

He definitely wanted to see Greece. He wanted to see Greece as Dickie Greenleaf with Dickie’s money, Dickie’s clothes, Dickie’s way of behaving with strangers. The idea of going to Greece, trudging over the Acropolis as Tom Ripley, American tourist, held no charm for him at all. He would as soon not go.Tears came in his eyes as he stared up at the cathedral, and then he turned away and began to walk down a new street.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf
Page Number: 169-170
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

In a way it was asking for trouble, Tom thought. But that was the mood he was in. The very chanciness of trying for all of Dickie’s money, the peril of it, was irresistible to him.

Related Characters: Tom Ripley, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf, Herbert Greenleaf
Page Number: 259
Explanation and Analysis: