Envelopes of Identity

In Patricia Highsmith’s breakout novel The Talented Mr. Ripley and Sally Rooney’s twenty-first century classic Normal People, the respective main characters in both novels struggle to find their identities. Shifty and cunning, Tom Ripley travels across the sea in order to find fulfillment in his life, eventually discovering new wealth and claiming an important identity like he always wanted. Similarly, Connell struggles throughout the novel with his reputation and identity, constantly attempting to hide aspects of his life in order to maintain his reputation with others. In the case of both characters, both Tom and Connell attempt to escape their normal lives in order to find a sense of purpose, sacrificing important relationships with others in order to find their ideal identities. In NP, Connell seemingly leaves behind Marianne and everyone else he loves in order to get closer to his goals. In a similar way, in TTMR, Tom murders Dickie, his best friend, in order to claim Dickie’s identity and become everything he wanted to be. 

To begin with, Tom Ripley desires to get rid of his old identity throughout the entirety of TTMR, eventually going as far to murder his best friend, Dickie Greenleaf, in order to obtain a more respectable identity. Tom expresses his admiration and envy for Dickie at multiple instances in the novel, desiring to have a sense of purpose just like Dickie. Tom’s envy for Dickie goes beyond socially acceptable standards, as he even wears Dickie’s clothes and pretends to be Dickie; in the novel, it states “It surprised him how much he looked like Dickie with the top part of his head covered. Really it was only his darker hair that was very different from Dickie” after Tom dresses himself in some of Dickie’s clothing and assecories (Highsmith 76). By making these intricate comparisons to Dickie, Tom shows how truly envious he is of Dickie, evidently wanting to emulate Dickie’s character as much as possible in order to hide from his true, embarrassing identity. To further support this sentiment, later on in the novel after Tom completely steals Dickie’s identity and has to once again act as his true self, Tom expresses deep disdain towards his true identity, as the novel states ,”He was not afraid, but he felt that identifying himself as Thomas Phelps Ripley was going to be one of the saddest things he had ever done is his life” (Highsmith 187). From this, it becomes apparent that Tom hates his true identity present in the earlier portions of the novel, searching desperately to become something important in the world. With his new identity as Dickie Greenleaf, Tom successfully grows into the purposeful person he always wanted to be, no longer upset over the lack of substance in his life and happy with the new person he’s become. To emphasize this pride, Tom writes letters to his family and friends back home, explaining how successful he’s become and assuming credit for his new, stolen identity. 

In a similar way, in NP, Connell desires to maintain his popular social status, hiding his love interest, Marianne, from everyone in the earlier portions of the novel in order to keep his reputation intact. Connell’s sense of place in the novel always lingered as a recurring theme, and this theme is emphasized heavily when Connell leaves his home for an extended period of time, as the novel states “Back home, Connell’s shyness never seemed like much of an obstacle to his social life … Now he has a sense of invisibility, nothingness, with no reputation to recommend him to anyone” (Rooney 53). As supported by the quote, when Connell begins to branch out of his comfort zone as the novel progresses, Connell struggles with a deep sense of loneliness and lack of identity, looking to find a true identity independent of the other people around him. To help with this, Connell eventually begins traveling and, like Tom, writes letters back to Marianne in order to show his newfound sense of independence. Eventually, as the novel reaches its conclusion, Connell debates over the decision to leave everyone behind and go search for his true self in New York, struggling with the decision because of his love for Marianne. Reluctantly, Marianne encourages Connell ,” ‘You should go’ she says. ‘I’ll always be here. You know that’”, in order to push Connell closer to his goals and help him find his path in life (Rooney 185). Even though his decision is left vague by the novel’s end, Connell’s consideration of the idea shows his true development, showing that Connell is more open to leaving everyone behind and discovering his own identity independent of everyone else. Additionally, Connell’s reluctance to leave Marianne also corroborates this idea, as Connell once was embarrassed to be associated with Marianne because of what others would think of him, but now doesn’t care about anyone else’s opinions on him or her. 

When looking at both Connell and Tom, it becomes clear that both characters struggle with their true identities and work effortlessly to change them by the end of their respective novels. However, in terms of Tom, Tom illegitimately changes his identity unlike Connell, taking the easy way out by stealing someone else’s identity instead of working to better his own. Evidently, Tom’s deep-rooted dislike for himself heavily contributed to his inability to change his unlikable ways; even as Tom celebrates at the very end of the novel, Tom doesn’t take complete ownership for any of the freedom, claiming that “the freedom, like everything else, seemed combined”, showing that Tom’s view of his identity has become completely construed and blended into Dickies (Highsmith 271). While Connell embraced the love around him and adapted his identity as a result, Tom completely did the opposite, rejecting those who cared for him and throwing his own relationships away in order to obtain a better identity for himself. Even though his search for self-identity came with a plethora of dilemmas, Connell took on his problems head on instead of avoiding them like Tom, which resulted in Connell having a more genuine sense of character development compared to Tom being a synthetic, dynamic character. Indeed, although both characters wrote letters home to boast about their happiness and successes, Connell’s success came with actual work, not needing to steal anyone else’s success to find his own sense of identity.

Ultimately, both characters found happiness in themselves by the end of the novel, regardless of how they obtained their newfound senses of identity. Interestingly enough, Connell had a lot more time to develop his identity, but by the end of both novels, it's apparent that Tom had a significantly more drastic identity change compared to Connell. Without a doubt, both characters strived to become something more than the average lives they had previously led and, no matter how they managed to change themselves, both characters became something greater by the end of their respective novels and were able to write home boastfully about their newfound successes.