Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys

Patricia Highsmith’s stated reason for writing The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) was to see if she could elicit empathetic engagement for her immoral protagonist Tom Ripley. Amongst other factors, she achieves her goal by allowing readers to align affectively with the protagonist’s road to self-discove...

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Autor principal:	Lech Zdunkiewicz
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Lodz University Press 2021
Materias:	empathy elicitation antisocial personality disorder emphatic concern antihero enjoyment character engagement identification Literature (General) PN1-6790
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/276e2ebdefb442d398dbac2a24c66fc3
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:276e2ebdefb442d398dbac2a24c66fc32021-12-01T06:51:57ZAligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys2083-29312084-574X10.18778/2083-2931.11.09https://doaj.org/article/276e2ebdefb442d398dbac2a24c66fc32021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/textmatters/article/view/11263https://doaj.org/toc/2083-2931https://doaj.org/toc/2084-574XPatricia Highsmith’s stated reason for writing The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) was to see if she could elicit empathetic engagement for her immoral protagonist Tom Ripley. Amongst other factors, she achieves her goal by allowing readers to align affectively with the protagonist’s road to self-discovery. Her experiment culminates with Tom’s fruition into an aggressive consumer, thus resolving his and the readers’ apprehensions. On the other hand, Anthony Minghella’s Ripley leaves more room for interpretation. In his interviews, the filmmaker states that he does not aim for his protagonist to remain the sociopath from Highsmith’s novel. Instead, his story explores the absence of a father figure and how it affects his main characters. Consequently, he frames Tom as an underprivileged youth whose emotional instability brings about his demise. To this end, he employs victimization scenes, as well as moral disengagement cues. I argue that, amongst other factors, such an application of an industry-tested design of emphatic concern elicitation obscures the filmmaker’s initial intent. As a result, Minghella’s Tom can be seen as a manipulative sociopath, as well as a victimized tragic hero.Lech ZdunkiewiczLodz University Pressarticleempathy elicitationantisocial personality disorderemphatic concernantiheroenjoymentcharacter engagementidentificationLiterature (General)PN1-6790ENText Matters, Iss 11, Pp 119-136 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	empathy elicitation antisocial personality disorder emphatic concern antihero enjoyment character engagement identification Literature (General) PN1-6790
spellingShingle	empathy elicitation antisocial personality disorder emphatic concern antihero enjoyment character engagement identification Literature (General) PN1-6790 Lech Zdunkiewicz Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys
description	Patricia Highsmith’s stated reason for writing The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) was to see if she could elicit empathetic engagement for her immoral protagonist Tom Ripley. Amongst other factors, she achieves her goal by allowing readers to align affectively with the protagonist’s road to self-discovery. Her experiment culminates with Tom’s fruition into an aggressive consumer, thus resolving his and the readers’ apprehensions. On the other hand, Anthony Minghella’s Ripley leaves more room for interpretation. In his interviews, the filmmaker states that he does not aim for his protagonist to remain the sociopath from Highsmith’s novel. Instead, his story explores the absence of a father figure and how it affects his main characters. Consequently, he frames Tom as an underprivileged youth whose emotional instability brings about his demise. To this end, he employs victimization scenes, as well as moral disengagement cues. I argue that, amongst other factors, such an application of an industry-tested design of emphatic concern elicitation obscures the filmmaker’s initial intent. As a result, Minghella’s Tom can be seen as a manipulative sociopath, as well as a victimized tragic hero.
format	article
author	Lech Zdunkiewicz
author_facet	Lech Zdunkiewicz
author_sort	Lech Zdunkiewicz
title	Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys
title_short	Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys
title_full	Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys
title_fullStr	Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys
title_full_unstemmed	Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys
title_sort	aligning with sociopaths: character engagement strategies in highsmith’s and minghella’s talented mr. ripleys
publisher	Lodz University Press
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/276e2ebdefb442d398dbac2a24c66fc3
work_keys_str_mv	AT lechzdunkiewicz aligningwithsociopathscharacterengagementstrategiesinhighsmithsandminghellastalentedmrripleys
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Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys

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