The Talented Mr. Ripley: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Tom returns to San Remo, exhausted, and he begins to cover up the murder. He cleans his bloodstained clothes and packs Dickie’s bag “just as Dickie had always packed it.” He then catches a train south, and, as night falls and the train travels the countryside, he has “an ecstatic moment thinking of all the pleasures that lay before him now with Dickie’s money: other beds, tables, seas, ships, suitcases, shirts, years of freedom, years of pleasure.” Tom feels “happy, content, and utterly, utterly confident, as he has never been before in his life.”

Stepping off the bus in Mongibello, Tom immediately runs into Marge, dressed in her bathing suit. She asks where Dickie is, and Tom replies that Dickie has gone to Rome, and that he is here to collect some of Dickie’s belongings to bring back to him. Tom gives Marge her perfume, and she asks where Dickie is staying and how long he’ll be gone. Tom tells her to write to the American Express in Rome, and assures her that Dickie will be back by the end of the week.

Marge leaves to go to the beach, and Tom sets upon Dickie’s things. He dresses himself in Dickie’s clothes, collects Dickie’s recent letters, packs Dickie’s suitcases, and attempts to decide which home furnishings he should keep, which he should sell, and which he should “bequeath” to Marge.

The following morning, as Tom finishes up the packing, Marge stops by. Tom tells her that he’s received a letter from Dickie stating Dickie’s intent to move to Rome indefinitely, and that Tom should collect “all he can handle” of Dickie’s possessions and bring them straight away. Tom tells Marge that Dickie won’t be going to Cortina, but that he doesn’t want his absence to prevent Marge from going. He tells Marge that she can have the refrigerator. Marge, distraught, asks if Tom is planning to live with Dickie in Rome, and Tom tells her that he is going to “help him get settled.” Tom can see that Marge is “shocked and hurt to silence.” Marge leaves, dazed, and though Tom fears for a moment that she will try to call Dickie in Rome or even travel there to find him, he tells himself that there are “enough hotels in Rome to keep her busy for days.”

Tom searches the Neapolitan newspapers for anything about a bloodstained boat having been found, but there is nothing in the papers. He finds solace in remembering that neither he nor Dickie gave their names to the boatmaster in San Remo. After an espresso at the local café, where he tells all of Dickie’s Mongibello acquaintances the false story about Dickie’s trip to Rome, he takes a taxi to the train station. He’s had Dickie’s linens and paintings packed up and shipped, along with three suitcases. Tom has tied up all of Dickie’s affairs in Mongibello, laying the groundwork for the sale of Dickie’s house and boat.

Once in Rome, Tom writes Marge a letter from “Dickie,” explaining that “he” doesn’t want to see Marge for a while in hopes that he can “discover how he really feels about her.” He also explains that he’ll be studying with a painter called Di Massimo—a fictional person of Tom’s own invention—and that she should not try to contact him.

Tom realizes that he showed Dickie’s passport at the hotel’s front desk instead of his own—by mistake, but without incident. He heads out to a local drugstore and buys some makeup in order to further disguise himself. After returning to the hotel, Tom spends the night practicing Dickie’s signature—Dickie’s monthly check from Herbert is supposed to arrive in just over a week.