The Talented Mr. Ripley

by

Patricia Highsmith

Dickie’s father, and the owner of a shipbuilding company specializing in “small sailing boats.” Herbert pays Tom’s way as he travels to Italy, hoping that Tom will convince Dickie to return home to helm the family business and be near his dying mother. Through Herbert’s letters to Tom, readers watch as Herbert’s demeanor goes from hopeful to despondent, and eventually cold and disappointed. When “Dickie” disappears, Herbert travels to Europe in order to aid in the investigation. His love for his son and his desire to be reunited with him is, in many ways, a catalyst for the entirety of the novel’s events, and it’s Herbert’s kind, generous nature which makes him easy prey in Tom Ripley’s game.

Herbert Greenleaf Quotes in The Talented Mr. Ripley

The The Talented Mr. Ripley quotes below are all either spoken by Herbert Greenleaf or refer to Herbert 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 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:
Get the entire Talented Mr. Ripley LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Talented Mr. Ripley PDF

Herbert Greenleaf Quotes in The Talented Mr. Ripley

The The Talented Mr. Ripley quotes below are all either spoken by Herbert Greenleaf or refer to Herbert 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 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: