ABSTRACT
One man kills a second man for his money. This familiar plot anchors both the film Purple Noon (Clément 1960) and the novel on which it is based, The Talented Mr. Ripley (Highsmith 1955). However, while the film concludes with Tom Ripley’s impending capture by police, in the novel he gets away with murder. These divergent endings are the result of contradictory attitudes toward identity. This article analyzes the two texts in relation to masculinity, homosexuality, and class and argues that in these realms the novel, unlike the film, endorses a freedom from determination and fixity that is compatible with both existentialism of the 1950s and contemporary poststructuralism.
