The Talented Mr. Ripley

Dickie’s rings are a symbol of everything to which Tom aspires and that Dickie embodies: social class, family connections, wealth, and sophistication. When they meet, Tom notices Dickie’s rings almost immediately: “a large rectangular green stone set in gold on the third finger of his right hand, and on the little finger of the other hand a signet ring, larger and more ornate than the signet Mr. Greenleaf had worn” (51). Dickie’s signet ring illustrates his family’s high social class and long family line, contrasting with Tom’s background as an orphan, raised indifferently by an unfriendly aunt. Highsmith underscores the importance of the signet ring by showing Dickie’s father’s own “gold signet ring with the nearly worn-away crest” (15). The gold and the signet stand for money and class, and the worn-away quality of Herbert’s ring signifies old money. The rings symbolize the distinction of Dickie’s upper-class, old-money family line.

While Dickie’s signet ring operates as a symbol of class and family, his other ring, with its “large rectangular green stone” (51), functions as a symbol of sophistication as well as money. In addition to being clearly expensive, the stone’s green color is itself a nod to both money and envy.