QUOTES
“‘That’s exactly where you’re wrong! Any kind of person can murder. Purely circumstances and not a thing to do with temperament! People get so far— and it takes just the least little thing to push them over the brink. Anybody. Even your grandmother. I know!’” (29).
One of the major themes present in the novel is the idea that both “goodness” and “evil” exists within each person. Through the voice of Bruno, Highsmith conveys the idea that “evil” exists within everyone. She establishes a tone of absolute confidence, using exclamation marks to emphasize Bruno’s assuredness. Additionally, by using the word “anybody” as a standalone sentence, Highsmith is drawing attention to the universality of the idea that anyone can kill. This shift into extremely terse diction continues when Bruno states his belief that even Guy’s grandmother could commit murder, a bold assertion because grandmothers are stereotypically seen as innocent, well-intentioned people. The juxtaposition between a grandmother and the act of murder further develops the theme that evil is present in all of humanity, regardless of physical appearance.
“The anxiety had always been within [Guy], a battle of himself against himself, so torturous he might have welcomed the law’s intervention. Society’s law was lax compared to the law of conscience. He might go to the law and confess, but confession seemed a minor point, a mere gesture, even an easy way out, an avoidance of truth. If the law executed him, it would be a mere gesture” (178).
Through this quote, Highsmith clearly expresses the “man versus self” conflict that permeates the novel. At this point in the novel, Guy has killed Bruno’s father and is suffering in his conscience. Highsmith writes that Guy’s anxiety had always been “a battle of himself against himself,” emphasizing the idea that the conflict is not between Guy and Bruno, but rather, the conflict is Guy’s attempt to cope with the moral consequences that arose from his crime. His own inability to successfully come to terms with his conscience brings him more stress than actually avoiding suspicion from the police and getting caught. The idea that “Society’s law [is] lax compared to the law of conscience” reflects the intensity of the internal conflict between “goodness” and “evil”.
“It was only a part of himself he had to cope with, not his whole self, not Bruno, or his work. He had merely to crush the other part of himself, and live in the self he was now. But there were too many points at which the other self could invade the self he wanted to preserve, and there were too many forms of invasion...” (189,190).
The first two sentences reflect Guy’s desire to expunge the evil within, the “part” of him that committed the murder of Bruno’s father and lied to Anne. The idea that Guy realizes he only has to cope with a “part of himself,” rather than his “whole self” reflects the theme that all people have conflicting forces of “goodness” and “evil” within. Despite Guy’s desire to “crush the other part of himself,” however, the last sentence of the quote reflects the uncertainty that he has in doing so. The repetition in the phrases “too many points” and “too many forms” emphasizes the difficulty in expunging the evil within, ultimately conveying the idea that “goodness” and “evil” will always exist together, balanced with one another. Highsmith’s idea of balance between the forces of morality relates to the traditional Japanese concept of Yin and Yang, in which opposites must both be present in order to achieve balance. No matter how hard Guy tries, he will never be able to completely rid himself of the influence of Bruno.
“[Anne] was like a goddess who descended to pluck him from battles that would certainly have killed him, like the goddesses in mythology who saved the heroes, yet introduced an element at the end of the stories that had always struck him, when he read them as a child, as extraneous and unfair” (207).
Throughout the novel, Guy represents an ordinary individual that comes face to face with the manifestation of “evil” through Bruno. As Guy’s wife, however, Anne symbolizes “goodness”. Highsmith describes her as “a goddess,” a word with a powerfully positive connotation. From this, Highsmith is implying that Anne is so pure and saintly in her ideals that she transcends mere mortals like Guy, who struggles in his own morality. Highsmith, however, adds on to this comparison in writing that Guy believes such goddesses are “extraneous and unfair” for saving heroes from their otherwise doomed fate, a sentiment that reflects Anne’s unending support for Guy despite his hidden crime. Since Guy committed the murder, succumbing to the evil desires of Bruno, he feels as if he were corrupted, and consequently feels undeserving of a wife as morally pure as Anne. The diametrically conflicting ideals of Bruno and Anne contribute to the moral struggle that consumes Guy, contributing to a theme of the novel that society’s views on morality trigger an unending conflict between what is interpreted as “good” versus what is interpreted as “evil”. Anne represents society’s interpretation of what is “good,” and Guy’s guilt in her presence represents his struggle to cope with his actions.
“...and Guy had a horrible, an utterly horrible thought all at once, that he might ensnare Owen in the same trap that Bruno had used for him, that Owen in turn would capture another stranger who would capture another, and so on in infinite progression of the trapped and the hunted” (270).
At this point in the novel, Guy is revealing the cause of Miriam’s death to Owen, Miriam’s ex-boyfriend. Previously, Guy once thought Bruno to be a despicable half-crazed person because of the “murder trade” that Bruno forced onto Guy. In this quote, Highsmith conveys the idea that even Guy shares the same “evil” thoughts that Bruno has, to an extent. Highsmith uses the idea of “the trapped” and “the hunted,” portraying the conflict between “good” and “evil” as a perpetual cycle of corruption. Emphatically, Guy cannot be solely characterized as “evil,” because Highsmith writes that Guy had a “horrible, an utterly horrible thought”. The repetition of the word “horrible” emphasizes the idea that Guy knows that this thought is morally wrong, and that he is opposed to it. The fact that Guy even thought about this at all, however, represents how the “evil” in him has been brought out, largely due to the influence of Bruno.