Archive · 31 Aug 2026
Why Patricia Highsmith’s Criminals Rarely See Themselves as Evil
Patricia Highsmith wrote criminals who do not usually think they are evil.
They may see themselves as ordinary people.
Before they become violent, they show feelings many people can understand.
These feelings include jealousy, anger, pride, and wanting to protect themselves.
That makes the criminals feel more realistic.
It also makes their actions more disturbing.
The reader may not immediately recognise who will become violent.
Highsmith suggests that evil may not openly call itself evil.
Highsmith’s criminals do not always view themselves as outside ordinary humanity.
Their vanity, resentment, desire, jealousy, and self-preservation are recognisable before violence occurs.
Their ordinary human traits make their later crimes more disturbing.
They rarely identify themselves as evil.
Highsmith leaves readers questioning whether evil announces itself as evil.
- Who
- Patricia Highsmith and the criminals in her fiction.
- What
- An examination of why Highsmith’s criminals rarely see themselves as evil.
- When
- Not specified.
- Where
- Not specified.
- Why
- Their recognisable human emotions and instincts make their violence more disturbing and challenge readers’ ideas about evil.
- Central subject
- The self-perception of criminals in Patricia Highsmith’s fiction.
- Criminals’ self-image
- They do not always experience themselves as departures from ordinary humanity.
- Recognisable traits
- Vanity, resentment, desire, jealousy, and self-preservation.
- Effect on readers
- Their ordinary human qualities make their later violence disturbing.
- Highsmith’s implication
- Evil may not identify itself by that name.