46 pages • 1 hour read
Patricia HighsmithThe Price of Salt
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1952A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 12-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary
Richard wonders why Therese is going on the trip and thinks she’ll change her mind. Therese doesn’t think so, and Richard notes Carol’s mysterious identity. Richard assumes she doesn’t drink, and Therese wonders if Carol looks like she drinks.
Richard wants to paint Therese, but Therese doesn’t want to sit still. Richard heard Therese brought Phil beer and sandwiches on New Year’s Day, but he’s not suspicious or jealous. However, he insults Phil, who’s working on a play that Therese doesn’t think he’ll ever finish.
Richard and Therese meet Carol at the Plaza Hotel and then walk in Central Park. The underwhelming conversation anguishes Therese, and at a coffee shop, they run into Harge. Richard wants Therese to go with him to a concert, but Therese wants to stay with Carol. Carol pushes Therese to go with Richard. Carol rides off in a taxi, but Therese doesn’t go to the concert.
Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary
Richard thinks Therese has a crush on Carol and that Carol is toying with Therese and will eventually tire of her. Therese thinks Richard is wrong, and she calls him a lackluster painter. She makes him feel worthless, but she doesn’t want to fight with him. She says that Carol didn’t take her away from Richard—Richard never had her. Therese admits she’s “fond” of Carol, and Richard wonders if Therese wants to have sex with her. As they argue, Therese recalls her love letter to Carol. Richard storms out after their fight.
At Carol’s house that evening, Carol says that Therese shouldn’t have shared her feelings with Richard. She’s “too young” to know her mind, and she’s not used to considering the feelings of others. Therese thinks Richard will let her go, saying he can’t “compete.” Therese spends the night again, and in the morning, she tells Florence she’ll prepare breakfast. Carol rubs Therese’s neck as if she were a dog.
Harge is due to visit, and knowing this, Therese can’t read the book she bought yesterday, the Oxford Book of English Verse. Harge drops by with flowers for Carol’s birthday, and Therese reflects that she didn’t know it was her birthday. He calls Therese a “nice girl” and wants her to take Carol for walks. Carol thinks Harge is a “hypocrite,” while he thinks she’ll change her mind about the divorce.
Therese never took the check for $200 and tells Carol that it’s under the cloth on the bedside table. She asks if she should tear it up, and Carol says she can if she wants to.
Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary
The chapter opens at Therese’s apartment—she is finishing packing for the trip. Richard’s mom sends a box of food and a white dress for Therese. Therese reflects that a few days ago, Richard sent a telegram saying he hasn’t changed, and she hasn’t changed, so she should write to him while she is away.
After packing, Therese and Carol drive to Carol’s house, where they will spend the night before starting their trip. Carol is in a bad mood, and nothing Therese does can ease the tension. The next morning, Abby leaves Carol a gift on the doorstep—a toy monkey named Jacopo that accompanied them on a previous road trip. Before they go, Carol calls Rindy and promises to take her on a trip during the summer. In the car, Therese compares her freedom to the restrictions at Frankenberg’s.
Carol asks about the check: It’s still on the bedside table, and Therese forgot to tear it up. Carol says it doesn’t matter. Therese also realizes she left behind the Oxford Book of English Verse—with the love letter she wrote to Carol tucked inside it. She doesn’t mention this to Carol and hopes the housekeeper won’t look inside the book.
On the trip, Therese speaks frankly about her excitement the first time she went to Carol’s house, which catches Carol off guard. They discuss their pasts; Carol is from Washington, and she looks like her dad. Hearing about Carol’s family makes Therese feel “strange.” She thinks of Carol as “sui generis”—of her own kind.
When they reach Pennsylvania, Therese buys Ruby Robichek a $6 sausage and sends it to her. Therese explains her link to Ruby and thinks of Ruby and Carol as different “species.” Therese feels like Ruby haunts her, and she doesn’t want Carol to mention her again.
Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary
In a tourist cabin in Ohio, Carol asks Therese to get her slacks from the suitcase, and Therese finds a gun. It’s loaded, and Carol can use it, but she doesn’t anticipate needing to. They take photos, and when they’re developed, Carol puts two in her wallet: one of Rindy and one of Therese.
In Chicago, Carol calls Rindy, who fought with another girl at school. Carol thinks Rindy should apologize first. As Carol showers, Therese reads a letter from Richard, which says she’s not like “other girls,” and he’ll wait for her. Richard’s “sentimentality” strikes Therese as phony. She tells Carol her mom’s name, but it means nothing to Therese.
In Waterloo, Iowa, a sleepy Therese declares her love for Carol, and they have sex, which feels “right” and “perfect.” The next morning, Carol calls Therese an “angel […] flung out of space” (169). Carol makes a joke about the town’s name, and Therese says there are Waterloos in each state.
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary
In the hotel lobby in Waterloo, Therese buys two newspapers and notices a slumped man looking at her over the top of his newspaper. In the room, Therese and Carol embrace, and Therese repeats, “I love you.” In a candy shop in Minneapolis, Therese picks out something to send to Ruby. She tries to hold Carol’s arm, but Carol says no.
Therese asks about Abby, and Carol tells her the story. They lived near each other in New Jersey, and Abby had a crush on her since she was about six. They went their separate ways but reunited after Carol married Harge and had Rindy. They opened the furniture store and had sex after Abby’s mom insisted that Carol stay over due to a snowstorm. Their love lasted around two months—Carol likens it to a “disease that came and went” (174). At one point, she cared more about Abby than Harge and Rindy, and she would’ve left them both for her. Honesty compelled Carol to tell Harge about the affair, and it annoyed him, but he doesn’t talk about it. Other people in the world would label Carol and Abby’s relationship an “abomination.” Carol notes that Therese must live in the world but that she spoils her and stops her from becoming an adult.
In another letter, Richard labels Therese a mass of “contradictions” and Carol her “whimsical friend.” In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Carol and Therese see a “one-ring circus” and kiss in a booth behind the performers’ tent. Therese is happy and wonders if she’ll ever want to create again. Carol assumes Therese will get tired of her and suggests they go to Lusk (a town in Wyoming)—the name sounds “sexy.” At a restaurant in Nebraska, Therese thinks she sees the slumped man from the hotel lobby in Waterloo.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary
Carol receives disturbing telegrams. She keeps them private, but Therese spots the phrase “GET THIS. JACOPO” (182). In a gas station café, Carol tells Therese that Harge hired a detective to follow them because he wants full custody of Rindy. Abby found out and told Carol. He’s been trailing them since Chicago, and Carol wonders if they hooked up a dictaphone (a recording device) in their hotel rooms. She thinks it might be best if Therese went back alone, but Therese doesn’t want to leave, and Carol wants her to stay. Therese tells her about the man in the lobby and the restaurant, and Carol tells Therese to watch out for him.
Part 2, Chapters 12-17 Analysis
The theme of Love, Obsession, and Learning to Let Go applies to the meeting between Richard, Therese, and Carol. Therese still can’t let go of Richard, but his presence with Carol sparks resentment and jealousy in her because she wants to have Carol to herself. When the two are alone together, the atmosphere can grow rarefied and passionate, but with Richard in the mix, Therese feels insipid, thinking, “What dull things they talked of” (130). Though Carol leaves Therese with Richard in Chapter 12, Therese doesn’t attend a concert with him, indicating that she’s working toward letting him go. This is a precursor to the road trip, where Therese tries to sever things with Richard in earnest.
Foreshadowing occurs with the letter Therese writes Carol, the Oxford Book of English Verse that Therese reads, and the check that Carol writes Therese. Initially, the three items are innocuous. Therese tries to read the anthology of poems, and she puts the letter in the book. She also leaves the check on the bedside table under the cloth, uncomfortable with receiving money from Carol. When she tells Carol she left the check, Carol replies, “Well, it's not important” (154). The nonchalant tone belies the check's power; later, Abby must retrieve it before Harge finds it and weaponizes it against Carol. Abby doesn’t find the passionate letter, so it turns into a piece of evidence that helps Harge get custody. As the letter is in the anthology, the book becomes a part of the set of clues undermining Therese and Carol’s relationship.
The man in the hotel lobby in Waterloo is also foreshadowing. Therese thinks she sees him again in Sioux Falls, and with his reappearance, Highsmith drops a hint that he’s following them. To spotlight the detective, Highsmith uses imagery and creates a distinct picture of him: “[T]he man in the dark overcoat who looked at her over the top of his newspaper, and slumped in his chair and went on reading” (169). These details render him recognizable when he reappears.
Waterloo’s symbolism is complex. Waterloo alludes to the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815), which marked the defeat of the aggressive French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, in the Napoleonic Wars. Thus, in Western culture, Waterloo typically signals defeat. In Chapter 15, Waterloo symbolizes a positive kind of surrender as Therese and Carol give in to their desire and have transcendent sex in Waterloo, Iowa. Sitting about halfway across the country, Waterloo becomes a geographic symbol of a point of no return. This includes the change that comes from consummating a relationship, but it also includes the couple’s downfall via the private detective. Waterloo is where Therese first spots him, and the novel adopts thriller/crime genre characteristics as he pursues them.
The theme of The Consequences of Love deepens when Carol and Therese have sex. When they make love, they don’t need to speak or use words; their love transcends verbal communication, with Therese admitting, “[S]he did not have to ask if this was right, no one had to tell her, because this could not have been more right or perfect” (168). In love with Carol, Therese doesn’t need words. The feeling of love harmonizes their bodies, making them “right” and “perfect.” At the same time, words don't disappear. After they have sex, Therese tells Carol, "'I love you, I love you, I love you" (170), yet Therese loves Carol because they can exist beyond language. Somewhat paradoxically, the word "love" marks a powerful union irreducible to words or labels. Simultaneously, Atomization and Alienation occur through anti-lesbian prejudice. Still avoiding precise terms, Carol tells Therese, “In the eyes of the world, it's an abomination” (176), and she won’t let Therese hold her arm in the candy store in Chapter 16. Their love makes them vulnerable. As society punishes gay and lesbian people, the public has the power to separate Carol and Therese and keep them apart. By hiring a detective to follow Carol and gather information on her affair, Harge produces this Atomization and Alienation for Carol and Therese, eventually splitting them up.
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