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Strangers on a Train

164 statements
31 feature instances
3 referencing feature instances

Strangers on a Train	type	TVTItem
Strangers on a Train	label	Strangers on a Train
Strangers on a Train	page	StrangersOnATrain
Strangers on a Train	comment	Novelist Patricia Highsmith's 1950 debut. While traveling by train, up-and-coming architect Guy Haines is distracted from thoughts of his unhappy marriage (and upcoming ugly divorce) by the awkward friendship-overtures of Idle Rich drunkard Charles Anthony Bruno. Bruno, it turns out, is a Thrill Seeker who thinks he'd like to murder someone some day. While laying out his aspirations to Guy, Bruno comes up with an idea for a Murder Swap.In 1951 Alfred Hitchcock adapted the story into a film with the same title, characters, and initial situation, but a noticeably divergent plot.
Strangers on a Train	fetched	2023-10-01T13:00:58Z
Strangers on a Train	parsed	2023-10-01T13:00:58Z
Strangers on a Train	processingComment	Dropped link to Foil: Not a Feature - IGNORE
Strangers on a Train	isPartOf	DBTropes
Strangers on a Train / int_1f250372	type	I Need a Freaking Drink
Strangers on a Train / int_1f250372	comment	I Need a Freaking Drink: Guy plays this straight a few times, in response to Bruno's harassment and his own guilt. On one occasion (after Anne's father engages in some Oblivious Guilt Slinging), Guy defies this trope: Bruno, being The Alcoholic, turns to drink on very slight provocation. But a conventional use of this trope comes when he needs to calm down after killing Miriam.
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Strangers on a Train / int_373e2b9f	type	Murder the Hypotenuse
Strangers on a Train / int_373e2b9f	comment	Murder the Hypotenuse: Bruno very briefly considers doing this with Anne — he's immediately surprised at himself because he genuinely likes Anne and promptly puts the thought out of his mind.
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Strangers on a Train / int_38bf28e3	type	Engineered Public Confession
Strangers on a Train / int_38bf28e3	comment	Engineered Public Confession: A low-key variant. Gerard catches a murderer by guessing that the man is ready to confess to someone, sneaking into his hotel room while he's out, leaving the phone off the hook, and later listening in on the open line while the incriminating conversation happens in the room.
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Strangers on a Train / int_3b4185fb	type	Stalker without a Crush
Strangers on a Train / int_3b4185fb	comment	Stalker Without A Crush: Charlie Bruno stalks Guy Haines after murdering his wife, in order to try and make Haines fulfill his end of a Murder Swap he never agreed to. After Guy gives in and commits the other murder, Bruno becomes more like a Stalker with a Crush, continuing to intrude on Guy's personal life just because he feels connected to him.
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Strangers on a Train / int_4efc4fae	type	Good Scars, Evil Scars
Strangers on a Train / int_4efc4fae	comment	Good Scars, Evil Scars: Zig-zagged. Guy is injured by branches hitting his face when he flees through the woods after being involved in an act of violence. The resulting scars are small and don't harm his appearance, but he thinks of them as if they were a Mark of Shame. It fits with the book's theme of united opposites: they look like good scars but "feel" like evil scars because Guy is simultaneously a sympathetic protagonist and someone who committed a murder in cold blood.
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Strangers on a Train / int_52c0c7cf	type	Motive Decay
Strangers on a Train / int_52c0c7cf	comment	Motive Decay: Done intentionally. At first, Bruno's harassment of Guy is narrowly focused on getting Guy to hold up his end of the bargain Bruno thinks they made. Subsequent events render that motive irrelevant, and Bruno even tells Guy "I'll never see you again" — but it turns out Bruno is so addicted to Guy's presence that he just can't stay away. Basically, he goes from Stalker Without A Crush to Stalker with a Crush.
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Strangers on a Train / int_6056f853	type	Homoerotic Subtext
Strangers on a Train / int_6056f853	comment	Homoerotic Subtext: Bruno is Ambiguously Gay and has some kind of fixation on Guy. Guy, meanwhile, regards Bruno with a complex and changeable attitude whose only constant is a sense of loyalty that Guy himself can't explain; at one point his feelings for Bruno are outright described as "love."
Strangers on a Train / int_6056f853	featureApplicability	1.0
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Strangers on a Train / int_7286e96d	type	Idiot Ball
Strangers on a Train / int_7286e96d	comment	Idiot Ball: A fair amount of the drama could have been easily avoided if Guy had just gone to the police after finding out Bruno killed his ex-wife. If Bruno accused him of conspiracy, Guy could mount an easy defense since there was no exchange of money, no evidence of coercion, the two men had never met before and Bruno's father could've easily testified to his son's general instability, which he probably would have done because he believed Bruno needed help.
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Strangers on a Train / int_79cd85f0	type	First Gray Hair
Strangers on a Train / int_79cd85f0	comment	First Gray Hair: Guy finds his on his eyebrow — which has the effect of reminding the reader of the tiny but shameful scar that's also on his eyebrow, though the narrative never explicitly makes that connection.
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Strangers on a Train / int_7eebe99c	type	The Alcoholic
Strangers on a Train / int_7eebe99c	comment	Bruno, being The Alcoholic, turns to drink on very slight provocation. But a conventional use of this trope comes when he needs to calm down after killing Miriam.
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Strangers on a Train / int_83a8d697	type	Oblivious Guilt Slinging
Strangers on a Train / int_83a8d697	comment	Oblivious Guilt Slinging: A dark example. Anne's father is just talking about hunting when he asks if Guy is "any good with a gun." Guy can't very well admit that he's guilt-ridden and traumatized because of something he did with a gun.
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Strangers on a Train / int_8950ea66	type	"Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder
Strangers on a Train / int_8950ea66	comment	"Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder: invoked Trope Namer and unbuilt example. The murder-swap scheme is 100% Bruno's idea; Guy doesn't agree to it, and he doesn't even try to humor Bruno the way his film counterpart does. But eventually, Bruno's campaign of psychological terrorism wears him down.
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Strangers on a Train / int_8e20b0f7	type	Private Detective
Strangers on a Train / int_8e20b0f7	comment	Private Detective: Arthur Gerard is a detective who has worked for Charlie Bruno's father in the past.
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Strangers on a Train / int_97ee273	type	Momma's Boy
Strangers on a Train / int_97ee273	comment	Momma's Boy: Bruno is very close to his mother and delights in her well-preserved good looks. Meanwhile he loathes his father and plots the old man's death.
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Strangers on a Train / int_9c0dc5cd	type	Quick Nip
Strangers on a Train / int_9c0dc5cd	comment	Quick Nip: Bruno carries a hip flask. One of the first things he does when he meets Guy is to offer him a drink.
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Strangers on a Train / int_9cde2df1	type	Hand Cannon
Strangers on a Train / int_9cde2df1	comment	Hand Cannon: Bruno, while trying to pressure Guy to kill for him, gives Guy a Luger. Guy thinks it's ridiculously large and clumsy. He ends up using his own (much smaller) handgun instead.
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Strangers on a Train / int_a0ee1da5	type	Kitsch Collection
Strangers on a Train / int_a0ee1da5	comment	Kitsch Collection: Charles Bruno's father collects cookie cutters. He never actually makes cookies.
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Strangers on a Train / int_a7aef9ff	type	Obfuscating Stupidity
Strangers on a Train / int_a7aef9ff	comment	Obfuscating Stupidity: Gerard, the corn-fed Iowan PI, is very good at what he does, but Bruno has a hard time believing it:
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Strangers on a Train / int_c19596a0	type	The Bro Code
Strangers on a Train / int_c19596a0	comment	The Bro Code: Bruno insinuates himself into Guy's social circle by befriending Anne. In a moment of exuberation, he has an urge to kiss her — but decides not to, because she "belong[s] to Guy."
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Strangers on a Train / int_c3448a6f	type	Informed Attribute
Strangers on a Train / int_c3448a6f	comment	Informed Attribute: Bruno claims his father is a horrible person, but we have only his word for it. In the novel, the reader knows nothing about Bruno's father right up until Guy kills him, at which point a private detective in Bruno's father's employ tells Bruno that if he honestly thinks his father didn't love him then he really didn't know him at all.
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Strangers on a Train / int_c8ba12ee	type	Interplay of Sex and Violence
Strangers on a Train / int_c8ba12ee	comment	He's never been in love with a woman, and (except for right after he kills Miriam) is unenthusiastic about sleeping with them. He "doesn't care too much" about it and has never been able to consider it anything other than "silly business". Whenever he has slept with women he's felt as though he's watching himself the entire time, and once even laughed while it was happening.
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Strangers on a Train / int_d058677e	type	Amusement Park
Strangers on a Train / int_d058677e	comment	Amusement Park: Miriam is murdered while on a date at an amusement park.
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Strangers on a Train / int_d2de1bff	type	Age Insecurity
Strangers on a Train / int_d2de1bff	comment	Age Insecurity: Bruno has this on his mother's behalf. He's proud of her for looking like a much younger woman, and it upsets him when, after her husband's death, she starts showing her age.
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Strangers on a Train / int_d39d4b71	type	The Perfect Crime
Strangers on a Train / int_d39d4b71	comment	The Perfect Crime: Subverted and played straight: Bruno thinks his murder of Miriam is a perfect crime, but he actually gets away with it by pure luck in the short term, while leaving a mess of circumstantial evidence that'll come back to bite him later. Another murder in the story actually is well planned, and the murderer gets away undetected even despite some mistakes. It might have gone unsolved if not for some risk-taking in the aftermath: Bruno keeps contacting Guy, and Guy eventually seeks out an opportunity to confess.
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Strangers on a Train / int_db71d717	type	Thanatos Gambit
Strangers on a Train / int_db71d717	comment	Thanatos Gambit: In the opening chapters, Bruno says that if he ever feels like committing suicide, he'll make sure his worst enemy is framed for it. His actual death doesn't reflect this at all.
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Strangers on a Train / int_deea2fb5	type	Idle Rich
Strangers on a Train / int_deea2fb5	comment	Idle Rich: Bruno complains about being kept on a financial leash by his father. But he finds time and money to travel around getting drunk in interesting places, all without having to hold down a job.
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Strangers on a Train / int_e3109dae	type	Switching P.O.V.
Strangers on a Train / int_e3109dae	comment	Switching P.O.V.: The narrative alternates between Guy's and Bruno's perspectives (and occasionally others). In a few places it "head hops" between them within the same scene, emphasizing the increasing closeness between the two characters and the resulting damage to Guy's sense of self.
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Strangers on a Train / int_e34400ab	type	Ambiguously Gay
Strangers on a Train / int_e34400ab	comment	Ambiguously Gay: Bruno has several hints of this. He's never been in love with a woman, and (except for right after he kills Miriam) is unenthusiastic about sleeping with them. He "doesn't care too much" about it and has never been able to consider it anything other than "silly business". Whenever he has slept with women he's felt as though he's watching himself the entire time, and once even laughed while it was happening. Once, as he daydreams about being interviewed, he explains that he does not hate women and then immediately remembers the maxim that "hate is akin to love." He feels a deep connection to Guy, thinking of him as a "brother" and perhaps a bit more:
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Strangers on a Train / int_e8cb930f	type	Accidental Suicide
Strangers on a Train / int_e8cb930f	comment	Accidental Suicide: Charles Bruno dies by getting drunk and falling out of a sailboat. (This could plausibly be a deliberate suicide, but the possibility isn't followed up on in-story; everyone treats it as an accident.)
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Strangers on a Train / int_f912a750	type	Immune to Drugs
Strangers on a Train / int_f912a750	comment	Immune to Drugs: Played for Drama in the second half of the book, when Guy (who's become an increasingly heavy drinker) reflects that it is now "impossible for him to become drunk." This is a realistically downplayed example — he can still feel some effect from alcohol, but drinking too much only makes him sick.
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Strangers on a Train / int_name	type	ItemName
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Strangers on a Train	hasFeature	Stalker without a Crush / int_113ec856
Strangers on a Train	hasFeature	Switching P.O.V. / int_113ec856
Strangers on a Train	hasFeature	Thanatos Gambit / int_113ec856

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