The "Price" for Carol and Therese

After just finishing The Price of Salt I am very shocked by the ending, and the events leading up to the ending. I was very happy at the way Highsmith presented Therese to us in the last twenty pages or so of the novel. Therese becomes the stronger, more self-sufficient person in the relationship. She is more open and honest with herself and an overall stronger person. The roles are reversed between Therese and Carol during their last, or what we are lead to believe is their last encounter. It is Carol who is the lonely, longing lover and offers Therese all she has ever wanted. It is Carol who has to start anew, taking a job and moving to a new home. Therese has been building her own new life since leaving the department store. With each new job she is offered she becomes more confident in her work. It is a change in Therese commented on by both Carol and Danny. It seems to me that Therese realizes she has found herself with her work, but she also realizes after she thinks she has lost Carol that she can still survive, which adds to her new found confidence. Carol, on the other hand takes the loss of Therese, the loss of Rindy, and the changes of setting and job as actions that make her a weaker and less confident person. I like that we are presented initially with two very different characters in Therese and Carol and they seem to turn into each other. They keep many of their own qualities, yet feed off the qualities they admire in each other and become each other’s ideal person.
Finally, we see Therese realize the person she has become and the person Carol has become should be together. It’s as if Therese, after initially being offered a home with Carol, refuses out of protection to the new person she has become to allow herself to go back to the life she had with Carol. After Therese realizes, however, that she can still be the person she has become and be happy with Carol does she agree to lead a new life as her new self with Carol. I think this is the best possible outcome for these characters. They find themselves and each other.