In Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon Sam Spade exerts a strong male dominance over the main female characters. These three female characters; Effie Perine, Iva Archer, and Brigid O'Shaughnessy along with the foreign Cairo are viewed by Sam Spade, through a patriarchal, misogynist lens because he is fearful and distrustful of them. It is this fear and distrust that causes his interactions with women to be tainted. Spade’s manly impulses cause his sexual attraction for these women, while at the same time his moral compass tries to protect them from him. This is shown in one of Spade’s first interactions with Brigid. “I’ve given you all the money I have.” Tears glistened in her white-ringed eyes. Her voice was hoarse, vibrant. “I’ve thrown myself on your mercy, told you that without your help I’m utterly lost. What else is there?” She suddenly moved close to him on the settee and cried angrily: “Can I buy you with my body?” Their faces were a few inches apart. Spade took her face between his hands and he kissed her mouth roughly and contemptuously. Then he sat back and said: “I’ll think it over.” His face was hard and furious (Hammett 57). Sam becomes furious at her offer to buy him with her body. If he accepts the offer he will …show more content…
“Don’t be silly,” he muttered. The unlit cigarette bobbed up and down with the movement of his lips. “She doesn’t think it’s silly. Why should she–the way you’ve played around with her?” He sighed and said: “I wish to Christ I’d never seen her.” “Maybe you do now.” A trace of spitefulness came into the girl’s voice. “But there was a time.” “I never know what to do or say to women except that way,” he grumbled, “and then I didn’t like Miles.” “That’s a lie, Sam,” the girl said. “You know I think she’s a louse, but I’d be a louse too if it would give me a body like hers. Spade rubbed his face impatiently against her hip, but said nothing (Hammett
Initially, Mailer used diction through imagery and emotional words to give the reader how the situation felt to him and to describe to the reader the situation. In the passage, emotional words such as “bad maulings”, “three disgusted steps away”, and “referee’s face came a look of woe” pop up. Mailer utilizes these negative emotional words to impose a tone that is solemn towards Paret and a tone that is disdainful towards Griffith. Consequently, the reader’s mood coincides with the tone of the author. For example, the phrase “referee’s face came a look of woe” gives the reader a grievous feeling because of the word “woe”. Another instance where a reader can see this is in the phrase “three disgusted steps away”. Mailer could have just stated “three steps away”, but he wanted to enforce the negative connotation of the story and to show the reader how he had felt. Additionally, imagery is used in...
life due to the fact that she has to meet Sam in secret, she decides
is not like Caroline. By the end of the movie Sam learns a valuable lesson about being her own person and even gets the guy along the way.
Nora and Mrs. Wright’s social standing when compared to the men in each play is inferior. Both works expose their respective male characters’ sexist view of women diminishing the women’s social standing. Each work features egotistical men who have a severely inflated view of their self-worth when compared to their female counterparts. The men’s actions and words indicate they believe women are not capable of thinking intelligently. This is demonstrated in “Trifles” when Mr. Hale makes the statement about women only worrying about mere trifles. It is also apparent in “A Dollhouse” when Torvalds thinks his wife is not capable of thinking with any complexity (Mazur 17). Another common attribute is of the women’s social standing is displayed as both women finally get tired of feeling like second class citizens and stand up to the repressive people in the women’s lives (Mulry 294). Although both women share much in common in their social standing there subtle differences. Torvald’s sexist view of Nora is more on a personal level in “A Dollhouse” while the male characters’ sexist views in “Trifles” seem to be more of a social view that women are not very smart and their opinions are of little value. This attitude is apparent in “Trifles” as Mr. Hale and Mr. Henderson’s comments about Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping (Mulry 293). As the women in both works reach their emotional
Feminism is one of the lenses through which the reader is able to analyze the novel. In the novel, Yvette Durelle, is the leading female character. Yvette meets Duddy during his summer employment at the hotel in St. Agathe. She is the one to introduce Duddy to the land
For readers who observe literature through a feminist lens, they will notice the depiction of female characters, and this makes a large statement on the author’s perception of feminism. Through portraying these women as specific female archetypes, the author creates sense of what roles women play in both their families and in society. In books such as The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the roles that the main female characters play are, in different instances, both comparable and dissimilar.
In traditional hard-boiled American detective fiction there are many themes that seem to transcend all novels. One of those themes is the concept of power and the role in which it plays in the interaction and development of characters. More specifically, the role of women within the novels can be scrutinized to better understand the power they hold over the other characters, their own lives and the direction of the story. Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon exemplifies the varying ways in which female characters attempt to obtain and utilize power in hopes of influencing, manipulating and succeeding.
The Maltese Falcon, was not only a detective film, but a film that displayed many different aspects of the female and the male character in the movie. The film was more than a story, but a story that explored the ideas of the detective genre and the different characteristics of femininity and masculinity. It also brought forth subjects of sexual desires and the greediness of money. The characters and the visual motifs in the film contributed to the developing of the plot and assisted in creating a more detective and gender oriented film. In the film, The Maltese Falcon, the role of men and women are portrayed in different ways in the film to show the distinct functions of masculinity and femininity between the characters.
The main character Gabriel Conroy seems to approve of female characters only as if they are background noise and only there to feed his ego—or push him further in the
As portrayed by her thoughts after sex in this passage, the girl is overly casual about the act of sex and years ahead of her time in her awareness of her actions. Minot's unique way of revealing to the reader the wild excursions done by this young promiscuous adolescent proves that she devalues the sacred act of sex. Furthermore, the manner in which the author illustrates to the reader these acts symbolizes the likeness of a list. Whether it's a list of things to do on the weekend or perhaps items of groceries which need to be picked up, her lust for each one of the boys in the story is about as well thought out and meaningful as each item which has carelessly and spontaneously been thrown on to a sheet of paper as is done in making a list. This symbolistic writing style is used to show how meaningless these relationships were, but the deeper meaning of why she acted the way she did is revealed throughout the story.
I don’t recall if Gutman said it in the movie about the Falcon being coated by lacquer to obfuscate that it’s really made of gold and jewels. I think it was implied that nothing is what they really seem to be. This is what I believe Dashiell Hammett was trying to communicate through his novel, ‘The Maltese Falcon.’ In this paper I will write about why I believe what is Hammett trying to convey through his cast of characters. These characters are unlike the image and stereotype cast upon their roles.
...Piercy badgers the reader with Comstock's view of women (mostly in the descriptions of his dutiful wife and obedient daughter) to illustrate his sexism, however, the belabored point begins to fall flat and instead leaves the character feeling one-dimensional. Likewise, even men initially introduced to the reader as pro-feminist, like Theodore Tilton, meet with a predictable sexist ending. These men were no doubt chosen to embody the patriarchal society of then and today, but the unyielding portrayal began to feel overwhelmingly oppressive (perhaps her intent) and a novel so based in realism, on that point, began to feel contrived, therefore unrealistic. Nevertheless, Piercy compares and contrasts the experiences of the characters', offering them up to the reader, perhaps in hope that similarities can be identified and a feminist dialogue can be started or continued.
There are multiple portrayals of the changing roles of women throughout the text. The allowing of women to vote during the 1920’s allowed for a new, more self-sufficient role of women to be portrayed. Jordan Baker is an example of a new type of woman in the twenties. She shows herself to be harsh, self-motivated and very confident in the actions she takes. Jordan also looks down upon those who are less financial equipped then she, “lets get out…this is too much polite for”. This reveal Jordan to be blunt, revealing what every she has on her mind blurting out secrets and gossip of others. This is reinforced, as she is the first to reveal the Myrtle is Tom’s mistress. Myrtle also portrays a new identity of women during the time period. She reveals to the reader of the liberated woman of the 1920’s who challenged the traditional gender norms. She reveals that she only married George under the believe that he was rich, “I though he knew something…but he was not fit to lick my shoe”. She chooses to cheat on George, leaving him to have an affair with Tom, showing her shallow personality. She also reveals to have been attracted to Tom by his suit, “he had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn’t keep my eyes of him” revealing that she in fact does not love Tom but instead wishes to have the money that he posses and reveals her materialistic values and her concern only to reach the higher parts of society. The readers understanding of the changing roles of women due to the new rights and liberties given to women during the
Before there widowhood these two ladies led very envious and superficial lives. In describing her friend Mrs. Slade says, “Mrs. Horace Ansley, twenty-five years ago, had been exquisitely lovely…though, of course, still charming, distinguished…far more beautiful than her daughter. Horace Ansley was just the duplicate of his wife. Museum specimens of old New York. Good-looking, irreproachable, exemplary”. In return, when Mrs. Ansley was asked about or spoke about Mrs. Slade she would reply, “Alida Slade’s awfully brilliant; but not as brilliant as she thinks. Mrs. Slade had been an extremely dashing girl; much more so than her daughter who was pretty, of course, and clever in a way, but had none of her mother’s—well vividness”. These two ladies had a friendship based upon nothing but there own jealous and arrogant behavior; as if the only reason they spoke was in spite of one another. As Wharton describes them, “ these two ladies visualized each other, each through the wrong end of her little telescope” (258). Wharton realized that these fragments composed the only true communication about their friendship and therefore told the real story of Mrs. Slade and ...
Throughout The Fox, D.H. Lawrence uses the gender roles that March adopts to demonstrate the power struggle between masculinity and femininity within her lives. The dynamic between the characters creates a constant feeling of tenseness and an uneasy mood within the story.