Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett : The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is America 's greatest detective novel that has been widely studied for its highly influential conception of the American private eye through its main protagonist Sam Spade and its conception of `femme fatale ' through Brigid O 'Shaughnessy . Brigid O 'Shaughnessy , under the pseudonym of Miss Wonderly hires Spade and his partner Miles Archer to protect her from former partner Thursby . Later both Thursby and Archer turn up dead and the beautiful woman is back in Sam Spade 's office , confessing that

her real name is Brigid O 'Shaughnessy , and asking him for further help . Spade agrees to help for a huge sum of money . Then a "small-boned man " named Joel Cairo calls on Spade . He has his own special interest in Thursby , and to Thursby 's relationship to a jeweled statue of a falcon . Brigid draws Spade into her plan to sell this jeweled falcon statue to her other former partners - Joel Cairo , Wilmer , and Casper Gutman . The plot , characters , and dialogue in The Maltese Falcon are well etched and intertwined by Hammett giving the novel a highly fast paced plot that later became the regular format for hard-boiled crime fiction

Spade knows that Brigid had killed Archer . When Brigid absconds , Spade learns the history of the statue from Gutman , who drugs him . Beaten by Wilmer , Spade awakes in time to receive the falcon from the dying Captain Jacoby of the ship La Paloma . Brigid draws him into a trap with the four partners , but when Spade produces the falcon , it turns out to be a fake . In a carefully crafted manner , Spade divides the villains with different scenarios and finally all flee except Brigid , who suggests that Spade escape with her . Turning them all over to the police , he learns from them that Wilmer has killed Gutman . Spade is thus a man who has done his legal duty and preserved his professional and personal integrity

Sam Spade is a fascinating character . His speech is ironic and bitter but never comic . He is not a violent man and does not engage much in gunplay and fights . Spade 's life - from his efficiency apartment with its fold-out bed to his "office wife " Effie - is a model of economy . He wastes no words , time , money , or love . Spade is smooth , fit , and suit-clad . Beneath this sophisticated surface is a principled man who surfaces at moments such as these when he says "I 'm a detective and expecting me to run criminals down and then let them go free is like asking a dog to catch a rabbit and let it go . In an embedded narrative , known as the Flitcraft Parable , Sam Spade also reveals that he follows the patterns in his client 's life , rather than extraordinary events . He is therefore able to have a unique perception on human behavior . Having deserted his family after a falling beam nearly killed him , Flitcraft returns to the same patterns of life he...