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An Analysis Of Strong Characters In Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon

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In Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, we see a range of complex relationships amongst strong characters. For that reason, it is often difficult understand the character’s true intentions. In Sam Spade’s case many ask, “Does Sam Spade, love Brigid O’Shaughnessy?” The answer would no. It is not possible for Spade to love her because he is too focused on his own self-interest. When we first meet Spade in the first chapter he is described as a blonde Satan (Hammett 391). Because of this our first instinct is to be skeptical of his character. When we first see his interactions with O’Shaughnessy his behavior is very hesitant towards her. “He smiled without separating his lips. All the V’s in his face looked longer,” (Hammett 392). Shortly after he began to listen to the woman, who was pleading with him to bring home her little sister. Although seeming sympathetic with O’Shaughnessy we learn shortly after she leaves that he does not believe her story. Despite not rusting or believing her Spade takes her cause because he is provided with a large sum of money. In chapter two Spade’s character is truly …show more content…

We see that he only pts down his guard once, which is the moment he sleeps with O’Shaughnessy. Even then the following morning he quickly retreated into his untrusting nature and once again showing that he does not trust her. “He searched the place wall to wall” (Hammett 468). By the end of the novel we see a relationship grow between the two, some would even say that they love each other. Even with the relationship growing we see that Spade does not give up on searching for Archer’s killer. “When a man’s partner is killed he’s supposed to do something about it” (Hammett 581). Because of this we see that he is distracted and he cannot truly focus on love. By the final chapter we learn that the killer is in fact Brigid

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