The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell HammettFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1930

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “Spade & Archer”

Content Warning: This guide discusses situations of violence, murder, antigay bias, fat phobia, sexism, and xenophobia that appear within the novel.

Private detective Sam Spade is in his office when his secretary, Effie Perine, informs him that a potential client is waiting to see him. The client is a timid, soft-spoken, attractive young woman named Miss Wonderly. Initially, she is unsure of where to start, but Spade’s calm confidence puts her at ease, and she explains her situation from the beginning. She is from New York and in San Francisco because her 17-year-old sister, Corinne, has run away from home with an older man named Floyd Thursby. Their parents will be home from Europe in two weeks, and she wants to bring Corinne home before they arrive. After failing to contact her sister, she has arranged a meeting with Thursby at her hotel that night. While she is reluctant to outright say it, it is implied that Corrine is pregnant and that it is impossible to cover it up, because Thursby is already married and has a family in England. Spade and his partner, Miles Archer, agree to help Wonderly and devise a plan to tail Thursby and find Corrine after their meeting that night. Wonderly warns them that Thursby is dangerous and pays them $200 to handle it themselves, rather than hiring another man. They promise that Archer will handle it personally.

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After Wonderly leaves, Archer mentions seeing even more money in her purse. Spade asks Archer what he thinks of her, finding her story suspicious, but Archer misunderstands and instead claims dibs on her. Spade then warns him that she is dangerous and mocks him for being foolish.

Chapter 2 Summary: “Death in the Fog”

Spade is awoken in the middle of the night by a phone call informing him that someone has been murdered. After carefully rolling and smoking a cigarette, he phones for a cab, gets dressed, and heads to the crime scene. The night is clammy and foggy, and he’s met at the crime scene by policeman Tom Polhaus, who is examining the body of his dead partner, Miles Archer. Polhaus shows him the revolver they believe to be the murder weapon and explains how the body was discovered and their theory of what happened. Spade tells Polhaus that Archer was tailing a man named Floyd Thursby but won’t reveal who hired them to do it. Spade remains emotionally detached throughout the conversation and declines an invitation to examine the body himself.

Spade leaves the crime scene, stating that he needs to inform Archer’s wife, Iva, of his death. However, instead of doing it himself, he phones Effie and asks her to do it. He also instructs her to keep Iva away from him for the time being. When Spade arrives home, he pours himself a drink and rolls another cigarette. A few drinks later, he is interrupted by Polhaus and Lieutenant Dundy knocking on his door. Spade pours them drinks too, and they open by asking about how Iva took the news. They also ask to see his gun. Spade claims he doesn’t carry a gun and is angered by their suspicion. Dundy reveals that shortly after Spade left the crime scene, Thursby was killed and that they know he didn’t go to see Iva because they ran into Effie when they went there themselves. Dundy suggests this means Spade would have had more than enough time to track down Thursby and shoot him and demands more information about Spade’s client. Spade not only refuses but begins to mock and antagonize them. Tom tries to keep the peace, but Dundy does not back down and continues to question Spade. They eventually give Spade details about Thursby’s murder, and he continues to claim he knows nothing about it. Before leaving, Dundy states that, while he wouldn’t blame Spade for avenging his partner, that won’t stop him from nailing him if he did.

Chapter 3 Summary: “Three Women”

The next morning, when Spade arrives at his office, Iva is there waiting for him. She embraces him and they kiss. He is clearly annoyed she is there, but he does his best to hide it while comforting her. Iva asks if he killed Archer so that they could be together, but Spade mocks her for having that idea. Before sending her away, they kiss again, and Iva asks if he’ll come to see her later that night. He declines but tells her he’ll see her again as soon as he can. Once she is gone, he tells Effie that Iva thinks he shot Archer, and the police think he shot Thursby. He laments ever getting romantically involved with Iva and claims to not know how to interact with women, at which Effie scoffs. Effie reveals that Iva had only just gotten home the previous night when she dropped by to deliver the news about Archer and suggests that maybe Iva killed him. Spade rejects the idea but is impressed by her investigative instincts and is interested to learn Iva had been out that night.

Later, Spade goes to Miss Wonderly’s hotel to see if she is there, but learns she checked out that morning. When he returns to his office, Effie informs him that Lieutenant Dundy dropped by wanting to see his guns, and that Miss Wonderly called wanting to see him. She left an address and new name—Miss Leblanc—which Effie wrote down for Spade. After reading the name and address, Spade takes out his lighter and burns the paper.

Chapter 4 Summary: “The Black Bird”

Spade goes to see Miss Wonderly in her new apartment to discuss everything that has happened. She claims she needs Spade to save her and that she has not lived a good life, and confesses that her real name is Brigid O’Shaughnessy and that she made up the story about her sister. Spade acknowledges he already suspected this because of how much money she offered them for the job. He doesn’t believe she is as helpless as she presents and calls her dangerous. He presses her for more information, but she resists giving him any details about why she is in trouble. Eventually, she explains that she met Thursby in Hong Kong and that he promised to help her. He was dangerous and always carried guns, and given that she feared for her life, he provided the protection she needed. However, when they arrived in America, he turned on her, and that’s why she wanted him tailed. She also assures Spade that Thursby killed Archer. Her unwillingness to explain why her life is in danger frustrates Spade and he goes to leave, but when she still won’t tell him anything more, he stays. He asks how much money she has and takes all of it as payment to help. O’Shaughnessy protests that she needs some to live on, so he leaves her $25 out of the $700 he takes.

Back at his office, Effie warns Spade that she’ll never forgive him if he takes financial advantage of O'Shaughnessy and her situation. While they talk, a man named Joel Cairo comes into the office to see Spade. He asks if the murders of Archer and Thursby are connected and tells Spade that he is looking for a statuette of a black bird. He offers Spade $5,000 for the bird's recovery, with no questions asked. Effie interrupts to inform Spade she is leaving for the night, and once she is gone, Cairo pulls a gun on Spade.

Chapter 5 Summary: “The Levantine”

Spade remains calm with his hands behind his head while Cairo frisks him to make sure he isn’t armed. As Cairo lifts Spade’s coattail to look under it, Spade elbows him on top of the head and knocks the gun out of his hand. Once Cairo is unarmed, Spade punches him in the face, knocking him out. He searches through Cairo’s possessions and finds $365, a Greek passport, a newspaper clipping about the murders, and a ticket to the orchestra for later that night.

When he wakes, Cairo insists he is still willing to pay the $5,000 for the bird statuette but refuses to reveal whom it belongs to or whom he is working for. Spade is skeptical that Cairo has $5,000 but accepts a $200 retainer to start looking for the bird. Spade returns Cairo’s things, including the gun, and Cairo quickly turns it on him again and proceeds with the search he originally intended to complete.

Chapters 1-5 Analysis

The opening chapters of The Maltese Falcon establish Spade as an antihero. The novel begins with a physical description of Spade that culminates with the suggestion that he looks “rather pleasantly like a blond satan” (5). This juxtaposed contradiction—that he looks like satan, yet it is somehow pleasant—foregrounds the tension at the core of antiheroes: They remain likeable despite characteristics and actions that would normally preclude these feelings in the reader. These early chapters provide ample evidence of Spade acting immorally, underscoring the novel’s theme of Disregarding Authority. First, he is unfazed by Archer’s death and is later revealed to be having an affair with his wife, Iva. Later, he refuses to cooperate with the police and actively antagonizes them. Finally, after hearing O'Shaughnessy's story and her plea for help, he takes advantage of her plight and takes nearly all of her money as payment. However, Spade’s confidence in the face of danger and uncertainty and his unwavering conviction to follow his instincts make him appealing despite his immorality.

Spade’s appeal as an antihero is also aided by the moral ambiguity of the world around him. The night he goes to see Archer’s body, the city is veiled in a night fog that is described as so clammy and penetrant that it blurs the streets, evoking a sense of mistrust and concealment. The setting’s description mirrors Spade’s journey to the heart of the investigation and provides a metaphor for The Evasiveness of Truth. As he makes his way through the streets, buildings, and back alleys of San Francisco, they often feel labyrinthian in their construction, adding another layer for both Spade and the reader to navigate while trying to discern the truth. Likewise, Hammett’s use of third-person objective narration provides no insight into the characters’ inner thoughts and feelings. This lack of interiority forces interpretations that are based on physical descriptions, actions, and speech as the reader and Spade attempt to parse the disorienting web of lies, deceit, and misdirection, creating a sense of cohesion between form and content.

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The Maltese Falcon is also very interested in definitions of masculinity and femininity. From the outset, Spade is depicted as the time’s idealized form of traditional masculinity: He is emotionally detached and acts rationally, he is sexually desirable to women, he has unyielding self-confidence and defers to no one (including institutional authorities), and he is physically strong and imposing. These features become even more pronounced when contrasted with the effeminate Joel Cairo. Cairo is described as “small-boned” and neatly manicured. He wears tight-fitting clothes, jewelry, and fragrant perfume. His hands are “soft and well cared for” and he moves with “short, mincing, bobbing steps” (48-49). Cairo’s appearance and manner goes against masculine expectations and are meant to signify his homosexuality. Along with his foreignness, this is also meant to imply that he is unsavory and untrustworthy, employing the harmful trope of using Otherness to denote deviance and establish villainy. Hammett’s characterization of Cairo demonstrates a recurring motif of the novel: Those who do not fit into a narrow range of cultural, gender, or sexual identity are treated with hostility and violence. Spade is not fazed when Cairo pulls a gun on him, and he coolly and calmly waits for the opportunity to disarm him, symbolizing further emasculation. Spade’s capacity for and proficiency in performing violence is another marker of his masculinity and establishes his dominance over characters like Cairo throughout the novel.

While the novel generally presents this bias without critique, its depiction of women is more complex: On the surface, Iva, Effie, and O’Shaughnessy all reflect different one-dimensional sides of 1930s femininity. When Spade laments ever laying eyes on Iva because of the trouble she might cause, Effie responds that “[she’d] be a louse too if it would give [her] a body like hers” (32). Beyond her objectified body, the only other characteristic that defines Iva is her impulsivity and inability to control her emotions. O’Shaughnessy, introduced as Wonderly, fills another side of femininity with her damsel-in-distress act. The fake story she feeds Spade and Archer facilitates this persona in that she acts innocent, naïve, and embarrassed that she cannot even say what happened outright and forces Spade to fill in the gaps. However, Spade sees through this act, which ultimately positions O’Shaughnessy as a temptress—a woman who uses her sexuality to prey on men—rather than a damsel in distress. The novel presents this from Spade’s perspective—he learns who she really is—without interrogating O’Shaughnessy’s own performance of gender expectations. Effie, on the other hand, is portrayed as the most trusting female in the novel and has the most meaningful relationship with Spade as a result. However, she too fits into one-dimensional stereotypes, as she exists to mother Spade. She takes care of him physically and emotionally, and also endures his hurtful outbursts when he is frustrated and mistreats her. She is also physically the least feminine of the three. She is described as having a boyish face, which ultimately suggests the reason her relationship with Spade is different than the other women is because he doesn’t see her as sexually desirable. The treatment of women serves to highlight the contemporary expectations of women and their siloed labels within society. They are either a “louse,” a damsel in distress, innocent, or boyish—all descriptors that reduce their characters to the purview of the way Spade, the male counterpart, views them. Instead of women with their own agency, the novel emphasizes patriarchal norms of the time and treats them as vehicles for the narrative’s theme of Greed and Loyalty.