The Maltese Falcon

Brigid O’Shaughnessy is introduced as Miss Wonderly and Miss Leblanc before her true identity is revealed. She initially presents as being overwhelmed, abashed, naïve, and innocent, but it is difficult for Spade to pin down her personality, characteristics, and motivations, as she is adept at performing whatever role she feels will give her the upper hand in a situation. This, combined with her beauty and propensity for manipulating men, mark her as a femme fatale—a female character archetype that uses her desirability and charm to achieve her goals and often causes the demise of the male characters that fall into her trap. The archetype is fraught with sexist depictions of women as dangerous and manipulative and its use often serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of female sexuality and liberation. More modern discourses about the archetype have also highlighted the ways in which the femme fatale can be empowering for women as a reclamation of female power. Femme fatales use the tools available to them to navigate a patriarchal society that is hostile toward their inclusion. They act with agency and purpose and their overt sexuality can be a response to oppressive social norms.

Brigid O’Shaughnessy is cunning and resourceful and finds her way out of the many corners she is backed into. She is respected and feared by Gutman and Cairo, and Spade immediately recognizes the threat she poses. She also demonstrates a significant amount of agency, especially when compared to the other female characters in the novel. This is particularly frustrating to Spade, who always wants to be in control and is used to women doing whatever he says, like Effie, or acting in predictable ways, like Iva. However, despite these positives, the ending leaves O’Shaughnessy difficult to read as a wholly empowering depiction of the femme fatale. Her arrest does not allow her to succeed in the world of justice Spade insists on upholding, therefore limiting her power and reinforcing the sexist and patriarchal ideals of the male character.

Joel Cairo is one of the men searching for the falcon. His allegiances change numerous times throughout the novel, and much like Wilmer, his main purpose is to complexity to the mystery as another interested party with ambiguous motivations. As a foil to Spade’s masculinity, his clothes and mannerisms are effeminate. He wears tighter-fitting clothes, his appearance is well manicured, he wears perfume, and he walks with “short, mincing, bobbing steps” (49). Immediately after his introduction, he pulls a gun on Spade and tries to search his office. However, Spade quickly and easily disarms him. He is the most disloyal character and the object of much vitriol as the narrator and the characters in the novel display xenophobic and homophobic attitudes toward him. The novel uses his effeminate manner, his foreign background, and his suggested homosexuality as markers of his deviance and villainy, and Spade employs homophobic slurs on numerous occasions when referring to Cairo. Cairo’s presence threatens the masculinity on which Spade situates his own identity, and he receives abuse because of it. Spade’s treatment of Cairo’s origin and appearance reinforce the time period’s widely held prejudices against immigrants and individuals of the LGBTQ+ community.

Casper Gutman begins the novel as the mysterious “G” covertly alluded to by O’Shaughnessy and Cairo. He adds another question to the unfolding mystery and provides a sense of conspiracy through the implication that there is a powerful figure above them whom they fear and are trying to evade. When he is introduced, the narrator underscores his overweight size and repeatedly notes how his body jiggles anytime he speaks or moves, employing the harmful fat phobic descriptions to reflect his greed and immorality. Likewise, his clothing and hotel suite denote his immense wealth. Gutman speaks in a very erudite manner, but despite his verbosity, says very little of substance. Moreover, while he is very knowledgeable about the history of the falcon, he eventually reveals that he attained that knowledge by torturing the man who did the research and intellectual labor to discover it, illustrating his willingness to harm if it allows him to acquire the falcon. Toward the end of the novel, when he believes the falcon is finally within his grasp, he quickly turns on Wilmer and is willing to turn him over to the police if it means he gets to escape with the statuette. He puts up a feeble act that Wilmer is like a son to him, and he could never turn on him, but it turns out to be all show and no substance. Gutman is villainized like other characters in the novel for existing outside societal norms and expectations of the time period. His body and weight are synonymized with villainous qualities that serve to outline Gutman as a person the reader should disgust, demonstrating the time’s stereotypes and beliefs regarding body types.

Effie Perine is Spade’s reliable, upbeat, supportive secretary. She does anything that Spade asks of her with no questions asked—evident in her willingness to stay at the office overnight, fulfill errands for him even in her off-hours, and take in Brigid O’Shaughnessy when they believe she is in danger. She also routinely forgives Spade after he loses his temper and takes his frustrations out on her. These characteristics make her the one source of trust and stability that Spade has in the otherwise deceitful and chaotic world of being a private detective in a morally corrupt city. Effie is described as having a “boyish” face, and it is clear throughout that Spade does not find her sexually desirable in the way he does Iva and O’Shaughnessy. Instead, she provides a different yet equally traditional model of femininity. In her lack of agency, she fulfills a mother/sister role for Spade: She takes care of him physically and emotionally, and because he doesn’t keep her at a distance the way he does with everyone else, she appears to understand him in a way that other characters do not. Effie’s character serves to pigeonhole the female-character categorizations further, as she serves as the yes-woman to Spade’s demands. She endures physical assault and emotional abuse without complaint yet is rendered physically unattractive at the same time. This dynamic illustrates the confines with which women were to work within society’s stereotypes at the time; if not a dangerous femme fatale, a woman was a secretary to obey and abide by the male character’s commands within the hardboiled genre.