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Samuel Spade In Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon

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The protagonist of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Samuel Spade, is a very mysterious man; one who trusts only himself. He solves the problems he encounters alone, and without the help of authority. To him, both the laws and ideas of morality get in the way of his work as a detective. This leads to assumptions that, as a person, he is immoral, to the extent that he is considered similar to the devil. There are comparisons between him and the devil throughout the novel - The author goes out of his way to refer to Spade as a “blonde Satan”(3). Spade’s goal is to outsmart those around him and to emerge winning in the competition of intelligence between him and Gutman, the main antagonist of the book. Even Brigid O 'Shaughnessy, Spade’s potential love interest, is caught in the middle of this “game”, causing both her and Spade to have problems. He likes to manipulate people, tricking them into telling him information so that he can proceed with his schemes. Spade, as a character, was written to confuse the reader, given his difficult to understand personality. As a character that operates on his own strict moral code, it …show more content…

His need to win drives him more than love or any other emotion. That drive could be mistaken as detachment from emotions because of how strong it is. It became obvious when he gave up Brigid, Gutman, Cairo and Wilmer to the police in order to save himself, after he had told Gutman he wouldn’t that he has a great self interest. A characteristic that some force of evil may be portrayed as. Spade gives the impression that he thinks he knows everything and owns the world. “ ‘I know what I’m talking about,’ he said in a low, consciously patient, tone. ‘This is my city and my game.’” (177) The word game is also brought up again representing that his drive to win is overall a major part of his

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Athanasourelis’s article depicts Sam Spade’s individuality through his actions leading up to Brigid O’Shaughnessy’s conviction. Sam’s initial intentions are to help Brigid avoid the police. Upon coming to the conclusion that Brigid is the only suspect in the murder of Archer, Sam knows he has to turn her into the authorities. The article discusses that although it may seem as if Sam is acting justly, he is truly just turning Brigid in to avoid his own persecution for the crimes others committed. Hammett establishes Sam’s morals frequently throughout the novel by further describing his character as a “hard-boiled detective”.

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Spade keeps his circle small even from his own partner in crime, showing a sense of maturity and self reliance. In order to gain Spade’s trust, the subject of money would always have to be brought up. “"We believed your two hundred dollars." "You mean –?" She seemed to not know what he meant.

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