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The Big Sleep Gender Roles

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Both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, The Sign of the Four, and Raymond Chandler’s, The Big Sleep, depict women as passive characters with little agency. Doyle’s novel, introduces character Mary Morstan as a small, “dainty, young lady”, with a “sweet and amiable” expression. The sole purpose of Mary Morstan’s character, is to act as a love interest to Holmes’ sidekick, Watson. Watson endures the conflict of finding a way around his and Mary’s social and financial differences. This romance between Watson, and Mary, is an important factor in the storyline, further developing Watson as a character. Raymond Chandler choose to introduce the female characters in his novel different than Doyle. Carmen Sternwood is a lead female character in The Big Sleep, …show more content…

Although Mary is a female character, and female characters are often subordinate to male characters in the majority of literature, it is evident that Mary’s social class allows her to have power. At the time, social class, and wealth, was the highest indication of power and prestige. Watson feels that since Mary comes from a very different class ranking, it would be disrespectful to try and start a relationship with her. Watson states, “…Worse still, she was rich. If Holmes’s researches were successful, she would be an heiress. Was it fair, was it honorable, that a half-pay surgeon should take such advantage of an intimacy which chance had brought about? Might she not look upon me as a mere vulgar fortune-seeker? I could not bear to risk that such a thought should cross her mind. This Agra treasure intervened like an impassable barrier between us” (146). Mary’s social class and wealth intimidates Watson, and makes him feel beneath her. The mere fact that Mary comes from a family of wealth and affluence creates the only sense of power Mary obtains. If Mary were to be a female character, not coming from a family of prosperity, it is likely that she would not be recognized as valuable. Mary has little agency or free choice throughout the novel, because of the way she is represented and portrayed. Mary does not have much to contribute as a character in her own capacity. The only mentions of Mary’s character are relating to her physical beauty and appearance, or her social and economic status relative to

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She resists conforming to societal norms and wants to live a free spirited life with no requirements. Moreover, Mary is unwilling to follow through with her priorities and is upset about

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“To render [make] mankind more virtuous, and happier of course, both sexes must act from the same principle,... For they are now made so inferior by ignorance and low desires, as not to deserve to be ranked with them…” Mary believed that if men and women were given the same education as men and also treated the same, women would be just as superior as men. Although, she did think this was a very difficult argument because women are ranked so

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Mary is part of the courts and seems to use this to manipulate her employer, Mr. Proctor. Her first act of defiance was when she told him that he could not order her to bed, give her whippings, or stop her from going to court proceedings (Miller, pg. 59). It is not certain if she knew the intent of Abigail to use the poppet to condemn Elizabeth Proctor. However, when she asked by Mr. Proctor to tell the truth about the poppet, she adamantly says that she cannot because she fears the girls will turn on her. When she does have a change of heart and is put in front of the courts, she shows her weak side and you can see her confidence wane.

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Part of the reason Mary is not mentioned is that nearly all of these chapters are from the children’s perspectives, and they never knew their maternal grandmother. It surprised me how little she showed up in Hattie’s narrative though; her mother is who she most likely would have spent her time with, and how her mother raised her would have a great impact on how Hattie raised her own children. Mary’s story might seem pointless: Hattie is only briefly mentioned, the story mainly focusses on meeting Hattie’s father (John) and her relationship with her father. However, I feel it is very in line with how the rest of the book goes. Mary develops these beautiful, complex

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Mary Warren represents how women are viewed as weak. Mary Warren is depicted as weak in the sense that she is easily manipulated and cannot

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In The Sign of the Four, the female character is miss Mary Morstan who is introduced as the classic woman of the late 19th century. Miss Morstan is a pale, quiet, blonde that is dressed in nice clothes. At first, she is timid as shown by the fact that her father disappeared years ago, and she is just now coming forward with the case but as the book goes on, you can see the change in her personality and the role she plays. Not only does she take initiative by bringing the case to Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson but she then decides that she is going to be involved in solving the case which was very unlikely for a woman to do in the Victorian era because women were still viewed as more fragile and not as smart as men.

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