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The Murderous And Receiving Brigid In The Maltese Falcon

1436 Words6 Pages

Is the leading female characters are always supporting or needing the support from the main male protagonist? Well it maybe for many female lead characters, but not for the murderous and deceiving Brigid O’Shaughnessy from Dashiell Hammett novel the Maltese Falcon. Brigid could be considered as one of those femme fatales that might be beautiful, dependent, and helpless in the outside but in the inside Brigid is evil, deceiving, and could backstab you when you are not looking. How and why Brigid may be the evil woman that Hammett’s novel made her out to be? So what happens in this story? The story is Brigid (going under the name as “Ms. Wonderly”) visits the private investigator’s office of Miles Archer and the main protagonist of the story, Sam Spade. She attempts to hire Spade and Archer to …show more content…

She is not one of those strong females that would kill for the sake of goodness like making a world a better place. Brigid murders people and backstabbing allies like Thursby and Archer for her selfish gain. There is nothing good or moral about murdering or betraying people because of greed and selfishness. Brigid never redeems herself besides her beautiful looks, but appearances only would take her so far. The only good qualities that I could describe Brigid as smart and knows her own skills and advantages to get what she wants. Confucius says on greed and immoral that “if one calls receiving a stipend from one’s lord’s “greedy” and “immoral”, then from Confucius and Mencius on down there is not a man who is moral” (6). So according to the moral philosophy of Confucius, if a man (or woman in Brigid’s case) is driving by greed then that person has no morals. This contrast to Brigid’s actions being driven by greed and selfishness as the Confucius philosophy views that acting on greed, especially acting on greed for the wrong reasons like murder, lying, cheating, and selfishness make Brigid an immoral

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