The Continental Op

Character Analysis

Our narrator, the nameless Continental Op, is a man shrouded in mystery. He hails from San Francisco and works for the Continental Detective Agency as a private eye investigator, sure, but that's just about all we know.

He rarely lets us see into his inner feelings and we discover little, if anything, about his personal background, his likes and dislikes. We wish he'd agree to fill out a Q&A so we could get to know him better, but we're a bit scared to ask him. Keep reading to see why.

The Tough Guy

The Op is the quintessential tough guy. He doesn't let people push him around, and he's not afraid to bully others to get what he wants. He's described as middle-aged, slightly overweight and on the short side. He doesn't exactly cut a fetching figure. But he gets it done—and that's what matters.

When he first arrives in Personville, he finds that his client Donald Willsson has been brutally murdered. The Op decides to take on not only the investigation of Donald's death, but also the dirty task of cleaning up Personville. No one is forcing him to do this, but his personal code of ethics compels him to dig to the bottom of the corruption. His master plan is to set the four local factions (Pete, Lew, Noonan, and Whisper) each against one another, and to let them fight out their own battles until they eventually kill each other off. Good idea?

It seems like a logical enough plan on paper, but in practice, something goes awry. As bodies start to pile up, the Op finds himself enjoying the killing. He confesses to Dinah that he's going "blood simple," that he's having fun "juggling death and destruction."

If you think it sounds like the Op starts becoming less like the crime-fighting detective, and more like one of the bloodthirsty gangsters, well, you're not wrong. See, he wants to believe that the end justifies the means, that he's on the good side because he's trying to destroy the bad guys. But the violence and deception that the Op is forced to use in the name of justice makes us question where his morals truly lie.

The Murder Suspect

Events spiral quickly out of the Op's control when he wakes up one morning to find that Dinah has been murdered, and he's the one holding the murder weapon.

Uh oh.

The tables have been turned now as the Op goes from the being the hunter to the hunted. At this dramatic moment of crisis, we would expect to hear panic or fear in the Op's voice. But he keeps his cool distance even more than ever before, refusing to let us into his inner thoughts and feelings. Instead, his reaction to Dinah's death is one of detachment. He reports his actions in this scene with complete objectivity. His description is clear, specific, and factual:

In the dining room again, I knelt beside the dead girl and used my handkerchief to wipe the ice pick handle clean of any prints my fingers had left on it. I did the same to glasses, bottles, doors, light buttons, and the pieces of furniture I had touched, or was likely to have touched.

Then I washed my hands, examined my clothes for blood, made sure I was leaving none of my property behind, and went to the front door. I opened it, wiped the inner knob, closed it behind me, wiped the outer knob, and went away. (21.23)

Ah, check out that straightforward, hardboiled style that Hammett is known for. The sentences are simple and unembellished, yet at the same time, vivid and immediate. The Op's apparent lack of emotion could be read as an attempt to mask his pain, but he is so methodical in the process of wiping away his fingerprints that it seems more likely that his detachment is genuine. Dude's got a job to do.

We must say, though, that Hammett seems critical of the Op's failure to feel any sadness or guilt over Dinah's death. Not only does the Op violate his code when he begins to enjoy the killings, but what Hammett finds even more dangerous is the code itself. The Op's code is to solve the crime or perform his job, whatever it takes. That's what allows him to rationalize his actions by saying that the end justifies the means, but at the same time, the Op is also erasing any moral responsibilities from his actions and decisions. It's a slippery slope.

The Professional

Through a series of fortunate events, the Op is able to track down the actual murderer of Dinah. Phew, right? And as a bonus, in the process, the last remaining gangsters kill themselves off and Personville is finally free of the corrupt factions fighting for control.

But the Op that leaves Poisonville is more of an antihero.

This business-like attitude towards his job emphasizes his professionalism. The Op is first and foremost part of an organization (the fact that he's never given a name also underlines the fact that he works for an Agency). If we were to ask the Op whether he feels responsible for the deaths of over two dozen people, he would answer that he was merely doing his job. Hammett seems to be questioning whether being dedicated to your job is enough to except you from moral blame.