Tools of Characterization

Characterization in The Maltese Falcon

Direct Characterization

Everyone has an opinion on Sam Spade. Here is a laundry list of quotes about this complex man:

• SPADE: I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble.
• CAIRO: You always have a very smooth explanation ready.
• EFFIE: You always think you know what you're doing, but you're too slick for your own good. Someday you're going to find it out.
• GUTMAN: Well, sir, I must say you have a most violent temper. But is it an act?
• GUTMAN: You certainly are a most headstrong individual.
• GUTMAN: By gad, sir, you are a character. That you are! There's never any telling what you'll say or do next but it's bound to be something astonishing.

Some of these quotes contrast one another, like Cairo's saying that Spade always has a "smooth explanation" and Gutman's saying he has a "violent temper." But that's Spade—he's both smooth and violent. And, as Gutman says, it might all be "an act." He is like a chameleon, changing his temper to fit whomever he's talking to and trying to get what he wants.

Names

You can see Gutman's appearance coming from a mile away, not because his stomach enters a room a few seconds before he does, but because of his name—Gutman. Sam Spade is a tool, not in the insulting sense (although he is that kind of tool sometimes) but in that he is an implement to get a job done. He's a blunt instrument; he's not afraid to use brute force to reach his goal. Cairo has an exotic flair. Wilmer is a sort of pathetic name in any decade (apologies to the guy who played Fez on That '70s Show). And Brigid goes by multiple names, lending to her mysterious, manipulative femme fatale aura.

Clothing

Astute viewers will know that Brigid is going to jail at the end—and thereby infer that she's even more devious than we've been led to believe—if they pay attention to her wardrobe and her room décor. She wears chain-gang style prison stripes in one memorable scene, and her room is decorated with venetian blinds, which cast bars of light across the room. All of these images subtly make Brigid look like the criminal she really is.