If both Wilmer & Brigid are "psychopaths," also calling
them "evil" makes for a confusing mixture of scientific &
religious narrative styles. Which is it? R
----- Original Message ---- From: Patrick King <
abrasax93@yahoo.com> To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, October 6,
2007 5:12:10 PM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Cain and
Hammett
--- Raymond Tait <raymond.tait@ cai.cam.ac. uk>
wrote:
> I would say if you are making a case for The
Maltese
> Falcon as a noir
> novel then Brigid is the character to focus
on
> rather than Sam Spade.
> If Spade was a true noir character he would
have
> gone down with her somehow.
I can't see Brigid as a tragic noir villianess like
Cora, for example. Brigid is pathologically
manipulative with no redeeming virtues except her
beauty. Spade knows this when he meets her. Brigid
fools no one except perhaps Thursby, Miles Archer and
Captain Jacoby. The rest of the important males in the
book are sociopaths with homosexual tendencies and are
not moved by Brigid at all. Spade understand all too
well how these types of criminals think. One wonders
where he learned it, as their pathology is very
complex and involved. Guttman even warns Spade that
Brigid is dangerous. In the movie at least you can see
that Bogart's Spade is being sarcastic when he
acknowledges Guttman's warning. He knows how crazy she
is. This fact undermines even his fondness for Effie
and his willingness to use her to his own ends. Note
he sends this psycho to stay with his secretary AND
her invalid mother, knowing full well that she's a
dangerous person being followed by dangerous people.
But note also, while Wilma killed Jacoby, it was
Brigid who killed Miles & Thursby. You can argue
that
in Wilma's mind it was necessary to kill Jacoby to
reclaim the Falcon. But there was no reason at all for
Brigid to murder either Miles or Thursby. It was a
crazy thing to do. On the scale of most evil, Wilma is
about a 7, psychopath who kills for profit at the
behest of a superior, while Brigid O'Shannassey is at
16, psychopath who kills for no reason.
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