The Femme False In Hammett's The Maltese Falcon

The femme fatale can be described as an irresistibly attractive woman, often the love interest of the protagonist, who uses her sexuality as means to acquire what she wants and fulfil her own desires. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character, Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia appears to be a prototype for this femme fatale figure which has become a feature in almost all texts of the Noir fiction world. The traits of the femme fatale are evident largely in the physical appearance of the women, the way they act and their function as a plot device. Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon provides an excellent example of the role of the femme fatale in noir detective fiction.

The socio-historic context of both texts offers certain parallels in how
the femme fatale came to be seen as a valid characterisation of women in detective fiction. Victorian England, when Doyle wrote, was a patriarchal society where women could be loosely relegated to two groups: either ‘decent’ women who lived at home under the protection of men, or ‘bad’ women who were immoral. Doyle created Adler as an American in order to evade these categories. Adler is also an opera singer, which allows her to behave unconventionally. Holmes regarded her as an ‘equal’ with the mind and intellect of a man, and he was able to see her as outside the conventions of Victorian society. Hammett’s world of 1929 America is more complex, with new attitudes of opportunity and post-war euphoria. Prohibition and the Great Depression added an air of gloom. Brigid therefore is justified in being an opportunist.

Adler can be seen as the prototype of the femme fatale in that she was intellectually Holmes’s equal. Unlike the typical Victorian Lady, with an idea of individuality and control over her own life, She is able to be different to the stereotypical women of the time and area. Adler is able to do so primarily because she is of American origin, giving her this flexibility in not having to be part of the norm. Unlike most women of her time: Irene Adler, as well as being a witty criminal was also an opera singer, leaving the house much more frequently than others who seldom went out. Conan Doyle in his text introduces this feminine foil to his detective, an idea present in all texts of the noir fiction genre. He paints Irene Adler as intellectually to Holmes, if not superior in that she was able to outsmart the great detective. This notion of outsmarting and manipulating the protagonist is evident in Doyle’ writing and is further developed in The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and other noir fiction novels.

Doyle’s female spy was able to achieve her victory without relying on sexual wiles, but this aspect is developed in Hammett’s femme fatale.
Adler had "the face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men," and as said by Holmes, "she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for." Doyle has clearly constructed a character of beauty and intelligence which would appear to be a suitable prototype of the noir fiction’s femme fatale who uses these attributes as a means to get what they desire. In The Maltese Falcon, Brigid O’Shaunessy is described as “tall and pliantly slender, without any angularity anywhere. Her was erect and high-breasted, her legs long, her hands and feet narrow…white teeth glistened,” Hammett creates this character of which is clearly beautiful and desirable by any man thus the clearly perfect character for a femme fatale who would be able to use her sexuality to manipulate men. Acting as an innocent damsel in distress she is able to deceive Sam Spade to an extent as he is incapable of looking past her beauty or her generous offers of ridiculous amounts of
money.

The development of the texts towards the resolutions again shows a great depth into the building of the femme fatale.
In The Maltese Falcon, the treacherous Miss O’Shaunessy meets the protagonist, Sam Spade who she convinces into helping her find the falcon. This femme fatale tries to trick and manipulate the protagonist into attaining this prized falcon filled with jewels and succeeds getting him to find the falcon, only for it to be a fake. Similarly in A Scandal in Bohemia, Irene Adler had gotten close to the King of which she had gathered a photograph of them together, along with his private note paper and royal seal. For with these, this prototype of the cunning femme fatale had the capability to blackmail the king. Through this, she is able to force the king to submit payments of some sort to stop her from sending the photograph. The femme fatales of Noir Fiction evidently appear to be cunning and deceiving individuals of which is clearly developing in the early portrayal of Irene Adler in Doyle’s
text.

It is evident that the looks of the femme fatales are a huge factor in their ways as they rely heavily on their sexuality and beauty to use men as a means to attain what they wish as seen starting to develop in Adler. However the greatest trait of the femme fatale which is evident in this prototype is the femme fatale’s ability to deceive men and manipulate them to carry out what they wish through numerous methods. It is obvious that Doyle has constructed Adler in what appears to be a prototype for this femme fatale figure which plays a substantial role in all noir fiction texts. Although Adler doesn’t use her sexuality as the generic femme fatale of noir fiction does, her intelligence and deceptiveness makes her just as dangerous.