I won’t
rehash the last four characters with their destructive chain of events. But the
other major (and one minor) character deserve the same treatment, and they are
every bit (if not more) the noir characters as those of Sam Spade’s supporting
cast.
Carmen Sternwood
Carmen
Sternwood should be a poster-child for self-destructive behavior. She does
drugs, sleeps around, gambles, and, oh yeah, murders people when they reject
her. She doesn’t seem to have the capacity for any kind of serious thought,
simply lets her life flit around so long as she has a good time. There’s an
inherent cruelty about her. It would be easy to explain this away with her fits
and what must be severe bipolar disorder, but she never shows any kind of
remorse. This makes her sociopathic. She killed Rusty, would have killed Joe
Brody, and did her best to kill Marlowe. Plus, you know, the other stuff. And
yet Vivian excused this behavior.
Vivian Regan
Carmen’s
older sister, she initially comes off as something of an ice queen and tease,
but by the end of the book she is a truly sympathetic character. It can be
argued that she is moral. She wanted to spare her father from knowing that
Carmen killed Rusty. But while this is compassionate, it isn’t truly moral. She
gets into debt with Eddie Mars and continues to cover up Carmen’s crimes. She
completely perverts the idea of justice all so her father can continue with the
delusion that his daughters aren’t maniacs. There is something noble and
honorable about her self-sacrifice, but it ultimately causes more harm than
good, and would ultimately lead to her destruction as well as Carmen’s.
Eddie Mars
The big
muscle and brains behind all ne’er-do-wells in the book, Eddie is something of
a gentleman—yet still ruthless—gangster. He knows when to be soft and
reasonable around people, and when to put the screws to them. He extorts Vivian
for everything she’s got (including her dignity) to cover up Carmen’s crime,
and has no problem eliminating anyone remotely connected to Geiger in order to
keep the police out of the affair, especially Eddie’s involvement in it. While
he doesn’t meet an end, he is clearly morally bankrupt, though operates by some
kind of code as he feels the need to repay Marlowe’s discretion.
Lash Canino
Eddie’s
muscle, he’s an unrepentant hitman who takes too much pleasure from his work.
His choices and line of work made it inevitable he would die as someone would
finally be quicker or craftier with a gun than he was.
Harry Jones
Harry is,
for me, one of the most interesting characters in the book. Little seen, he
represents something of enormous importance. He first makes his entrance by
ineptly tailing Marlowe, and after introducing himself he shows that he has
little skill for the criminal game by asking Marlowe for money in exchange for
information. What’s important, however, is why he’s doing it. He wants to get
out of town with his girl, Agnes Lozelle. Agnes worked for Geiger at his porn
library, and before Harry she was the girl of Joe Brody. Now they both want to
blow town. But Harry is remarkable for doing something unseen in this book. He
is the knight that Marlowe describes in both the chess game and the stained
glass window. He sacrifices his own life for Agnes.
It’s a
small thing, and perhaps it’s a tiny act of rebellion, but Jones attempts to
misdirect Lash Canino from Agnes’s true location, protecting her, despite the
torture Canino inflicts on him. He acts with true morality in the face of an
evil man, knowing he’ll get nothing out of it in return. And even in his
dealings with Marlowe he was honest and upfront. Marlowe tricked—quite
easily—information out of Joe Brody, but Harry spoke truth, though limited
truth because he didn’t know everything. And he wasn’t motivated out of greed,
power, or even lust. He wanted to do right by Agnes and protect her. To him,
that was important, it was what a man did.
It’s what
knights were supposed to do.
Unfortunately
for poor Harry, he didn’t know about Marlowe’s chess game. He didn’t know how
ineffective knights were.
And he died
because of it.
I think I
have it now. Harry was the last piece of the puzzle. Tune in for the wrap up.