Brigid O Shaughnessy From The Maltese Falcon

The character I chose to analyze on is Brigid O’Shaughnessy from the Maltese Falcon novel. Brigid is the main female character and her part in the story she is caught up in a murder mystery of a private investigator Miles Archer and the search for a priceless artifact known as the Maltese Falcon. Brigid went to Spade and Archer’s office under the name of Miss. Wonderly. She convinces Archer to track her boyfriend Thursby in the belief that Thursby is cheating on her, but Spade on the other hand does not believe her but he still sort of apply through her demands because he “believe her money”. After Archer’s death Brigid turns to the main protagonist Sam Spade, as there are evil and murderous men in town and they could kill her for a priceless artifact called the Maltese Falcon. However, it turns out that Brigid is a

manipulative and calculating femme fatal since Spade discover that Brigid is the one that murdered Archer as she used her looks and Archer’s weakness for her beauty and wealth to able to get close to Archer and then killed him.
One day Brigid (going the name as Miss Wonderly) visits the main character’s Sam Space and his partner Miles Archer’s private investigators office, as the two are private investigators. She hires them to follow a man named Floyd Thursby and Archer is willing to do it than Spade since Brigid is pay them good money. Brigid tells them that she believes that Thursby is cheating on her and could run away with his “mistress”. While Miles is on Brigid’s assignment, an unknown assailant shoots and kills Archer point blank range. First the police thought Thrusby was Archer’s murderer, but Thursby was also killed on the same night so there is no possibility that Thursby could be the murderer. The police and Archer’s wife suspect that Spade is the murderer but they do not have solid proof that he did it to take him to court. Most of the time Brigid spends time warming up to Spade and become the love interest for the main character while she and Spade trying to find a rare (possibly one of a kind) and priceless artifact called the Maltese Falcon for a cunning and deceiving mob boss named Casper Gutman. In the middle of the story Brigid is on set on keeping the Maltese Falcon for herself and using the other characters to get to it by having the story on fearing that Joel Cairo could betray her for a new partner. In the end Spade discovers that Brigid is Archer’s murderer since Archer is suppose to scare Thursby out of town but when trying to scare him failed, she took one of Thursby’s guns, lured him close, and then shot him believing it would pin Thursby as the murderer. When Thursby was found murdered, she knew that Gutman must be in town so she turns to Spade for protection by romantically seducing him. Brigid pleads for Spade to not to turn her in but she killed his partner so Spade had no choice but to turn her into the police. One deduction that Brigid is the murderer is that Archer would never get close to anyone that he distrusts (such as Thursby). Since he was trusting with Brigid, she is one of the people who Archer would get that close to. According to Spade she is likely to get 20 years in jail due to her attractiveness and if the slight odds that she is hanged for murder then Spade said she would remember her.
In short Brigid is motivated by greed. Thursby is Brigid’s boyfriend but Brigid wanted to get rid of him because she did not want to split the profits of selling the Maltese Falcon. Needing to scare Thursby out of San Francisco she went to Spade and Archer to help her scare him out of town so she made up a story that she suspects that Thursby is cheating on her and he needs to tail him to see if it is true. When Archer failed to scare off Thursby, she killed Archer in the hopes it would frame Thursby for the murder by using one of his guns and the fact that Thursby already had gotten into trouble with the law before. However Brigid did not expect that Thursby would get killed by Gutman at the same night and then she knew she would be in trouble so she went to Spade for protection and wait until Captain Jacobi (who is also killed by Gutman’s men) arrive.
Neither the novel nor film explains Brigid’s background other than she has a relationship with Thursby so it is difficult what influenced to be greedy. Likely she met up with Thursby and then she become part of Gutman’s employment. Knowing that Gutman is ruthless and willing to harm anyone for money Gutman might have influenced Brigid into conning people and became ruthless herself for greed and money. Spade might have unintentionally influenced Brigid to use him since her beauty admires Spade so Brigid was able to use that to her advantage so he can manipulate Spade, however her manipulating Spade only went so far as Spade still turned her in the police.
Brigid had no justification for her actions since she killed Archer under greed and selfishness. Brigid uses people for money and uses people’s emotions (like Spade) to save herself or gain a lot of money. Like she used Archer by killing him so she would frame Thursby for the murder just for money from a priceless artifact. Would you consider someone murdering a person to gain a profit considered justified?
At first the narrator written Brigid to manipulate Spade to do everything that she wanted him to do until Spade exposed her as Archer’s murderer and then turned her in to the police.

At first Brigid looks helpless and in the need for help when coming to Spade and Archer’s office for the first time and was able to get Archer to follow Thursby without telling him about her real intentions. For the most part Spade was protective of Brigid because she used her beauty and “helpless innocent” nature. Likely Brigid would be the kind of woman could be the typical love interest and damsel in distress that needs help from the leading male character. The narrator wanted the readers to believe that this is a character in a bad situation and she needs help from Spade to protect her from Gutman. All went to plan for Brigid until Spade reveals that Brigid murdered Archer. The narrator might have the character to be judged as manipulative since she had Spade to do what ever she wanted him to do until Spade turned her into the police. It looked like Spade was manipulating her as she was manipulating him if Spade knew all along that she is the

murderer.
As a reader I thought Brigid just a beautiful young woman who needed the best help she can get. There were evil men like Gutman, Cairo, and Wilmer Cook and any one of them could have Brigid killed so going to Spade was her best bet of getting out of this situation alive. She looks like a young woman caught up in a bad situation and it could have happened to any woman who had a relationship with Thursby. Then when it is revealed that Brigid was Archer’s murderer then I judged her to be smart, manipulative, and conning as she is able to manipulate Spade for so long until he revealed that she is Archer’s murderer. Also she used her smarts to have Archer to follow Thursby and then used him as a tool to either force or frame Thursby for murder but that plan went south when Wilmer killed Thursby on the same night.
Enotes describe Brigid as “his (Spade) tall, attractive, auburn-haired, deceitful client, who first masquerades as a Miss Wonderly, then shoots Miles, double-crosses her associates, and finally attempts in vain to seduce Sam into letting her go free of a murder charge.”
The University of Buffalo describes Brigid as “claims to be 22 years old but may be older, blue eyes, dark red hair, long-legged and very beautiful. Seems to be a con artist by trade; uses everything she's got to get what she wants from people -- her sexuality with men, feminine sympathy with women”.
You may not know Brigid is deceiving because she is a woman but that is the intention of the writer. Brigid uses Spade and everyone else for her own greed and selfishness and it is all for the Maltese Falcon. However, her smarts and beauty only got her so far since she is discovered that she is the murderer by Spade and even though Spade maybe in love with her, he still turned her in to the police and could spend many years in prison if she does not executed.