The story of Dashiell Hammet’s “The Maltese Falcon” has all the elements of a classic thriller; suspense, mystery, love, murder, greed, and betrayal. All of these arise when a treasure worth millions comes within reach of a handful of stereotypical individuals who will stop at nothing to have it. Unlike stories with natural disasters or other uncontrolled outside forces influencing the story, “The Maltese Falcon” uses different stereotypical characters to develop and structure the plot in a number of ways. First an identical goal helps create the plot around the characters, as each of their different stereotypes influences their actions developing the plot as well as controlling it by placing the characters within their own boundaries and limitations. …show more content…
Finally the use of stereotypical characters helps for all the necessary elements of a classic detective story and enables the reader to relate to the characters making a more attractive story, one that will keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Many characters in the Maltese Falcon are stereotypical for the era in which the book was written; the manipulative and beautiful woman, the greedy and wealthy fat man, the young thug, the wimpy and delicate homosexual, and the determined detective.
Given that the plot of the story revolves around all of the characters working towards an identical goal, the story develops around the different characters actions driven by their extremely different personalities and stereotypes. The identical goal anchors the characters to the storyline as it continues to draw the characters back towards each other creating conflict and strife, without this goal, each character would surely drift away into separate storylines. As the goal brings the characters into contact with each other, their interactions amplify their differences. Conflict arises as a result of these interactions and even within the individuals themselves, as every character in “The Maltese Falcon” tries to outmaneuver the others and take the …show more content…
treasure. When conflicting interests collide, conflict develops and the characters take action. This is the second driving force of the plot’s development, as it enables the story the possibility to turn or branch out in more than one way. This is due to the actions each character chooses to take, which will always be influenced by their given stereotypes. For example Wilmer, the young thug, would likely choose to remove his enemies physically, through fighting or shooting them. Brigid O’Shaughnessy, the beautiful woman, disadvantaged in physical combat would be unlikely to physically fight her enemies. Her stereotypical action lies in manipulation of others, for example her use of Thursby, "You had Thursby hooked and you knew it. He was a sucker for women” (Hammet 113). The actions the characters choose to make are influenced by their stereotypes, so is the plot as each action has a consequence that affects the storyline. While the plot is very much created by the characters actions and all of the possible ways they can choose to act out, the plot is at the same time controlled within the characters own boundaries and limitations. The stereotypical characters minimize the randomness of their actions, Thursby the manipulated gunman, is an excellent example of this, “We could do nothing with him. He was quite determinedly loyal to Miss O'Shaughnessy. Well, sir, Wilmer followed him back to his hotel and did what he did" (104). Thursby was too loyal to Miss O’Shaughnessy to betray her, thus limiting Thursby’s options of action within the story as well as limiting Gutman’s actions. This can also be understood with how trusting characters are. Miss O’Shaughnessy, being a manipulative woman, was never able to trust others easily. Miss O’Shaunessy refused to tell Spade any information about what was going on unless she had no other option. Mr. Gutman however, was able to trust others more readily, especially when he was able to pay people or promise them great riches, and it was Mr. Gutman who divulged more information to Spade about the Maltese Falcon and the situation than anyone else in the story. In his own set of character limitations and traits, as the determined detective, bent on discovering the truth of the matter, Spade would inevitability meet and talk with Gutman. In this way, the limits and boundaries of the characters will play a role in how the plot develops as the characters behavior both enables and prevents their possible actions allowing for only a certain number of possibilities into which the story can unfold. From the reader’s perspective, by using stereotypical characters in the “The Maltese Falcon”, a more exciting plot is created.
The use of stereotypical characters by the author allows the reader to make predictions about possible outcomes, be surprised, and be confronted with mystery and suspense. If each character were exactly the same, there would be very little conflict, action, or any form of surprise and mystery as the reader would already know what the character is likely to do. With stereotypical characters the readers can understand and possibly relate with the characters in one way or another. Often readers will form attachments to certain characters over others, taking sides with some, feeling empathy for those who have been wronged, and so on. All of this will make us more attached to the characters, deepening the reader’s involvement and creating a better story. If the characters were too unique, they may not be relatable and the reader may have difficulty connecting with them, taking away from the excitement of the plot and making for a boring story. Using stereotypical characters will always make for an attractive story because of the different stereotype interactions. In the Maltese Falcon the characters are often fighting each other, but the story would still be just as interesting if they had to work together to accomplish something, which is use as the framework of many other stories. We actually see this a bit from time to time in The Maltese Falcon, but
only if some characters are able to get ahead of the others such as when Cairo and Gutman chose to work together "Well, Cairo, as you know, got in touch with me, I sent for him, after he left police headquarters the night, or morning, he was up here. We recognized the mutual advantage of pooling forces…Mr. Cairo is a man of nice judgment” (104). In conclusion stereotypical characters not only influence the plot, they help create it. As the common goal ties the characters together, their different stereotypes help create conflict, influence their actions, and limit their abilities, which in turn places boundaries upon them. The stereotypical characters also create a more attractive story as the character’s stereotypes allows for predictions, surprises, mysteries, suspense and the ability for the reader to relate to the character. Dashiell Hammet’s “The Maltese Falcon” is a classic that takes advantage of the stereotypes of his day to drive his story and capture his audience as we watch Spade confront each of these characters and solve whodunit!
First, the author uses conflict to show what the characters have to overcome throughout the course of the story, such as Mrs. Baker forcing Holling to do chores at school and
There are characters in every story to help build a meaning to what is being told. Just because the story is build upon a major character, that doesn’t mean that minor characters aren’t as important. Three reasons that minor characters are important is that they help develop the plot in the story, they can influence how the major character might act, and having minor characters intrigues the audience.
Explain how the conflict arises and go on to discuss in detail how the writer uses it to explore an important theme.
In the novel the Maltese Falcon, the main theme in the play is the masculinity attributes of the piece. In this particular work, there are key characters that from their basis, one comprehends how this author views what masculinity should look like. Masculinity comes to symbolize both strong heroic operate mannerism while expounding on the costs incurred through achievement of this theme in the Maltese Falcon (Huston et al., 45).
Often, when a story is told, it follows the events of the protagonist. It is told in a way that justifies the reasons and emotions behind the protagonist actions and reactions. While listening to the story being cited, one tends to forget about the other side of the story, about the antagonist motivations, about all the reasons that justify the antagonist actions.
...e and daring, the usual qualities of a headmaster. Maximillian Brock, Daphne’s piano teacher, seems to be the stereotypical “nosy neighbour”, who inquires each time about Flavia’s family life. Finally, even King George VI is a stereotypical character: a typical king, George sits in the background of the story and does not do much. He is very polite and cordial – as expected of him. From all of these characters, you can see that Bradley used many stereotypical characters in the story.
Firstly let us consider conflict. In each act of the play, we see the overpowering desire to belong leading to a climax of conflict amongst the characters, which has the consequence of exclusion. Conflict is a successful literary technique, as it engages the audience and focuses our attention on the issue of conflict and exclusion, brought about by the characters’ desires to be accepted by their community.
One of the most useful in advancing this story is the typical, powerful character. Whether it be supernatural or cunning this character always comes out on top in the situation and holds the most control over others and their actions. The “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” , “Leda and the Swan”, and “Harrison Bergeron” all utilize an archetypical powerful character to create tension from how each character uses their power.
As you can see, there are a lot of major internal conflicts. However, there are many more not so important conflicts that weren’t listed! Ranging from racism to loneliness, the characters in this novel have gone through a lot, physically and mentally. As the novel progresses all the characters seem to go from a negative, depressed mental state to a positive and loving one. Jefferson dies with courage because Grant was able to crack Jefferson and help him, which also ended up helping himself. Miss Emma and Tante Lou are now at peace thanks to Grant’s affect on Jefferson. The only reason the novel ended with everybody in a positive state of mind is due the decisions and actions made because of the internal conflict. In conclusion, internal conflicts are very important to the story causing conflicts and plot twists to interest the reader and pull the novel together.
Authors present their characters either directly or indirectly. In all good fiction all characters are dramatized. There are flat characters, they can be summarized pretty quickly. There are special types of flat characters one of which is called a stock character; characters we recognize right away (a sheriff or detective) On the other hand are round characters, which have qualities of real people and are many-sided. The static character is the same person from beginning to end, and finally there is the developing character which undergoes some kind of change, this character usually undergoes an epiphany. “Ultimately it is the quality of the characterization by which a literary story stands or falls”. [page 173]
The author uses one main character, at most, two; only the protagonist and the antagonist exist as major characters. “Rip Van Winkle”, Washington Irving uses one main character to play both the role of the protagonist and the antagonist. In paragraph three lines, six and seven, the reader meets the protagonist. “…a simple good-natured fellow of the name of Rip Van Winkle” In paragraphs five and nine, lines one and two, and one and four, respectively, the reader encounters the antagonist. “The great error in Rip’s composition was an insuperable aversion for all kinds of labor.” “…Rip would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound.” Even though, in both cases where the reader encounters Rip Van Winkle, Rip only counts as one main character. Characterization occurs when the author draws an overall picture of the characters. Characterization happens in two ways in literature, by description and personality. The author uses the words a story to describe a character or imply the appearance of the characters through the text of the story. Introducing the personality of the character to the reader in words give or describe the personality of the characters or the words used imply certain things about the character. The protagonist in “Rip Van Winkle” the reader first meets in paragraph three, lines seven and eight, “… a simple good-natured fellow of the name of Rip Van Winkle.
A character is a person in a story that plays a particular role. Stories require characters so that it forms conflicts, tensions and resolutions. Characters also carry certain traits to make the story interesting and unique. Each character might have different attributes. Others could have similar and different qualities. Those who read many novels might notice that characters from various books are similar to each other to an extent, but are not completely the same. The old English poem, Beowulf, and Shakespeare's Macbeth contain characters with similar characteristics. Beowulf and Macbeth share similar traits, but do not have the same objective. Comparing and contrasting determine the similarities and differences of things. Comparing and contrasting is an excellent tool to determine what is right and wrong. When choosing the best car to drive, comparing and contrasting helps in the choice of the best vehicle. Macbeth and Beowulf demonstrate that a warrior's motivations matter for both soldiers and the people.
Authors develop characters’ personalities in order to add depth to their story and allow readers to feel more connected to the characters. Beyond this, characterization also allows authors to develop the themes of their stories in a more clear manner. A prime example of this would be in the poem Judith, where the author contrasts Judith and Holofernes’ personalities in order to develop the major themes of heroism and having faith in God.
Determine all of the story's conflicts. Determine the major conflict and state this in terms of protagonist versus antagonist.