In the novel, The Big Sleep, the main character, Philip Marlowe, is a prime example of the hard-boiled detective, found in the noir genre. Merriam Websters' dictionary defines noir as, "crime fiction featuring hard-boiled cynical characters and bleak sleazy settings." (Noir) When Philip Marlowe is hired by old man General
Sternwood, to track down a blackmailer, he is immediately thrust into the sleazy, filthy world of General Sterwoods' two daughters, Carmen and Vivian. Marlowe finds himself entangled in extortion, kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder to name a few ribald characteristics.
The detective in this genre is usually characterized by several common traits.
For example, in Film: A Critical Introduction, by Maria Pramaggiore and Tom Wallis, they state, "Like the Cowboy in the Western, the hard-boiled detective is a loner." (351)
Marlowe is friends with neither the cops nor the criminals, and often, not even the people who hire him, like him. This doesn't bother the hard-boiled detective in the least.
Pramaggiore and Wallis also state,"He is an investigator who stands just outside the law, yet remains the moral center of the film." (351) Philip Marlowe, has an encounter with Canino, in which Marlowe makes this statement, "I didn't want him with an empty gun." (Chandler 202) The apparent reason for this is that Marlowe knew that he was going to have to kill Canino, and he was making sure that even if he had to do it cold- bloodedly, he did not want to be incriminated.
In the book, Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction, it states "Marlowe is the newest incarnation of the questing knight, challenged by the modern dragons of well-connected gangsters and entitled millionaires i...
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...ind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now."
The Big Sleep, characterizes the hard-boiled detective genre with it's darkness, futility, cruelty, hopelessness, and a main character who reflects all of this in detail.
Works Cited
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. New York: Vintage, 1992. Print.
Pramaggiore, Maria, and Tom Wallis. Film: A Critical Introduction. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2006. 351. Print
Webster, Merriam. "Noir." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
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Yarbrough, Scott D. "Hard-Boiled Detectives." Critical Survey Of Mystery & Detective
Fiction, Revised Edition (2008): 1-9. Literary Reference Center. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
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Film Noir is a genre of distinct and unique characteristics. Mostly prominent in the 40s and 50s, the genre rarely skewed from the skeletal plot to which all Film Noir pictures follow. The most famous of these films is The Big Sleep (1946) directed by Howard Hawks. This film is the go to when it comes to all the genre’s clichés. This formula for film is so well known and deeply understood that it is often a target for satire. This is what the Coen brothers did with 1998’s The Big Lebowski. This film follows to the T what Film Noir stands for.
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The birth of classic detective fiction was originated just in the mid nineteenth century, and was producing its own genre. Classical detective fiction follows a set of rules called the ‘Ten commandments of detective fiction’. The genre is so popular it can bee seen by the number of sales in any good book stores. Many of these books have been created a long time ago and there is still a demand for these types of books. The popularity is still ongoing because it provides constant entertainment, and also the reader can also have a role of detective trying to solve the crime/case committed. Classical detective fiction has a formula, the detective story starts with a seemingly irresolvable mystery, typically a murder, features the astute, often unconventional detective, a wrongly accused suspect to whom the circumstantial evidence points, and concludes with a startling or unexpected solution to the mystery, during which the detective explains how he or she solved the mystery. Formula that includes certain elements such as, a closed location to keep the number of suspects down, red hearings spread around the stories to keep the reader entertained yet interacted.
......"[Marlow]. To illustrate how effectively the previous lies are preparing Marlow - he didn't even choke on this one! Lie #7: "His end was in every way worthy of his life"[Marlow]. Taken at face value that may very well have been a true statement however, Marlow intended for it to carry the false impression of a noble, honorable and worthy death and life.
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"therefore, since I can not prove a lover, To entertain these fair well spoken days, I am determined to be a villain".As a villain Richard must be heartless, he can not let his emotions interfere with his actions.
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Because the love between the young couple is so powerful, they go to Friar Lawrence and they are secretly married. On the day of their marriage Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, challenges Romeo to a duel. In the midst of all this chaos, Romeo's best friend, Mercutio, is murdered by Tybalt. Romeo then slays Tybalt out of revenge. When the prince of Verona finds out what Romeo has done, he banishes Romeo from Verona forever.
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