The moral message of The maltese Falcon - Essay Example

The Moral Message of the Maltese Falcon From this story published in 1930 we come across various moral lessons. The opening chapter of this story is about morality of the detectives. When Wonderly approaches Spade about her missing sister, the best Spade could do was to admire Wonderly neglecting her fear that her sister might not return home. This is further expressed when Archer joins them. Archer asks Spade’s opinion regarding the beauty of Wonderly. Spade answers that Wonderly is a dynamite and therefore he has interests on her.

The case of low morality is still evident when Spade develops an affair with Ivy Archer after Archer’s death. The police then suspect that Spade might have murdered Archer so that he can proceed and have an affair with Ivy (Hammett, 1930). During the same night that Wonderly makes the allegation that her sister Corrinne is missing Thursby is murdered and Archer is also shot. It is believed that all these murders are related to the Spade’s immorality of which he is suspected to sleeping with these two women.

The consequences of having a low moral mindset can be seen as it already leads to two deaths at the opening of this story. Despite the fact that Spade knows that Woinderly is a bad person she is willing to help her out. She asks him, “How bad a hole are you actually in?” Wonderly replies and say, “as bad”. Spade questions Wonderly and realizes that she was responsible for bringing Thursby from Hong Kong. Irrespecitve of this, Spade cannot hand Miss Wonderly as he has his own motives. Spade goes ahead and receives $5000 bribe from Cairo if he can be able to locate the falcon.

Ironically, Cairo holds Spade at gun point in his office while searching for the falcon. Wonderly is also in a squabble in this case. Spade learnt that Wonderly in one way or the other has something to do with falcon. Spade intelligently spends in Wonderly’s house and the next morning searches for the falcon but he does not find it. Ethical dilemmas are also evident in this story. Later on as you read we realize that Wonderly lied about her sisters disappearance something that results to two deaths that very night.

We also realize later that Miss Wonderly real name is Brigid O’Shaughessy. All these twist of events just show how immoral the society is. From the story we realize that Spade is not willing to shy away from the fight. He is ready to use his wit to fight along prove his innocence and win the falcon too. Irrespective of Miss Wonderly lies he opts to play along and does not turn in Brigid to the police as required by the law or as his moral duty. Spade opts to use Brigid’s feminine, elusive characters by pretending to be her friend in order to win the falcon fight.

Works CitedHammett, D. (1930). THE MALTESE FALCON. New York, Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.