According to Janey Place, “the dark lady, the spider woman, the evil seductress who tempts man and brings about his destruction is among the oldest themes of art, literature, mythology and religion in western culture.” She appears in many different forms and many different situations. In the following, I will have a look at the origins of the femme fatale as she is depicted in The Big Sleep. In the first part of the essay I will concentrate on the main female characters and try to find out who appears as a femme fatale. In the second part I will work out that in forming the character of his femme fatale Raymond Chandler borrowed from a common narrative motif, especially from antique Greek and biblical sources. I will have a look at certain antique stories which I cannot retell here, such as the Greek Medea tale, Homer’s Odyssey, the story of Medusa and the biblical Adam and Eve and Joseph stories. In the third part of this essay I will have a look at how the femme fatale is set into the city of film noir and how the city again is similar to mythology.
Table of Contents
I Introduction
II The Femme Fatale in The Big Sleep
II.1 Vivian
II.2 Carmen
III Carmen and her Ancestors
IV The Femme Fatale in the City
Research Objectives and Key Themes
This academic essay examines the portrayal of the "femme fatale" archetype in Raymond Chandler’s novel The Big Sleep. It explores how Chandler integrates classical mythological and biblical references to shape his female characters and analyzes how the urban environment of the city in film noir mirrors these mythological struggles.
- Analysis of the femme fatale archetype in The Big Sleep.
- Character study of Vivian and Carmen Sternwood.
- Examination of mythological influences (Medea, Circe, Medusa) and biblical motifs (Eve).
- Deconstruction of the city as a modern, dangerous wilderness.
- The role of Philip Marlowe as a modern knight-errant in an urban setting.
Excerpt from the Book
II.2 Carmen
Carmen is depicted as a femme fatale. She is an ambiguous character: On the one hand she is an innocent child and on the other hand a cold blooded murderer. She has two faces, both represented by a specific behaviour and a specific sound. One face is the face of a child. The characteristic behaviour of this one is the sucking of the thumb, which evokes the association of a baby. Chandler even supports this association by using it as a simile: “She bit it [her thumb] and sucked it slowly, turning it around in her mouth like a baby with a comforter.” The sound that is connected to Carmen’s childish face is the soft, constant giggling. But this face doesn’t seem to be real. Her actions are repeated several times in the novel and always stay the same: it is always the same giggling, always the same sucking on the same thumb. The repetition makes them look like rehearsed actions, it turns the childish face into a mask and Carmen into an actor playing a role.
Carmen’s other face is the face of the “scraped bone look”. The characteristic sound here is the hissing. The use of snake metaphoric implicates the snake as biblical symbol of lie and builds a connection to the original sin and Eve, a kind of prototype for the femme fatale. But it has also another effect: it gives Carmen the characteristics of an animal, which are even reported literally in the scene where Carmen tries to kill Marlowe: “The hissing sound grew louder and her face had the scraped bone look. Aged, deteriorated, become animal, and not a nice animal.”
Summary of Chapters
I Introduction: Provides an overview of the femme fatale archetype in western culture and outlines the paper's focus on the novel The Big Sleep.
II The Femme Fatale in The Big Sleep: Introduces the two sisters, Vivian and Carmen, and evaluates their characteristics against the traditional traits of a femme fatale.
III Carmen and her Ancestors: Analyzes Carmen's physical descriptions and behaviors in relation to mythological figures like Circe, Medusa, and the biblical Eve.
IV The Femme Fatale in the City: Discusses the role of the urban environment and the characterization of Philip Marlowe as a knight navigating a modern, corrupted landscape.
Keywords
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Femme Fatale, Film Noir, Mythology, Medea, Circe, Medusa, Philip Marlowe, Urban Wilderness, Literary Analysis, Archetype, Ambiguity, Gender Roles.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this academic work?
This work focuses on the depiction of the femme fatale archetype within Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel, The Big Sleep.
Which specific characters are analyzed as femme fatales?
The essay analyzes the two Sternwood sisters, Vivian and Carmen, evaluating their actions and physical appearances against the traditional literary archetype.
What is the central research question?
The essay explores how the femme fatale in Chandler's work functions as a descendant of mythological and biblical figures, and how these archetypes are transposed into the setting of the modern, "nocturnal" American city.
Which methodology is used to analyze the characters?
The author uses a literary and comparative methodology, drawing parallels between characters in the novel and archetypal figures from Greek mythology (Circe, Medea, Medusa) and the Bible (Eve, Potiphar's wife).
What aspect of the urban setting is discussed in the main body?
The main body examines the city of Los Angeles as a "dark labyrinth" and a "cultural desert," comparing the urban environment to the medieval wilderness where a knight-errant, represented by Philip Marlowe, must perform his quest.
How does the author characterize the city?
The city is described as an uncontrollable, threatening space that mirrors the corruption of the characters, where technology replaces the knight's horse as a tool for navigation.
How does the sucking of the thumb serve as a narrative device for Carmen?
The thumb-sucking behavior acts as a recurring mask that emphasizes Carmen’s childish facade, contrasting sharply with her murderous nature, thereby highlighting her fundamental ambiguity.
Why does Marlowe ultimately fail as a knight-errant in this context?
According to the author, Marlowe fails because the "law" is his true Penelope, and the corrupt nature of the city (the "sea") is too overwhelming for him to return home, unlike the mythical Odysseus.
- Quote paper
- Ann-Kathrin Deininger (Author), 2004, The Femme Fatale in Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/34299
