The Maltese Falcon Analysis

The Maltese Falcon is set in the foggy, hilly, windy city of San Francisco in the late 1920s. Hammett knew San Francisco like the back of his hand (he worked there in his early twenties as a Pinker...

Sheesh—thank goodness were not in any of these characters' heads, right? That might be a little too close for comfort for Shmoop.The Maltese Falcon employs a third person objective point of view,...

The Maltese Falcon involves both the solution of a crime and the unraveling of secrets, so that smells a lot like the "Mystery" genre to us. Throughout the novel, Spade is forced to work his way th...

Since Hammett was a real-life detective, he had first-hand experience on how detectives act and talk. The Maltese Falcon is full of slang words that Hammett learned while working as a Pinkerton age...

Dashiell Hammett is often credited with being the inventor of hardboiled fiction, a genre known for being unsentimental and brutally honest in its style. A combination of urban realism and wry humo...

The title of Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon seems straightforward enough. The plot is centered on the search for the priceless statuette from Egypt, passed down through the centuries from kings...

Who doesn't love a good ol' plot twist at the end of a detective story? We're in for a treat because Maltese Falcon has not one, but two, plot twists: (1) The Maltese Falcon turns out to be a fake,...

The Maltese Falcon will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Seriously, we bet you won't be able to put it down. Hammett's ability to create suspense, along with his straightfor...

Miss Wonderly Hires Herself a PIMiss Wonderly's middle name is trouble. Well, not literally. But when she walks into the office of detective Sam Spade, he knows she's trouble, with a capital T. Mis...

Brigid O'Shaughnessy hires Sam Spade to protect her from Thursby. But when Thursby winds up dead along with Spade's partner Miles Archer, Spade finds himself entangled in a chase for something call...

Act I is the beginning of the plot up until the point when the characters commit to some course of action. In The Maltese Falcon, Brigid O'Shaughnessy (under the false name of Miss Wonderly) hires...

Before Dashiell Hammett began writing detective novels, he was a real-life detective working for the Pinkertons. So if her were around today, he'd totally be a reality TV star. When Ingrid Bergman...

There's no beating around the bush about it: Sam Spade is a womanizer. Early in the novel, we learn that he's having an affair with Iva Archer. Not exactly model behavior considering that Iva is th...

Knights of Malta (123)Emperor Charles V of Spain (123)