Music 1

Lejla Music

Dr. Horst Tonn

Crime Fiction

30.09.2017

The Big Sleep: Gender Roles

Do women have any power in Raymond Chandler`s Novel “The Big Sleep”? If so,

what kind of power do they have and what is significant about it?

Table of Contents

Introduction................................................................................................................................2

Historical Setting........................................................................................................................2

Femme Fatale.............................................................................................................................3

Narrative Situation.....................................................................................................................4

Characters...................................................................................................................................5

Eddie Mars.............................................................................................................................5

Philip Marlowe.......................................................................................................................5

Vivian Sternwood / Regan.................................................................................................6

Carmen Sternwood..............................................................................................................7

Do women have any power in Raymond Chandler`s Novel “The Big Sleep”? If so,

what kind of power do they have and what is significant about it?.............................8

Conclusion..............................................................................................................................12

Works Cited............................................................................................................................13

Appendix.................................................................................................................................13
 Music 2

Introduction

In this essay, I would like to examine the question how women and man

are depicted in Raymond Chandler`s Novel The Big Sleep and what kind of

power they have in the society they live in. To analyse the gender roles in the

novel, one must take a look at the 1930s in Los Angeles/USA. Afterwards, I

would like to state a definition of a “femme fatale”. The next part will be an

outline of the narrative situation and a short description of the characters I

consider important for this essay. Finally, I will deal with the essence, the role of

women and the conclusion.

Historical Setting

The 1930 were a very tumultuous decade in world history, as they already

started with a crash. The wall street crash in 1929 sent the world into a great

depression which lasted almost through the whole decade. In the USA, more

than 15 million workers were unemployed and additionally the worst drought in

history hit America hard, especially the Plain states. As a result, by 1940, 2.5

million people had abandoned their farms and headed West to California. During

the great depression people did not have much money to spare, however, most of

them did have a radio and used them as a distraction. Another side effect of the

great depression was that it shifted women`s focus. There was much progress in

women’s rights in the 1920’s but in the thirties women were focused on keeping

their families together while their husbands searched desperately for jobs. The

average role of a woman was in the household. What women now worked on
 Music 3

were stretching stark essentials to fit the family’s needs and keeping the family

afloat.

The average man however came home at the end of the day, exhausted and

mentally drained, either because of the struggle to find a job or to keep the

current one. Men were the “breadwinners” and therefore many men suffered

from self-esteem issues and insecurities, because women were now holding a

larger role. The years passed and the gender roles stabilized more and more.

Detective novels were now more popular than ever, because on the one hand

people had much more time to read and on the other hand they needed a hero.

The character of the detective worked in a “world gone wrong” and answered to

no higher power[ CITATION Mar04 \l 1031 ]. As the 30`s came to an end, the

World War II started, changing the roles for men and women again. Men were

called to war and women filled their void in the workplace. Additionally, the

media pushed the role of women even more and some advertisements remain

famous until today. For example, Rosie the Riveter called women to work

through the slogan “we can do it” ([ CITATION JHo42 \l 1031 ]Picture 1

[ CITATION JHo42 \l 1031 ] and radiated strength and competence, normally

linked to men. New visions of attractiveness developed and gave women a voice.

Femme Fatale

A femme fatale is “a seductive woman who lures men into dangerous or

compromising situations”[ CITATION Mer \l 1031 ], to serve her own selfish

interests. The term “femme fatale” literally means dangerous women. Female

characters that are depicted as such are mostly beautiful and irresistibly
 Music 4

attractive. Furthermore, they are sexually available and surrounded by an aura of

charm and mystery. The “dangerous” part is that, they are also deceitful,

manipulative and untrustworthy. These women use their attractiveness to

manipulate men into doing their dirty work and leave them hoping for an affair

or sexual relationship. Frequently these duped men are killed or are close to

being killed.[ CITATION bor14 \l 1031 ]

Narrative Situation

The whole story is told to the reader through the eyes of Philip Marlowe.

This type of narration is called a first-person narrative and it is obviously limited.

Thus, the reader doesn’t get any extra information about the other characters

besides Marlowe. However, the style of narration does vary along with Marlowe’s

feelings or personality. The major part is written sarcastic and rather cynical but,

as is right and proper for a detective, the descriptions and observations are

detailed and exact. Also, the word choice of the narrator gives some situations a

certain degree of humour, for example:

“Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian

elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark

armour rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn’t have any clothes on but

some very long and convenient hair. […] I stood there and thought if I lived in

the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him. He didn’t

seem to be really trying.”[ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ]

There is a lot one could talk about in this paragraph, like the troop of

elephants or the fact that he has this almost childish imagination to climb up into
 Music 5

the panel, but by taking a closer look at the choice of words the word convenient

does not seem to fit in. How can long hair be convenient? Considering the fact

that the lady is naked, the reader gets it and it makes him grin because it is the

perfect combination of humour and cynicism. Another side of the narrator shines

through when he speaks to General Sternwood or Taggart Wilde for example.

Wilde is the District Attorney and his father was a close friend of the old General.

Marlowe respects and likes them; therefore, he does not dare to be rude or to

leave such an impression. The way the novel is narrated fits in perfectly and

makes the experience for the reader even more interesting.

Characters

Eddie Mars

Eddie Mars is the bad guy of the novel and extremely rich and polite. He is

the owner of a gambling club and he is somehow involved in every murder that

occurs in the novel. Moreover, he is the perfect example how corruptibility works

because he is never charged for anything he does. The only positive side of Mars

is his loyal wife Mona.

Philip Marlowe

The protagonist Phillip Marlowe is a tall, dark and handsome guy. “He will

take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without a due and

dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him

as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him.”[ CITATION Ray \l 1031 ].

Obviously, he is the hero of the story or one could say he is a modern knight in
 Music 6

turbulent times. What the reader knows about Marlowe is that, he is thirty-three

years old and single, so a “lonely wolf”. Woman constantly throw themselves at

Marlowe but he is not the type of man that takes advantages out of this situation,

nor is such a woman worth his “chivalry”. He is bound to his strict code of ethics

which are not always according to the law. Moreover, he is not easy to be

manipulated or influenced because he is not greedy for money as already stated

above. He is willing to give more than expected and sometimes he risks his own

life to find out the truth. Nevertheless, he never seems to appear scared or as a

coward.

Vivian Sternwood / Regan

Vivian is the older daughter of the General and the wife of Rusty Regan.

The way she is introduced in the novel tells the reader a lot about Vivian but also

about Marlowe, as he notices her beauty but he is also able to resist her.

“She was worth a stare. She was trouble. She was stretched out on a

modernistic chaise-longue with her slippers off, so I stared at her legs in the

sheerest silk stockings. They seemed to be arranged to stare at. They were visible

to the knee and one of them well beyond. The knees were dimpled, not bony and

sharp. The calves were beautiful, the ankles long and slim [...]. She was tall and

rangy and strong-looking. Her head was against an ivory satin cushion. Her hair

was black and wiry […] and she had that hot black eyes […]. She had a good

mouth and a good chin.”[ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ].

Vivian is aware of her attractiveness and used her femininity more than

once to get what she wanted. One would argue that she is the perfect femme
 Music 7

fatale – strong, independent, irresistibly beautiful and she meant trouble. On the

other hand, Marlowe and Vivian share some bad habits, for example to drown

their sorrows in alcohol. Additionally, Mrs. Regan does not have much money of

her own, so she depends on either her father or other men. Since she is not the

type to depend on someone, she tries her luck in the gambling casino – not

always successfully.

Carmen Sternwood

Vivian’s little sister Carmen is also a beautiful young lady but a very

mysterious character in this novel, as she has two faces. On the one hand, she is

childish and seems as harmless as a baby.

“She was twenty or so, small and delicately put together […]. She wore pale

blue slacks and they looked well on her. She walked as if she were floating. Her

hair was a fine tawny wave cut much shorter than the current fashion of pageboy

tresses curled in at the bottom. […] She put a thumb up and bit it. […] She bit it

and sucked it slowly, turning it around in her mouth like a baby with a

comforter.”[ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ]

On the other hand, she appears like a siren1 – an astute temptress.

“She bit her lip and turned her head a little and looked at me along her

eyes. Then she lowered her lashes until they almost cuddled her cheeks and

slowly raised them again, like a theatre curtain. I was to get to know that trick.

That was supposed to make me roll over on my back with all four paws in the

air.” [ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ]

1
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors into their own death.
 Music 8

The fact that Marlowe is not impressed by her trick - he even makes fun of

her - makes him the Odysseus2 in contrast to Carmen. She is not able to seduce

the detective and that drives her angry, she shows her real face and tries to shoot

him, “Stand there, you son of a bitch” […] “The hissing sound grew louder and

her face had the scraped bone look. Aged, deteriorated, become animal, and not a

nice animal” [ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ].

Exactly the same happened to Rusty Regan, only that Carmen did not miss

him. Another thought is that Carmen is mentally ill and changes her behaviour

therefore abruptly but the fact that she uses her condition in her favour makes

the reader doubt that assumption. Hence, one could argue that Carmen is also a

femme fatale but there can only be one, supposedly.

Do women have any power in Raymond Chandler`s Novel “The Big Sleep”? If so,

what kind of power do they have and what is significant about it?

Vivien and Carmen try to use their sexuality to gain power over men in the

novel. Regarding the period the novel was written in, women did not have much

to say in a world dominated by men even though they were not of little value.

Women worked as hard as men, raised the children, maintained the household,

did the cooking and nevertheless, were paid less and inferior to men. The only

territory where women had a louder voice than men was their body and they

learned to use it in their favour. That men are easily manipulated by clever

women is an ageless myth, starting with Adam and Eve. Also, the Greek

mythology often uses attractive and clever woman to trick men into mischief.

2
Was the only man able to resist the sirens
 Music 9

In the same way Chandler depicts the Sternwood sisters, provocative but

mainly interested in themselves. The fact that their plan often proves to be

successful tells the reader more about the men than the women. Easily tricked

men are not innocent in comparison to the woman that tricked them. On the

contrary, they also tried to achieve their hormone-driven goal namely sexual

intercourse. Furthermore, it tells us that many men are not interested in serious

relationships, or worse that they already are in a serious relationship but are

regardless interested in a short affair. This macho behaviour is representative for

most men in the novel. There are constant fistfights and arguments, jealousy and

rivalry.

However, Marlowe is not the typical macho. He is indeed tough and strong

but in a more positive and charming way. He is not hormone-driven and

therefore not interested in the games the Sternwood sisters play. A woman worth

his attention would be a damsel in distress, which Carmen often tries to act out

for example on page 4: “She tilted herself towards me on her toes. She fell

straight back into my arms. I had to catch her or let her crack her head on the

tessellated floor. I caught her under her arms and she went rubber-legged on me

instantly. I had to hold her close to hold her up” [ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ]. From

the moment the detective first meets Carmen, during his visit to the old general,

he is annoyed by her giggling and sucking on her thumb. Marlowe treats her like

a child, as she proceeds to act like one. However, her infatuation with Marlowe,

one night, leads her to sneak into his office wait for him in his bed, naked.

Marlowe does not seem to be impressed by her naked body and refuses to sleep
 Music 10

with her and he observes that, “It’s so hard for women – even nice women – to

realize that their bodies are not irresistible”.

In comparison to Carmen, one could say that Marlowe is a little bit more

attracted by Vivien as seen on page 38: “[…] Her legs didn’t quite have the raffish

grace of Mrs Regan’s legs […]” and furthermore, they even share a kiss. Marlowe

is aware that Vivien tries to seduce him in order to keep him from finding out the

truth about her husband Rusty and fights fire with fire. On page 163 Marlowe

kisses her “until the shivering of her body was almost shaking his

body”[ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ]. Vivien steps into her own trap and makes the

suggestion to relocate to his apartment but Marlowe drops her like a tricky

subject and asks her: “ What has Eddie Mars got on you? […] Kissing is nice, but

your father didn’t hire me to sleep with you.” [ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ] That

must have been a slap in her face but of her own medicine.

The only woman in the novel that Marlowe really seems to like is Mona

Grant, Eddie Mars’ wife. She is said to be Rusty Regan’s affair and that they ran

away together, which resolves to be untrue. Nevertheless, Mona is ready to give

up her social life and standard to keep the police away from her husband. She

even shaves off her hair to prove to Eddie that she is willing to do whatever he

wants. That tells the reader that Mona really loves Eddie and she is loyal, no

matter what happens. This attitude is what makes her so attractive for Marlowe

and he develops a little crush on her. Mona is the only female character in the

novel that is pure and honest and she never held a gun.

Throughout the novel guns represent power and Marlowe has the habit to

describe them in detail. Guns are necessary tools in the detective genre but in
 Music 11

Chandler’s writing style there are often personified as jumping or peeking

around doors. The way characters handle their guns reveals their traits. Marlowe

is trained in using a gun properly but thus he doesn’t seem to carry one around.

This suggests that he does not need to feel empowerment or to be in control. His

gun is not his reason to be brave but rather his last option, even in violent

situations he is more likely to hit someone with his gun than to fire it. Taking a

look at Carmen, she has a “Banker’s Special, .22 calibre, hollow point cartridges.

It had a pearl grip, and a small round silver plate set into the butt was engraved :

‘Carmen from Owen’.”[ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ]

The gun seems to fit Carmen’s little hands and pearlescent skin, even though she

is a killer. Vivian on the other hand is not really a gun type but stores her little

sister’s gun at the end, as she did cover her murder the whole time.

The two sisters, the two femme fatales did not seem to be that different in

the beginning but turn out to be quite opposites of one another. Vivian clearly

seemed to be the classical femme fatale but falls in the ‘misunderstood’ category

of the archetype. She is seductive and tries to achieve empowerment but she

covers up her sister’s act of murder in order to keep the family’s name clean. She

wants her father to die in peace and proves that she is not only selfish but has a

sense for other people’s feelings. Carmen on the other hand resolves to be the

femme fatal in the novel because she is pure toxic for every man (all of them die)

around her and has no interest in other people’s feelings. She has no limits and is

ready to kill men because of a simple ‘no’- she does not allow them the power to

resist her.
 Music 12

Conclusion

It is significant that no women in the novel is able to empower herself

without sexuality. That raises the question whose fault this is, men or women? Or

maybe even the society’s fault?

Women clearly do have power in Raymond Chandler’s novel The Big Sleep

but to a certain extent. Women, like Carmen and Vivian, that try to achieve their

power through dishonesty can only be successful with men that are also

dishonest. That is the reason why Marlowe cannot be pulled into their web of

intrigues because his honesty and strict code of ethics saves him from femmes

fatales. Considering the fact, that neither Carmen nor Vivien is punished at the

end makes the reader question Marlowe’s strength. Did he give in at the end and

let the Sternwood girls have their desperately seeking power over him? The only

reason Marlowe let the girls go was their father. He really liked the general, a

man as honest as himself, and did not want him to be part of the ‘nastiness’ of

Los Angeles. This becomes evident in the closing paragraph of the novel: “What

did it matter where you lay once you were dead? […] You were dead, you were

sleeping the big sleep. […] 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.

[…] But the old man didn’t have to be. He could lie quiet in his canopied bed,

with his bloodless hands folded on the sheet, waiting. His heart was a brief,

uncertain murmur. […] And in a little while he too, like Rusty Regan, would be

sleeping the big sleep.” [ CITATION Ray14 \l 1031 ]

Works Cited
 Music 13

Bilingham, Mark. The Independant. July 2004. Web.

borednovelist. descriptionari. 20 June 2014. Web.

Chandler, Raymond. goodreads.com. n.d. web.

—. The Big Sleep. London, England: Penguin Books, 2014. Print.

Merriam-Webster Incorporated. n.d. <https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/femme%20fatale>.

Miller, J. Howard. We Can Do It! Westinghouse Company. Rosie the Riveter. USA,

1942. Picture.

Appendix

Picture 1 [ CITATION JHo42 \l 1031 ]#