Justice In A World Of Unknowns
Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon presents a world of struggle. This world is filled with deceitful people struggling for material gain, and willing to sacrifice anything, or anyone to gain it. This pales in comparison to the more recent Lawrence Block novel
A Dance at the Slaughterhouse which portrays a world of pure corruption. Criminals in this twisted world don't just sacrifice people to gain, they derive a form of perverse pleasure out of the kill. In each of these worlds misfortune runs rampid, but within each a form of justice is imposed. Matthew Scudder is the name of justice in
Dance at the Slaughterhouse while Sam Spade is justice's hero in
The Maltese Falcon. Each of these detectives , in their own separate manner, create justice out of lawlessness in worlds where they themselves are deceived and cheated at every turn.
Sam Spade's justice is defined by the world in which he lives. The world is filled with brutal cops and deceitful people, and to obtain justice Spade is forced to play the role of a self serving detective. He is willing to accept money and information from any giving source, but is careful to preserve his own integrity by only actually acting for his client and remaining just within the acceptable limits of his society. This is best demonstrated by Spade's dealings with Gutman, the fatman, (Hammett 203) when he is more than willing to take a thousand dollars for his "time and expenses" (Hammett 204) and then later gives the money to the police (Hammett 216) to assure that he himself would be clean before the police and could not be linked to any of the criminal dealings. Dealings such as these helped define the very line between law and lawlessness on which Spade stood, but was not willing to cross, in order to pursue justice.
While justice was his first cause loyalty to customer was a close second. As the end of the novel approached Spade's love of Mrs. O'Shaughnessy (Hammett 212) and his devotion to her as a customer compelled him to protect her. This faith in Mrs. O'Shaughnessy was given even in light of her deceit of Spade (Hammett 210) throughout the course of the novel. He still was willing to even attempt to rescue Mrs. O'Shaughnessy (Hammett 166) even after he knew she had lied to him during the course of the investigation. Spade was also careful when he took on a second client, Mr. Cairo; (Hammett 44) he was careful to attempt to avoid committing himself to do the same job for two different people, and when the conflict eventually did arise gave his loyalty to the customer which he has first promised it, Mrs. O'Shaughnessy.
This loyalty led Spade to pursue the Maltese falcon through out the book until he did indeed recover it. He survived through being drugged and attacked (Hammett 130) to eventually recovering the falcon (Hammett 159) all in the interest of achieving justice where he perceived it was needed. Spade was able to use the falcon to negotiate the information he need from of Gutman and O'Shaughnessy to solve his case . This investigation would have freed Mrs. O'Shaughnessy had she not killed Spade's partner. It was only Spade's loyalty to true justice that overrode his loyalty and lust for Mrs. O'Shaughnessy and forced him to also inflict justice upon her.
It was this final loyalty that once again shows the definition of this masterful detective. His devotion to the law and justice defined all of his other relationships and forced many of his actions, including turning in his lover, Mrs. O'Shaughnessy (Hammett 215).
Matthew Scudder had a different justice than Sam Spade. His justice was not loyalty the law, but loyalty to those who could not defend themselves, the innocent. This was shown by Scudder accepting and pursuing a case involving a innocent pregnant woman who was tortured to death (Block 23), and in Scudder's revoltion with the people who committed the crime (Block 184), shown by his strong distaste of their film and his want to stop any future films. In investigating this case he always attempted to help those who were innocent while pursuing those who were guilty of preying upon the innocent. Scudder's justice had a line drawn that allowed him to remain unconcerned with the deaths of those who preyed upon others themselves (Block 160), as with his friend Mick's killings.
Scudder begins to show his definition of justice when he first sees the snuff film. He was revolted by the acts (Block 55), but compelled to find out who the innocent boy was, and who killed him. It was this drive toward justice that propelled the book forward, as Spade's devotion drove him. Scudder shows his loyalty to his customer (Block 227)as well by continually pursuing his case until he achieves results. This devotion is driven more by his need to solve both of his investigations and save other innocent people from a similar fate than his loyalty to his customer. This sharply contrasts to the devotion of Spade to his customer and to the law because Scudder is willing to bend the law, and step outside of the law altogether to assure the case is resolved and there will be no future victims (Block 281).
In Scudder's pursuit of justice he is forced to grapple with a concept that Spade does not question, the security of those not involved directly with the crime. Scudder see this in the children on the Deuce (Block 77). It is these children that he ultimately protects from the predators that are slowly stalking and torturing them for pleasure. Spade was not concerned with the involvement of outside people, such as Gutman's daughter, but simply used them to obtain his goal. Scudder's whole sense of justice was contradictory to Sam Spade's and compelled him to protect the young and innocent at all cost.
To create this protection Scudder surpassed even Spade's legal indiscretions in taking out justice as the "judge, jury, and executioner" (Block 281). He is forced to confront the Stettner's and decides that the only method of assuring the protection of innocent children in the future is to destroy the predators who feed upon them (Block 281). It is this decision that allows Scudder to approach Mick and enlist his aid in carrying out his sentence, which provides a sense of justice to Scudder. This justice is drastically different from that of Spade's who turns the killers over to the police to handle instead of dispatching with them himself. This is significant because is demonstrates while both may convey justice that one's justice would be the other's crime.
Both Scudder and Spade create significant power for themselves in their worlds to execute justice on their terms. They each execute justice in their own unique way but they work toward a similar goal, justice as they see it. This justice and control surprises the reader because it is obtained in worlds in which neither detective are being told the truth.
Bibliography
Block. A Dance at the Slaughterhouse. New York: Avon Books, 1992.
Hammett. The Maltese Falcon. New York: Vintage Books, 1957.