Characters in “The Big Sleep”
Philip Marlowe
What The Big Sleep tells its readers about detective Philip Marlowe is that he is an honest
detective in a corrupt world. He is full of integrity and honesty, a man who is willing to seek
truth and work for a mere twenty-five dollars a day. In many ways he is even chaste. The best
way to understand him is to think of him as many critics have—as a modern-day knight.
Marlowe, in his work, witnesses’ death, murder, smut, and crime every day—they are a part
of his everyday existence—and yet, we come to the realization that Marlowe remains the
only honourable character in his everyday world.
The novel book opens with Marlowe starring at a piece of stained glass in the Sternwood
mansion. Marlowe's thoughts are important for two reasons. First, they foreshadow the scenes
in which Marlowe "rescues" the naked Carmen; second, they make us realize that Marlowe
will commit himself completely to the tasks placed before him. He does his task not for the
meagre (small) pay, but because it is what he feels he must do.
Significantly, Marlowe lives rather poorly, paid only twenty-five dollars a day plus expenses.
Nonetheless, he seems inherently driven towards the discovery of truth. Also significant is
the fact that Marlowe works towards this truth independently—he does not work directly for
the law, but for himself. He is not a "cop," but rather a private detective. Despite the tough
front Marlowe puts up, on the inside he is good and almost sensitive.
Eddie Mars
Eddie Mars is a racketeer, a gambler, a "bad guy," and, most importantly, Marlowe's foil.
Mars personifies everything Marlowe stands against: he is dirty and crooked, and he is
directly or indirectly behind almost every murder in the novel. He is perhaps best described
through a passage from the novel itself: "You think he's just a gambler. I think he's a
pornographer, a blackmailer, a hot car broker, a killer by remote control, and a sub owner of
crooked cops. He's whatever looks good to him…he never killed anybody, he just hires it
done." This is Marlowe's description of Mars to Mona Mars, Mars's wife. Whereas Marlowe
does not want to kill anybody and does not often carry a gun, Mars has no qualms about
murder—but he always asks someone else to do the actual killing in order to keep the blood
off of his own hands.
Carmen Sternwood
Like Marlowe, Carmen is not what she appears. She appears to be, as her father says a young,
childish girl who "likes to pull the wings off flies." Her "flies," however turn out to be much
larger than her father imagined. Carmen murders Rusty Regan, the character Marlowe has
been searching for in vain. Carmen is so important because she illustrates an inherent
"doubleness" that exists throughout the novel.
In a feminist reading, we might see Carmen as a character that is portrayed in a typically anti-
feminist manner. She is unintelligent and emotional. She is spoiled just like her sister, Vivian.
Carmen is a flirtatious, giggly, beautiful girl with the heart of a murderess. More important,
she is mentally instable—a Siren of sorts, much like the deadly Sirens who tempt Odysseus in
Homer's Odyssey. The portrayal of women in The Big Sleep is one that can be explored
further in the characters of Vivian Sternwood and the attractive Mona Mars.
It is significant that Mars is named after the Roman god of war. His name, then, like
Marlowe's, also carries a certain amount of symbolism. Drawing a parallel between The Big
Sleep and medieval fairytales of knights, Marlowe stands as the knight and Mars stands as the
dragon or evildoer. Going further with this analogy, it might be argued that if Mars is not
Marlowe's double or foil, perhaps Mars is Sternwood's double. In this sense, Marlowe is
Sternwood's knight, while Canino, Mars's gunman, is Mars's own perverse version of a
knight, the degraded knight or fallen angel
