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The Significance Of The Black Bird In Dashiell Hammett The Maltese Falcon

In Dashiell Hammet’s The Maltese Falcon, the “black bird” serves as a crucial link connecting Sam Spade and Brigid O’ Shaughnessy. The black bird functions as the structural bond of Spade and Brigid’s relationship because it represents their greed and desire for wealth. Hammet points out that the Brigid’s greed for the bird causes her to utilize detective Spade as a tool: “Help me, Mr. Spade. Help me because I need help so badly, and because if you don’t where will I find anyone who can, no matter how willing?” (Hammet 35). This quotation illustrates Brigid’s submissiveness and dependency on Mr. Spade to help her. But later she becomes the dominant figure when she utilizes her monetary wealth to her advantage: “She opened handbag with nervous fingers and put two hundred-dollar bills on Spade’s desk” (Hammett 9). Spade admits his greed when he says, he only “believed [Brigid’s] two hundred dollars” (Hammett 33) and not her story. The narrator illustrates how Spade views money as an adequate payment for his time. Spade and Brigid represent both the real black bird and the fake black bird because of their faulty façade, which cover up their true personalities.
The name “black bird” is not a random happening, but carries its own meaning within the novel. The narrator calls the rare Maltese Falcon the Black Bird because it symbolizes Brigid’s façade built on lies and deception. Similar to the Maltese Falcon, which has a black coat covering the diamonds, Brigid selfish personality is hidden through her lies: Brigid “lied to [Spade] about [her] sister and all” in order to hide her true intentions of stealing the Black Bird. She utilizes her cunning mouth to hide everything true about herself: “You don’t think I had anything to do with the—the murders—do you?” (Hammet 34). In this dialogue, Hammett repeats the word “the” in order to highlight how unbelievable it would be to consider Brigid a murderer. Also, the dashes put an exclamation point in how horrid of an idea...