Gender in The Big Sleep

Samantha Pepper

The first half of The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler is rife with examples of gender stereotyping. The female characters in The Big Sleep all play simple, secondary roles. Their entire purpose seems to be to add an element of sex and to cause trouble. Most of the female characters in Chandler’s book are unintelligent, simpering sexpots. For example, Carmen Sternwood, who appears repeatedly throughout the book, is portrayed as a dumb, frivolous, spoiled rich girl. Carmen is constantly getting into trouble that the main character, Philip Marlowe, has to extract her from. Carmen relies on her looks to get men to do what she wants but she has few charms to back up her looks. Carmen’s sister, Vivian, is not as apparently dumb as Carmen but she is portrayed in an equally bad light. Vivian is a harsh, hard, cunning woman who seeks out danger and gets into trouble. In addition to which she is very attractive and flirts with Marlowe. Again her role is to add sex and danger/trouble to the plot. The only other female character worth noting in the first half of The Big Sleep is Agnes Lozelle, the girlfriend of Brody. She is attractive but doesn’t have a clue what is going on or how she should react to the situation around her. She is a fussy woman trying to use a man but failing at it.

The Big Sleep also contains male stereotypes in its first half. Most of the men in the book seem to be very masculine, tough, daring men. The only exceptions are Geiger, who is a dirty little man that gets murdered, and his boyfriend, Carol. The other male characters in the book revile Geiger and Carol for their lack of masculinity. Marlowe’s policeman friend goes so far as to say that he is happy that he doesn’t have to charge the guy who killed Geiger (because he is dead) because it he doesn’t think killing a man like Geiger much of a crime. The main male characters in The Big Sleep typify American masculinity, they are clever/smart, tough, not afraid to get dirty and of course they all drink and smoke.