Good and Evil in the Abstract
As one of the recognized architects of the movement from detective stories solving murders (whodunits) which characterized American crime fiction of the 1930’s to the more shadowy morality defining crime noir which came to dominate the post-WWII era, it is only to be expected that Woolrich’s universe is more ambiguous than those of Hammett and Chandler. The surprising thing may be that the lines separating good and evil are even blurrier than those found in most examples of film noir. Black and white distinctions between good and evil are not just absent but beside the point: the innocent people trying desperately to clear their name are typically not the victims of a concerted conspiracy of evil, but merely convenient agents of circumstance. Woolrich presents a reality that may be worse than a world in which good and evil exist in opposition to each other. His is a reality in which anyone can suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the equation not because they are a target, but because fate has intervened in a way utterly impossible to see coming; such as the theft of a bottle of milk.
No White Knights…or Blue Ones, Either
Not only do the victims of fate in Woolrich’s stories not have recourse to the brilliance of a Sherlock Holmes or the dogged morality of a Philip Marlowe to help extricate them from their situation, they can’t even depend on the more complicated morality of a Sam Spade or even the oaths of those sworn to protect and server. His stories are filled with wrongly accused people who are not just the victims of the actual guilty parties, but are inevitably re-victimized by the very system that is supposed to protect them, investigate the truth and seek justice. The icons of authority which are usually an essential element in the fight of the good against the forces are evil do routinely show up in his stories, but more often than not they are working against the protagonist or, at best wind up being dependent upon them to carry out their charge. The crimes against the innocent are not solved by detectives either privately or publicly funded; it’s every man for himself and if the system assists, it’s just another manifestation of the random quality of fate.
The Fickle Finger of Capricious Circumstances
Most of the victims in a Woolrich story are victims of circumstance rather than a criminal conspiracy. The collective effect of these stories is the revelation that it is actually more emotionally satisfying to know someone is out to get you. A conspiracy to do you harm is far easier to figure out and go after than an unlikely collusion of mundane effects that result in the consequences so absurd they cannot but help construct a sense of paranoia that there must be someone behind it all. Even the most evil and powerful and shadowy nemesis in the world is concept to grab hold of and power one’s sense of self-survival. But how do you fight back against and “evil conspiracy” that is constructed of completely random events all coming together perfectly to implicate you for something you didn’t do? That is the scary, godless world of Cornell Woolrich: a world where the perfect plan to murder your wife and her lover winds up literally driving you mad because A) he’s not her lover, but her brother, B) burglars show up at quite literally the single worst moment possible and C) your wife is growing flowers that need fertilizing.
