The devil
From the beginning, the protagonist is described as having a peculiar physical appearance. His eyes are described as being almost yellow but despite this he still remains a physically attractive man. His physical appearance has the purpose of highlighting the idea that sometimes, a person can be deceived by someone else’s appearance but that more than often the way a person looks does not represent who a person is in reality.
The damsel in distress
When Wonderly first goes to Spade’s office, she portrays herself as the damsel in distress, hiding her true self from the detective. By projecting this image, Wonderly hopes to find compassion and to make Spade more willing to help her find her sister.
Womanly
In the fourth chapter, another character is introduced, a man named Joel Cairo. The narrator describes him as being very feminine, with delicate features, a flamboyant appearance and numerous jewelries on his body. the way Cairo is described is compared with the way Spade is described and the extremely feminine features Cairo has have the purpose of accentuating even more Spade’s masculinity.
Emasculated police
The police force is portrayed in the novel in a ridiculous way and the other characters make fun of their incompetence and incapability quite often. Spade does not trust the police to be capable enough of solving crimes and choses to hide things for them. Thus, the police force is portrayed here as being a disgrace and a disappointment.
