Marlowe is a private investigator. Usually when one thinks of somebody as being a P.I., they assume it has to do with mercenary values – if not, then why aren’t these individuals cops? Maybe Marlowe doesn’t think he’d be able to get the same results as a cop; having to go through all the bureaucracy might give him the idea that too little good can be done that way, and what is done is in often cases too slow to aid the victim. He might know this first-hand as well, given that he’d apparently been one at some point in his past.

Marlowe appears to have a fairly strict personal code of honor. He doesn’t immediately accept Sternwood’s offer out of hand, and actually attempts to get the general to help himself by paying off the blackmailer to begin with, which would do nothing in the ways of adding to Marlowe’s bankbook – just a little free advise to an old guy that he decides that he likes. He also refuses to divulge any details about his case with anybody until he feels that the questions no longer have any significance, and would be more dangerous civically and to his client in Not answering – like when he goes to his friend/past coworker Ohls to let him know what’s what so far and square him up with Wilde and the cops once the bodies start piling up. He also never takes advantage of a woman when he has clear opportunities to do so, even when the woman in question – Miss Carmen Sternwood – clearly wouldn’t mind his attentions, (Geiger’s house, Marlowe’s room). After the literal sense of the case appears to be buttoned up, he continues on with the loose ends that he feels is the General’s actual interests in the matter, simply because he feels a sort of kinship and duty toward the man and doesn’t like the idea of the man’s last days (Sternwood is Clearly unwell) being any worse than they need to be.

Very little is known about Marlowe’s past; perhaps this is given in more detail in one of Chandler’s other novels. We know he’s been around the block a few times though, and knows how to take care of himself. He also knows his limits. When the hitman, Canino, is mentioned, Marlowe shows some signs of genuine concern – hitmen are scary, and Marlowe knows this well – he takes Canino very seriously.

Aspects of the anti-hero in Marlowe were not very easy for me to find. This is most likely due to the fact that growing up with so many anti-heroes in the comic books has clouded my judgment and made me cynical of anybody who calls themself or is dubbed “hero”. In any case, Marlowe is hard for me to pin down. He’s honest – he won’t accept a bribe, work for somebody shady, or try to fool himself when he knows he smells a rat. He doesn’t like lying or being lied to. The one thing I know that bugged me for a little bit about his morals is how he’d allow a situation to progress past the point of it moving into the questionable or illegal without him doing or saying anything to stop it, until he ultimately confronts the issue once it’s on the table and takes it apart – showing the person that he knows the sham of it all and that he doesn’t accept it. This happens when either of the Sternwood women would start lying (Regan with the fake mugger and in the car, Carmen in almost every scene she takes part in), and in other places with Mars, or Brody in his apartment before he gets shot. I thought at these times – though it would likely hurt the story – that if he were so “painfully” honest, why would he let people hang themselves like this without stopping them first when he could? Was that dark mental sadism some kind of anti-hero aspect? Then I remembered a story of one of the Pandava from the Indian epic The Mahabharata. Yudhishthira was involved in a game of dice where he was losing right and left. He was gambling and losing Everything, literally; his riches, his estates, his servants, and ultimately his freedom and the freedom of his brothers and wife until finally Everything was gone. After being given back his freedom by his uncle – the current king – he is challenged to one final game of dice. He knows that there is more than a good chance that the guy he’s playing against is constantly cheating. He knows also that to lose in this game will have far-reaching and devastating consequences for everybody throughout the kingdoms. He accepts the challenge, and it drives his brothers crazy. “What is your problem?? What are you doing? You have no right to do this! Have you lost your senses?” Yudhishthira is the son (or, A son) of Dharma. Dharma is the universal law of right action, or doing the right thing – always. Not the right thing as far as necessarily following man or god’s laws, but the right thing on a Very refined level that takes yogis dedicated to understanding dharma years to understand. He tells his brothers that he must dice with this man. To refuse to dice with him would be to deny the man the opportunity to Not cheat. he needs to give the man the chance to make the right choice, or in short – to be good. Maybe that’s what Marlowe does. Maybe he wants to see people make the right choice on their own, because anything less would be a lie and lessen both of them.