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Unconventional Conventional Women: The Big Sleep

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Unconventional Conventional Women: The Big Sleep
Writing 39B
January 20, 2013
Unconventional Conventional Women: Chandler’s Femme Fatales
The Sternwood sisters, Vivian and Carmen, depict themselves as being the ultimate femme fatales in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. A femme fatale is an attractive and seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately bring disaster to a man who becomes romantically involved with her (“TV Tropes Femme Fatale”). While both women possess the attractive and seductive characteristics, they fail to become involved with Marlowe to further bring the detective to a downfall. Carmen portrays herself as being promiscuous and immature while Vivian is more mysterious and smart. They both are physically attracted to Marlowe and attempt to get him into bed but the detective refuses to sleep with either of the two women sensing that they are nothing …show more content…
Any other man would have given in to the seduction. Chandler gives Vivian and Carmen Sternwood every quality they need to fit the traditional femme fatale role: seductive, dangerous, and often morally ambiguous. The sisters overthrow this femme fatale convention because they are never able to persuade the man they are after in this case Marlowe, to give in to their deceptive ways.
The Big Sleep is a representation of how times were during the Great Depression in the 1930’s (“The Big Sleep” Wikipedia). Money was the motive for many of the events that took place and the more money a character had the more they were respected and able to get away with murder, literally. Regarding gender in this corrupt society, men were able to use their wealth and power and women their good looks and body as a means to rise up in society. Everything and everyone was corrupt and the only way out of this cold world was to die and sleep eternally as the title of the book The Big Sleep
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