Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Sam Spade

Who else but our man Sam?

Sam Spade is clearly the main character of the novel. He's the guy people go to when they need help, and Brigid hires him to find the elusive Maltese falcon. It's also up to Spade to figure out who murdered his partner Archer, so we're definitely rooting for Spade to put the murderer behind bars and recover the lost statuette.

But along the way, we start realizing that Spade hasn't been 100% honest with Archer because he's having a secret affair with Archer's wife, so we can't help questioning his motives. Even though Spade is the hero of the novel, there are moments when he could be seen as an anti-hero, or at least a morally ambiguous, deeply flawed hero.