Character
Portraits
Character portraits are sometimes static, giving us a complete view of the character at a glance, and sometimes dynamic, slowly unfolding over the course of a scene. With Hammett, the first glance may well be revealing, but it never tells you everything. Further aspects of a character's personality, their weaknesses, desires and fears, are revealed in precise visual language by the way they move and react to the situations facing them. For example, in the first extract below, only the reader sees the real Spade, while he puts on a reassuring front for Iva. The second extract shows us Hammett's close attention to a detailed choreography of his characters' actions, as Spade faces Cairo in his office.
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