The Lady in the Lake

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1943

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-8

Chapters 9-16

Chapters 17-24

Chapters 25-32

Chapters 33-41

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Themes

Identity and Deception

Throughout The Lady in the Lake, identity and perception are treated as weapons to be manipulated for personal gain. The clearest example of this slipperiness of identity is of the novel’s female antagonist, Mildred, whose ability to assume and then shed one false identity after another facilitates her crimes and propels the novel’s plot. Mildred is an archetypal femme fatale, a stock character common to the hard-boiled detective fiction genre that Raymond Chandler pioneered. As a femme fatale, her deceptive identities suggest a broader unease around the social performance of femininity.

The uncertainty of identity is first introduced with the corpse found in Little Fawn Lake. The effacement of its features through decomposition mimics the sexist objectification that reduces women to the features that serve as signifiers of generic femininity: For instance, Bill Chess mistakes the corpse for his wife, Muriel, because the corpse still retains its blond hair. Crystal, the woman Marlowe has been hired to find, and Muriel look very similar, as do many other blond women in Southern California. An employee at the Prescott Hotel says, “These small blondes are so much of a pattern that a change of clothes or light or makeup makes them all alike or all different” (77). The femme fatale, Mildred, takes advantage of the multiplicity of blondes and of the sexist attitudes that lead men to view all these blond women as an undifferentiated mass. These attitudes make it easier for her to pass for both Muriel and Crystal.

Men, too, use false identities and disguises to advance toward their goals. Degarmo lies and says he is De Soto, a Los Angeles cop, when he is in Little Fawn Lake. He uses a fake name to look for his wife, who is also using a fake name. Patton, the sheriff, is suspicious of the De Soto alias and doesn’t reveal that the two women—Muriel and Mildred—look alike. Marlowe—always under suspicion because of his professional identity as a private investigator—must rely on official documents to prove his identity to other characters in the novel. When he first meets Kingsley about the case, Marlowe gets his “wallet out and hand[s] him things to prove” (5) he is who he says he is—a private investigator. Later, when Marlowe meets Patton, he once again, “got [his] wallet out and showed him this and that” (61). The photo ID in his wallet comes up to prove his identity on several occasions.

However, Marlowe also uses fake identities in his line of work. He claims to be Philo Vance when he first meets Mrs. Fallbrook, one of Mildred’s identities. Both Marlowe and Mildred are lying at this moment about who they are. His false identity allows Marlowe to claim to be a bill collector instead of a private detective. Later, Marlowe impersonates H.G. Talbot to escape being framed for murder. As the detective-protagonist, Marlowe is responsible for seeing through others’ disguises: His jaundiced eye allows him to penetrate the layers of performance beneath which people hide their true, corrupt selves. At the same time, Marlowe’s fluency with the performance of identity allows him to perform false identities of his own, using falsehood to reach the truth.

Institutional Corruption

The corruption of the Bay City police force in The Lady in the Lake is an example of the institutional corruption that pervades the novel and that functions as a unifying theme across Chandler’s body of work. As an institution, the police department prioritizes the maintenance of its own power and reputation above the pursuit of truth or justice. Individual officers—like the corrupt Degarmo—take advantage of the institution’s power to advance their own corrupt goals.

In other books featuring the detective Philip Marlowe, Chandler examines the corruption of the Los Angeles police department. Bay City, a fictional suburb of Los Angeles, is not immune to corruption, but has at least one good cop, Webber. However, the fictional tiny town of Little Fawn Lake in the San Bernardino mountains has a tiny police force, just Sheriff Patton and his deputy Andy, who are not corrupt.

The most corrupt cop in the novel is Degarmo. He helped cover up the murder of Florence Almore, impersonated a Los Angeles police officer, killed his wife, and tried to frame Marlowe for murder. Marlowe first encounters Degarmo when he is at Lavery’s place, which is across the street from Doctor Almore’s place. Almore “called a cop just because [Marlowe] looked at his house” (105). Almore is paranoid because he, together with Mildred, killed his wife. He trusts that Degarmo will continue to cover up the murder and sends him to talk to Marlowe. Police cover-ups are common in Los Angeles, and Marlowe notes that similar things have “been done in cleaner little cities than Bay City ever tried to be” (107). Degarmo is the ultimate example of how supposedly idyllic suburbs by the Pacific Ocean are not immune to corruption. He dies at the end of the novel because he defies the orders of military sentries at the Puma Lake dam. He tells one of them to “to go jump in the lake” (199) when the sentry asks Degarmo to simply roll up his window. The World War II setting is highlighted by the military presence. Degarmo’s corruption from within the police department can be ended by military force, which was strongly empowered during the major war.

Other corrupt cops in Bay City are Dobbs and Cooney, who assault Marlowe and frame him for driving while intoxicated. Dobbes comments that “[t]hey wouldn’t want [Bay City] too clean. They might scare away a dirty dollar” (141). This indicates that Bay City is not a haven from corruption—instead, the small municipality derives revenue from crime. He talks freely about this with Marlowe because he is about to leave the police to join the army, suggesting the existence of a career pipeline between the corrupt police force and the more lucrative corruption of the nascent military-industrial complex in the 1940s. Cooney, on the other hand, is more interested in pure violence than Dobbs. He says, “I gotta see blood” (140) while he is punching Marlowe, and Dobbs has to hold Cooney back. Cooney is uninterested in the prestige of the military, but merely interested in abusing his power as a cop.

Finally, Captain Webber seems to be the best cop in Bay City. After learning about Marlowe’s assault, Webber says the following:

Police business […] is a hell of a problem. It’s a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there’s nothing in it to attract the highest type of men. So we have to work with what we get—and we get things like this (150).

The police force doesn’t offer many benefits other than being able to abuse one’s power over civilians. As an institution, it claims to value law and order, but many people who become cops tend to hate following the rules. Webber is more intelligent than Patton. However, they are both considered good cops by Marlowe, functioning as a counterpoint to the corruption of Degarmo, Dobbs, and Cooney.

The Power of the Outsider

A corollary to the institutional corruption that pervades Marlowe’s world is the power of the outsider to uncover this corruption. Marlowe’s independence as a private detective means that he is not involved in the corruption endemic to the police force and other powerful institutions. For this reason, he is widely despised by cops and criminals alike. Some people who are wary of the corrupt police turn to private detectives to find the truth. Like other detectives, Marlowe is nosy. He claims “A private dick can bother anybody. He’s persistent and used to snubs” (15). This capacity to persistently annoy people is part of the stigma. However, private eyes are especially annoying to people who are corrupt, because they worry that detectives will uncover their crimes. It’s a private detective’s “business to ask all sorts of questions of all sorts of people” (101). Marlowe talks to people of various professions, ages, and genders in various locations. Comfortable with his position as an outsider in every social milieu he enters, he does not worry about offending people, and this freedom from social fear allows him to pursue the truth.

Various civilians, including Kingsley, Lavery, and Bill Chess, are wary of private detectives because of their reputation for pushing the boundaries of the law. Even Kingsley, who hires Marlowe, is suspicious of him at first. Kingsley asks, “You do all kinds of detective work, don’t you?” (6), and Marlowe replies, “Not all kinds. Only the fairly honest kinds” (6). Marlowe is more honest, that is, has a stronger code of ethics, than the cops working in Bay City and Los Angeles. Kingsley overcomes the stigma against Marlowe because he wants to uncover the truth about Crystal and to protect his reputation. Both of these goals may not be achieved through police work, especially when cops are corrupt. During the course of his investigation, Marlowe also encounters prejudicial comments from the playboy Lavery. Lavery dislikes private detectives because he has a habit of being involved with married women. Investigating affairs is a common practice for private eyes, but Marlowe refuses to take on this kind of work, focusing instead on murder investigations.

Various cops are also wary of Marlowe’s independence as a private detective. For example, an unnamed, uniformed cop at the scene of Lavery’s murder “looked at [Marlowe] with deep suspicion” (116) after learning Marlowe that is a private detective. This is just one of many negative interactions that Marlowe has with the police. Even Patton, one of the good cops, thinks being a private detective is “[k]ind of smelly work” (62). The metaphor of a foul smell is suggestive of literal corruption, but in this case what it really means is that Marlowe’s work lacks the veneer of respectability that comes with membership in an institution like the police force. The police force, as a legally sanctioned institution, offers the appearance of cleanliness, while Marlowe’s work takes place in the shadows and thus appears “dirty.” This irony compounds the novel’s exploration of the distinction between appearances and reality: The police appear “clean” on the surface—even in their pressed, crisp uniforms—but this surface hides an underlying rot. Meanwhile, Marlowe’s seemingly corrupt exterior hides an underlying dedication to truth.