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VOL. 10, ISSUE 6 (2024)
The moral character of Philip Marlowe: Complexity and nuance in the ethical life of Chandler’s detective hero
Authors
Terry Hyland
Abstract
The central character in Raymond Chandler’s seven acclaimed detective
novels – the private eye, Philip Marlowe – is, according to his creator, a man
of honour and a kind of hero and, as a man for our times, an archetype who may
be compared to Sherlock Holmes, James Bond or the eponymous stranger in Clint
Eastwood’s famous Western movies. Chandler’s novels – though derided by the
author himself as pulp fiction and merely escape literature – are now
considered to be classical paradigms of a certain kind of hard-boiled detective
fiction and appear on English Literature reading lists in colleges and
universities throughout the world. In this article, I will be analysing the
novels in terms of the moral principles and practice of the central character
of Philip Marlowe. In particular, the nuances of ethical conflicts and dilemmas
will be explored as Marlowe struggles to navigate his way through the shadowy
and morally corrupt world he inhabits, seeking to exact justice without
compromising his deeply held core values. Moral education programmes now make
extensive use of literary sources and – given the prominence of the type of
fiction that Chandler helped to pioneer – I will conclude with examples of the
ways in which ethical lessons may be drawn from examining the character of
Marlowe.
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Pages:4-9
How to cite this article:
Terry Hyland "The moral character of Philip Marlowe: Complexity and nuance in the ethical life of Chandler’s detective hero". International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, Vol 10, Issue 6, 2024, Pages 4-9
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