The Lady in the Lake

Mildred, who takes on several identities, is a classic femme fatale. She takes advantage of the objectification that is commonplace in her patriarchal society to slip seamlessly between multiple identities, evoking fears about Identity and Deception. Most men in Mildred’s world regard all young, blond women as essentially interchangeable, and she leverages this failure of vision to get away with murder, reducing herself to a set of conventional signifiers of femininity and glamor that belong equally to all the women whose identities she takes on. In this way, she fulfills the literary function of the femme fatale, embodying patriarchal anxieties about the social performance of femininity. Marlowe doesn’t reveal all her identities until the very end of the novel. Mildred is an antagonist and a murderer. Marlowe says to her, “You’re a cold-blooded little bitch if I ever saw one” (169). Prior to Marlowe working for Kingsley, Mildred marries Degarmo. He helps her cover up the murder of her boss’s wife, Florence Almore, but she ends up leaving him.

Next, Mildred becomes Muriel and marries Bill Chess. Patton says Muriel is a “mighty cute little blonde when she fixed herself up. She kind of let herself go with Bill” (64). After Bill and Muriel are together for over a year, Muriel leaves a note saying she’d rather be dead than be with Bill. Muriel kills Crystal and uses her corpse to fake the death of Muriel Chess. Afterwards, Muriel impersonates Crystal and kills Lavery when his encounter with the fake Crystal threatens to expose her.

When she revisits the scene of Lavery’s murder, she pretends to be his landlady, Mrs. Fallbrook. Unlike her previous identities, Fallbrook has “untidy brown hair” (85). Mildred also has brown hair when she pretends to be Crystal, after pretending to be Mrs. Fallbrook, in order to get money from Kingsley. In the end, Degarmo kills Mildred and frames it as Marlowe killing Crystal.

Al Degarmo is a “detective-lieutenant” (23) in the Bay City police department. Marlowe describes Degarmo as a “big cop” (117). He has worked in the department longer than his boss, Captain Webber. Degarmo also takes on a false identity. When looking for Mildred in Little Fawn Lake, Degarmo calls himself De Soto and claims to be a police officer with the Los Angeles department. Degarmo is another antagonist and the most corrupt cop in the novel. His corruption includes covering up the murder of Florence, as well as killing Mildred and framing it as Marlowe killing Crystal. Marlowe says, “You are a stupid man, Degarmo” (146). Degarmo is not nearly as intelligent as Marlowe is. His blatant disregard for authority gets him shot by a military sentry at the Puma Lake dam in the last chapter of The Lady in the Lake.

Webber, on the other hand, is one of the rare decent cops that Marlowe encounters. He is a foil to Degarmo because of their opposing moralities and physical appearances. Webber is “a small man for a cop, middle-aged, thin-faced, with a permanently tired expression” (116). He is able to recognize that there are issues within the Bay City police force, as well as within his profession as a whole. He tries to get Marlowe to press charges against the officers who assault him, meaning Webber is willing to help get justice for the victims of corrupt cops. However, his power is limited; he can’t truly protect Marlowe because corruption is so pervasive among law enforcement officers.

Marlowe works for Kingsley throughout The Lady in the Lake. Kingsley hires Marlowe to find his wife Crystal, who has been spotted with Lavery (though in fact this is Mildred disguised as Crystal). Kingsley is “six feet two and not much of it soft” (4). His assistant, Miss Fromsett, calls him “Derry” (190). Kingsley wants to be with Fromsett instead of Crystal. He also wants to find Crystal without alerting the police, because Crystal has a history of shoplifting that he has covered up with money. Kingsley is very well off, runs the Gillerlain Company, and lives in Beverly Hills. Marlowe pretends to suspect that Kingsley killed Crystal, but this is just a ruse to prevent Degarmo and Mildred from realizing that they are under suspicion.

The first character Marlowe meets in the novel is Miss Fromsett. She is a foil to Mildred—a good woman in Marlowe’s eyes. He is immediately attracted to her, describing her as “a tall, dark-haired lovely” (2) and admiring her “dark eyes” (191). Marlowe also admires her intelligence and style. He says, “She’s no office cutie though. She has brains and style” (187). Fromsett, however, is in love with Kingsley. Prior to falling for Kingsley, she dated Lavery. On this topic, she says, “Women—even decent women—make such ghastly mistakes about men” (110). Fromsett assists Marlowe in his investigation and stands by Kingsley in the end.

Chris Lavery is an attractive playboy—a superficial and static character. Marlowe calls Lavery a “nice piece of beef” (15) and a “beautiful hunk” (19). He is good looking, but not very deep. Lavery dates Fromsett and Crystal, as well as other women, until Mildred kills him. His corpse is the second to be found by Marlowe in the novel, and it is not in the lake, but in Bay City.

Lavery’s neighbor in Bay City is Albert S. Almore, a doctor. Marlowe describes him as a “thin man” (20) and notes that he behaves suspiciously. This is because he and Mildred—his nurse—killed Florence Almore. He and Mildred drugged Florence and put her in the garage to make it seem like she died by suicide. Almore was also briefly Crystal’s doctor. He is a generally static and corrupt character. His deceased wife, Florence, is described by Fromsett as “one of those slinky glittering females who laugh too much and sprawl all over their chairs, showing a great deal of leg. A very light blonde” (105-06). Florence is also described as a “wild and difficult girl” (131) by her father, Eustace Grayson. However, Florence herself never appears in the novel; she is only described by other characters after her death.

Marlowe does speak with Florence’s parents, Eustace Grayson, an accountant, and Lettie. They are reluctant to talk to Marlowe about Florence or about the other private investigator they hired. Eventually, they give Marlowe information about where he can find the wife of the private investigator, Talley. Talley also does not appear in the novel, and Marlowe only sees his wife from a distance. Marlowe and Mrs. Talley talk through the door of her place. She says she is very ill and can’t get up.

Marlowe also talks with Birdie Keppel, a Bay City reporter and hairdresser. She gives him information about Mildred, Muriel, and De Soto. Birdie is a flat character who only appears briefly in The Lady in the Lake.