Fantomina And Double Indemnity Summary

Femme fatale is known to be a “fatal woman” who is characterized as a dangerous and seductive figure in different forms of text. In Fantomina and Double Indemnity, the female uses seduction to lure male counterpart into their world of terror. The character starts out with female characteristics and behaviors. David Crewe describes the female “alluring and enrapturing, film noir’s hapless protagonist is drawn to her like an insect to a spider’s web” (17). She goes inside the male character’s head and takes control of their mind and does what she sees fit to get what she wants. It is important to notice the female character development throughout the story because it depicts what she is going through before her downfall. In Fantomina, we know …show more content…
She tries to over throw the male figure but fails to complete the task and gets punished. Crewe points out, “She is ambitious – typically for money. Her desires are met through murder most foul, but she rarely commits the deed herself” (18). ¬¬¬¬She uses her sexually to seduce Walter like Fantomina did to Beauplaisir and to make Walter pity her. She turned herself into a male fantasy because she used the desire of powerful men to get what she wants, “I was thinking about that dame upstairs, and the way she had looked at me, and I wanted to see her again, close, without that silly staircase between us” (Wilder, Double Indemnity). Walter is hypnotized by Phyllis’s beauty and sexually. Phyllis “manipulates the men drawn into her orbit to kill for her” (Crewe, 18). He blames himself for Phyllis husband’s death. He goes through emotional change while she seeks money from her husband’s death. Walter starts to find out Phyllis is a cold-hearted person who seeks her own pleasures. She can only survive if she is harmless, unintimidating, and vulnerable. She lacks these characteristics bringing her to her doom. Her weakness is her greatest quality; her vulnerability is what guarantees that she is a good person, and still has feminine qualities and still deserves happiness. After Walter Watches Phyllis manipulate him into murdering her husband, slowly begins to realize that he is just being used, his desire turns into fear. He thought the crime was his idea and his great plan made it work. He realizes that Phyllis was not buying her freedom to be with him, he knew the solution was to kill her. At night Walter comes to her house while she hides a gun in the bed. She takes the gun out and shoots Walter wounding him but not being able to finish him off. She feels sympathetic and shows her feminine qualities and expresses her feelings for Walter. Walter does not hesitate; he shoots her in the