Monologue In The Lon

“She was worth a star. She was trouble. She stretched out on a modernistic chaise-longue with her slippers off, so I stared at her legs in the sheerest silk stockings. They seemed to be arranged to stare at. They were visible to the knee and one of them well beyond. The knees were dimpled, not bony and sharp. The calves were beautiful, the ankles long and slim and with enough melodic line for a tone poem. She was tall and rangy and strong-looking. Her head was against an ivory satin cushion. Her hair was black and wiry and parted in the middle and she had the hot black eyes of the portrait in the hall. She had a good mouth and good chin. There was a sulky droop to her lips and the lower lip was full.”(Chandler, 17) This passage from The Big Sleep exemplifies literary elements through dialogue and charcters. An inner monologue is used in this passage to describe how this woman looks and how he feels about her. This inner monologue is very common in hard-boiled detective books and films. This is especially common for the character Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep and in films like The …show more content…
In this scene Al’s inner monologue in able to be heard before there is a flashback. The inner monologue is a very common element of film noir. Films like Double Indemnity and The Long Goodbye use an inner monologue. The lighting in this shot is all focused on Al’s eyes with light behind him along with the close up on his face. The light behind Al symbolizes the past. He does not want to return to the past because he just committed two murders and he is trying to escape them. This is common in film noir and is seen in movies like Murder My Sweet, where Philip Marlowe is wanted by cops until he proves himself innocent. The light on his eyes and face amplifies the worried expression because he thinks the cops won’t believe his