50 pages • 1 hour read
Dashiell HammettThe Thin Man
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1934A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Nick Charles, a 41-year-old ex-detective, waits at a New York City speakeasy for his wife, Nora, to finish Christmas shopping. A young woman introduces herself as Dorothy Wynant, the daughter of an inventor named Clyde Wynant, who is one of Nick’s former clients. She asks if Nick has seen him, as she hasn’t since he divorced her mother, Mimi. Nick says he has not and suggests asking Herbert Macaulay, Wynant’s lawyer. While Dorothy calls Macaulay, Nora arrives with their dog, Asta. Dorothy successfully contacts Macaulay and arranges a meeting. Nick introduces Nora to Dorothy, who says her mother is remarried with the last name of Jorgensen and that they should come to see her.
Chapter 2 Summary
The next day, Macaulay wakes Nick up mid-morning with a phone call, and Nick asks him to his hotel for lunch. While he and Nora try to cure their hangovers with more drinks, someone calls for Macaulay and asks that he call the office as soon as he arrives. Nick tells Nora he worked several jobs for Macaulay and that he seems to be a good lawyer. Macauley arrives and calls his office as requested. He tells Nick the call was to tell him that Wynant is back in town and wants to meet with Macaulay. He asks Nick what’s happening, as first Mimi and then Dorothy called him asking where Wynant is. He assumed Nick was helping them find him, but Nick says he is no longer a detective and is too busy managing his wife’s estate. Macauley says he hasn’t seen Wynant for months and doesn’t know what he’s been doing.
Chapter 3 Summary
The next morning, Nora hands Nick the newspaper. Wynant’s secretary, Julia Wolf, was shot dead in her apartment. Mimi found her, and the police are looking for Wynant as a suspect. Nora asks if Wynant killed her, and Nick says it wouldn’t surprise him since Wynant is “batty as hell” (10). Nick says they met when Wynant hired him to protect Wynant from an inventor named Rosewater, who accused Wynant of stealing his ideas. When Nora asks if Wynant did steal the ideas, Nick evades the question.
Chapter 4 Summary
Nick takes Asta for a walk and has drinks on the way home. When he gets to the Normandie, a party is going on with guests, including Dorothy Wynant. She asks Nick about her father’s relationship with Julia Wolf and her death and starts to cry. Nora walks in on Nick hugging Dorothy, who is embarrassed and apologizes. A man who refers to himself as Albert Norman calls Nick on the phone, but as soon as he says he has a proposition, there is a loud noise, and the phone goes dead. Nora helps Dorothy retouch her makeup, and they rejoin the party. The latest paper arrives, and Nora hides it from Dorothy but shows it to Nick. It says that Julia has been connected with a racketeer named Arthur Nunheim and that Wynant is still missing.
Chapter 5 Summary
It is Christmas Eve, and Nora can’t sleep. She wakes Nick. They have drinks and talk about their presents for each other and helping Dorothy. Nick wants to stay out of it. The phone rings, and it’s Dorothy. She is drunk and in their lobby. She arrives saying she can’t go home because she’s afraid of her stepfather and shows them a gun she says she got at a speakeasy in exchange for her bracelet, but the bracelet is still on her wrist. Nick takes the gun, and they put her to bed. She gets up but passes out next to Nick and Nora while they eat late-night sandwiches.
Chapter 6 Summary
The next morning, the three have breakfast when Mimi and her husband, Chris Jorgensen, arrive. Mimi tries to get information about Wynant, but Nick insists he knows nothing. She tells him the police think a gangster named Morelli killed Julia since he was her lover, but they haven’t caught him. Mimi says she wants to find Wynant for her children’s sake, but Nick doesn’t buy it. Nora asks them to stay for a small cocktail party they are having. Mimi hints that she and Nick had a relationship in the past, and Dorothy looks unhappy about it.
Chapter 7 Summary
Nora helps Dorothy freshen up for the gathering. Dorothy asks if there was anything between Nick and her mother, to which Nick replies, “You’re a dope, but don’t look so embarrassed. You can’t help it if you’ve got a dirty mind” (28). The other guests arrive, and they all have drinks and play cards. Nick and Nora agree to go to the Jorgensens’ for dinner the next night, and when they leave, Nora declares that Chris is very handsome.
Chapter 8 Summary
The newspapers report that Nick is working on the Julia Wolf mystery. A man with a gun forces his way into their apartment and insists he didn’t kill Julia. It is Shep Morelli, who the police think is the murderer. Nick insists that he has nothing to do with the investigation and that Morelli needs to tell the police. Morelli says he can’t go to the police, as he recently put a police captain in the hospital. The police knock. Morelli is spooked and shoots. Nick pushes Nora out of harm’s way and tackles Morelli. The police force their way in. They capture and beat Morelli before handcuffing him. When Nora wakes up, she is disappointed, saying she wanted to see Nick take down the gunman, a comment that impresses the policeman in charge, John Guild. Nick has a minor gunshot wound and isn’t cooperative when Guild asks about his involvement in the case and Morelli shooting him. They find the gun Dorothy left and ask where it came from, but again Nick stays quiet. The doctor comes and patches Nick up while the police search the house. Guild backs away from a confrontation, promising to return when Nick feels better. They all have a drink, and Guild seems enamored with Nora, complimenting her to Nick before leaving with Morelli.
Chapters 1-8 Analysis
The opening line of The Thin Man introduces a different kind of detective than Hammett’s Sam Spade or Continental Op: “I was leaning against the bar in the speakeasy on Fifty-Second Street, waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping, when a girl got up from the table where she had been sitting with three other people and came over to me” (3). Nick Charles waits without irony or resentment as his wife shops. Second, the holiday season adds a mood of fun and frivolity that is the opposite of what is usually found in the genre. Finally, the opening line launches the plot, as Hammett’s lean writing style has Dorothy approaching Nick before the conclusion of the first sentence.
Hammett continues to use indirect characterization to develop Nick’s character and situation in the first chapter. Nick’s ever-present cocktails and Nora’s entrance reinforce a leisurely lifestyle, as she mentions the high-end stores at which she shopped. The first chapter indirectly establishes that they are wealthy despite the novel’s setting in the Great Depression. Nick and Nora’s early dialog reveals a witty, bantering rapport that is the surface expression of deep-seated trust. Conversations such as the exchange concerning Christmas presents show both the teasing manner between them and the rapidity of their minds. While the couple excels at witty banter, Nick’s sarcasm and evasive answers keep him in the hardboiled tradition. He rarely answers a question directly. When Nora asks if Wynant cheated Rosewater, Nick replies, “This is Christmas Eve: try to think good of your fellow man” (11).
Other vital characters are established in the first section. Dorothy Wynant’s crush on Nick is apparent from the first page, and by the second chapter, she is crying in his arms, setting her up as a damsel in distress typical of the genre. Mimi, her mother, appears to be the classic femme fatale as she entices Nick to find Wynant for her own nefarious reasons. Finally, Macaulay, who is eventually revealed to be the killer, is introduced as a “pretty good lawyer” (6), and his straight, humorless dialog makes him appear to be the least likely character to have committed the crime by hardboiled genre conventions.
Hammett’s streamlined style wastes no time introducing The Inescapable Past. Dorothy approaches Nick as a detective, something he hasn’t worked at in years. It is, however, the way she and the rest of the characters see him throughout the novel. This past affects both Nick and Nora, such as when they’re held at gunpoint by Morelli, who refuses to believe Nick isn’t involved in the case. Similarly, the only reason Nick is invited by the police to get involved is Guild’s youthful memories of seeing Nick in action.
Humor as an Antidote for Darkness is also introduced almost immediately. Against the backdrop of the Depression, Nick and Nora’s banter provides lightness. Hammett's device of having Nick describe serious things with humorous and incongruous diction makes the subjects seem less dark than they are. Rather than discussing potentially serious mental problems, Nick describes Wynant as “batty as hell” and “screwy” (10). In traditional hardboiled fiction, characters are indirect and sarcastic in order to hide their feelings and motivations and to keep others guessing about what they know. Hammett’s The Thin Man, by contrast, employs the characteristic indirections of such novels but exchanges sarcasm for wit. Macaulay tries to check his humor in a characteristically contrasting manner, saying, “That’s no joke […] you heard they had him in a sanitarium for nearly a year back in ’29?” (7). This difference in tone highlights a deeper difference between the characters that will become evident as the book goes on—a man who keeps a sense of humor versus one who falls deep enough into despair to commit murder.
The verbal humor is accompanied by physical comedy, with Asta knocking over tables of presents, Nick making faces at Nora when he is caught embracing Dorothy, and Nick knocking Nora down to get her out of the way of a gunman. Nick and Nora bring a humorous effervescence and physical comedy that make the otherwise bleak world of the novel seem fun.
This entertaining world is, nonetheless, populated by liars and criminals. The humor of the protagonists often obscures the fact that most of the characters lie from the first page. Further, criminality pervades the novel, not least in Nick and Nora’s vast alcohol consumption during Prohibition. Truth and Justice in a Corrupt World is impossible to achieve when even the seemingly honest protagonist responds to the question of whether the stories he told are true with a glib “probably not” (3). Nick further hints that his former client Wynant may have been guilty of stealing Rosewater’s inventions.
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