The Idolatrous Miracle of Love

She remains fiercely independent even when faced with her own destruction.

Her ability to hold both the hero and the audience spellbound continues throughout the film to the point of her death and beyond. "At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols." "He keeps me on a leash so tight I can't breathe." Of the three types of noir women, the femme fatale represents the most direct attack on traditional womanhood and the nuclear family. She refuses to play the role of devoted wife and loving mother that mainstream society prescribes for women. She finds marriage to be confining, loveless, sexless, and dull, and she uses all of her cunning and sexual attractiveness to gain her independence.