Double Indemnity

Walter Neff is a man who justifies his actions by deriving them from a place of charity or protection even if they're not beneficial. The whole movie is based around him wanting to save a damsel in distress my killing an innocent man. He was persuaded into killing Mr. Dietrich by his false characterization provided by Phyllis who was manipulative. This paints Walter as weak because he is easily influenced and lacks the ability to distinguish between a moral and just decision of ridding a woman of an emotional abusive husband and the heinous crime of taking another man's life. He is weak because he lets emotion cloud his judgment. He cared more about the fantasy of running off with a woman he hardly knows than risking a life of imprisonment. The facade of a strong man crumbled when he was asking constant questions and showing Phyllis that he was unsure and nervous about the act of killing. This gave Phyllis the  "upper-hand' in a sense because it solidified her position of control, which Walter thought he had at the start of the movie. Phyllis later turns this around at the end of the movie when Walter accuses her of planning her husband's death before they had ever met.  He claimed that she was evil and rotten to try to make her feel guilt and manipulate her into going to the cops. Neff is portrayed as weak and manipulative.

 

His relationship with women really defines who he is. The other prevalent woman character is Lola. They had a weird relationship, where he was really protective. Mind you, he only knew her for a short period of time. Both Phyllis and Lola enabled an equal amount of action from him. Lola was like the angel on Walter's shoulder and Phyllis, a devil where he always sided with Phyllis. The key difference was that the enabling of action occurred at different times.  Phyllis at the beginning, ,and Lola at the end.  He wanted to prove to them that he had their best intentions at heart. In Phyllis's case, it was making sure she got the insurance money and for Lola, providing guidance. It appeared that he wanted both women to be successful in their futures because he was so involved in the intimate decisions they chose. I believe that Walter Neff should be viewed as an average man who committed transgressions and  tried to resolve them once he understood the extent of malicious intent of his co-conspirator