Dreams and Dashiell Hammett's "The Glass Key"

More regarding my re-reading of Dashiell Hammett...

Working my way through "Dashiell Hammett: Five Complete Novels"...

The novel "The Glass Key" is very sublty based on dreams.

The title is a key that appears in a dream to one of the characters.  This is revealed by her (the character in question) in the last scene of the novel;  her and the main character of the book had revealed to each other somewhat earlier in the book that each had a dream shortly after they met,  but she reveals in the final scene that she had left out some details and added to her earlier recount of the dream.

The Dreams Summarized:

1. Ned's dream:  he and the Senator's daughter are fishing in a mountain stream.  He catches a brightly colored trout,  but she throws it back in the water.

2. Her dream (as she first told it): They are walking in the woods.  They come to a house and knock on the door.. there is no answer... they look in the window & there's food on a table inside.  Knock again no answer. Try opening the door... no luck.
  She remembers that people typically hide a key under the doormat... she looks and there it is. They unlock the door and open it... the floor inside is covered with snakes that start coming toward the door.  Close the door.  They climb onto he roof... he leans down unlocks the door & pushes it open... the snakes come out & go into the woods.  They go inside and eat the food.  It's really good.
  (AS SHE TOLD IT ON LAST PAGE OF NOVEL): [same up to finding the key] It is a glass key.  Turning the lock is difficult... it turns and unlocks,  but the key shatters.  She opens the door... the snakes rush her... she is covered with snakes.  She wakes up screaming.

So... the story of the novel has been about gangsters pushing politicians around, about speakeasys, about gangsters beating people up.  About murders.  About lying and cheating and lowlifes of all varieties.  But the last few paragraphs reveal that the whole book is a metaphor for human existence.

Essence is that in reality, we are all besieged by snakes in life (of life?).  That we have beauty in hand and throw it away.  That dreams tell us something about our life.  That while life may be a floor of snakes, if we work at it we may overcome it. That dreams tell us what we need to work on.