Hannibal Lecter the Character
It's been quite some time since there's been new material on this blog, but with summer cooking like it has been, I'm afraid I've been too busy to post! However, I don't want to leave my blog a dusty corner of the Web so in the next week or two I will be posting some material that's just been sitting around on my computer. The following is from an essay originally titled "Human Beast: Analysis of Dr. Lecter" which I wrote for my Textual Analysis class last year.
Man is the world’s most dangerous animal. Though we do not possess sharp teeth, claws, poisonous stingers, or the ability to perceive heat radiated by other creatures, we do possess an unsurpassed ability to reason and think. Man has intelligence, the deadliest natural weapon of all. In Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs, readers are introduced to Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic psychiatrist, who fuses a razor-honed intellect with the savage qualities of a beast. He is both man and monster, but it is the balance of these two aspects that gives him the depth that still fascinates and horrifies to this day.
Even before the readers see Lecter, other characters make references to his monstrousness, giving him the presence of a Bogeyman. In the first chapter, Jack Crawford warns Clarice Starling to not let Lecter into her head and tells her to remember “what he did to Will Graham.” Without even seeing Lecter, the readers know he is dangerous in more ways than one. He not only has a penchant for consuming human flesh, but also for feeding on the emotions of his victims.
Frederick Chilton fans the flames of fear when Starling goes to the asylum to visit Lecter. He shows her the photo evidence of what Lecter did to a nurse when he was freed from his restraints. Like a wild animal, Lecter had broken her jaw, eaten her tongue, and ravaged the rest of her face. The image is enough to make Starling cry, which is significant because she only cries a few times throughout the novel. This scene adds to
Man is the world’s most dangerous animal. Though we do not possess sharp teeth, claws, poisonous stingers, or the ability to perceive heat radiated by other creatures, we do possess an unsurpassed ability to reason and think. Man has intelligence, the deadliest natural weapon of all. In Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs, readers are introduced to Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic psychiatrist, who fuses a razor-honed intellect with the savage qualities of a beast. He is both man and monster, but it is the balance of these two aspects that gives him the depth that still fascinates and horrifies to this day.
Even before the readers see Lecter, other characters make references to his monstrousness, giving him the presence of a Bogeyman. In the first chapter, Jack Crawford warns Clarice Starling to not let Lecter into her head and tells her to remember “what he did to Will Graham.” Without even seeing Lecter, the readers know he is dangerous in more ways than one. He not only has a penchant for consuming human flesh, but also for feeding on the emotions of his victims.
Frederick Chilton fans the flames of fear when Starling goes to the asylum to visit Lecter. He shows her the photo evidence of what Lecter did to a nurse when he was freed from his restraints. Like a wild animal, Lecter had broken her jaw, eaten her tongue, and ravaged the rest of her face. The image is enough to make Starling cry, which is significant because she only cries a few times throughout the novel. This scene adds to