Hannibal Lecter… For those who know who this man is, does the only mention of his name give you goosebumps? What do you feel when hearing about him if not fear? Well, maybe you think he is somehow nice, and you feel empathy for him, but either way, Lecter is a very interesting character, and this is why I decided to see what makes him so frightening for most people. The novel I will take as a reference in this post is The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, originally published in 1988.
The first thing is that he is in fact a very charismatic man. For example, when Clarice Starling, the investigator, goes to the psychiatric hospital to meet with Lecter, a patient called Miggs talks to her in a crude and rude way, which would suggest that this man may be mentally deranged. On the contrary, during her first visit at the hospital, Lecter is extremely polite with her, and acts like a gentleman. Indeed, his gentleman-like behaviors make him even more scary since there is no way someone can know whether he is “good” or “bad” without previously knowing from the beginning that he murders people to eat them afterwards.
Lecter needs information to use his psychological power. Without information, he is lost. This means that without information, he has nothing. This reminds us slightly of Dracula from Bram Stoker’s novel, right? Dracula’s power comes from the information he obtains from the blood he drinks, or from the years he has lived. Hence, to stay alive in this modern world, he seeks information. It is similar in the case of Hannibal Lecter. He is indeed a surgeon, but also a psychiatrist. Psychiatry requires a superior knowledge of how the human brain works, and also of social behaviors, which can often be associated to different mental illnesses. Therefore, a psychiatrist must know his or her patients in order to help them properly. The problem in Lecter’s case is that he may be too good at his job, for he instantly knows much information even before the person tells anything. Moreover, once he is told some information, he is able to play with one’s mind to make him or her do what he wants to a certain extent. An example of his need of information is when Clarice Starling investigates the case of Fredrica Bimmel, and for all the information he gives her, he asks for information about her in return, despite the fact that Crawford clearly told her to avoid revealing to him any personal information.
Briefly, if you are boring, according to his standards, you will not last long. The issue is, we do not know how Lecter defines “boring”. This means that there is no way we can adjust to him to avoid being killed because we do not have any clues as to what he considers as boring or not. Therefore, we are kept in obscurity when it comes to Hannibal’s thoughts while this knowledge is the only thing that could possibly save us from a horrible death. In other words, Hannibal does not need to have a motif to kill. It does not matter to him whether we did something wrong or not. That is, he can decide to kill someone because that person did something he disliked, or just because a person is not entertaining enough for him.
Finally, the previous characteristics make him the “perfect” serial killer, but they also show that from the outside, he is the most ordinary human being. Hence, from this fact, another frightful thought arises: there could be a Hannibal Lecter everywhere we go. We do not know what is going on in other people’s minds, and if Lecter is able to hide his true nature so well, then, how many people are able to do it too?
After reading these traits of character, are you now scared of Hannibal Lecter? I know there are many opinions about whether he is good or bad, and it is actually quite interesting to see that a serial killer can make people hesitate in that manner.
Are you one of those who think he is fundamentally good, or fundamentally bad? Or neither?
DelphineC
R&D Gothic Discoveries 