Hannibal Lecter: Profile of a

“A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.”

Of all characters in literature, few come close to the complexity and evil that is embodied by Hannibal Lecter. Thomas Harris took several characteristics of serial killers in the creation of Lecter, cannibalism being the key aspect of Lecter’s psychopathology. Harris also based the character Jame Gumb, or Buffalo Bill, on the real life serial killer Ed Gein. Gein liked to dress up in the skins of his female victims, just as Buffalo Bill did. This was Bill’s signature, whereas Lecter’s was cannibalism. Lecter, however, is not satisfied to just eat his victims, he must feast on them. This usually involves elaborate preparations of five star meals, as exemplified by Lecter’s victim Paul Krendler, who had his living brain served to Agent Starling by Lecter.

Most serial killers also personalize their victims, that is, mutilate or position their victims in certain ways. Lecter seems to have a penchant for personalization, as demonstrated by his killing of Italian inspector Rinaldo Pazzi. Lecter disemboweled and hung Pazzi in the same Venetian plaza that Pazzi’s ancesto

r was hanged. This personalization, is also evident in the killing of Paul Krendler, who, as mentioned before, had his brain served to both himself and Clarice Starling. Krendler was Starling’s nemesis in the FBI and Lecter knew this. He killed Krendler in the presence of Starling as and act of personalization and in a profession of love to her.

All these traumatic childhood events encompass Lecter’s fantasy, that is, to slay Mischa’s killers and restore her to her proper, aristocratic place in the world. This explains his infatuation with Starling, who serves as his surrogate Mischa. Harris would like us to believe that the first chance Lecter gets he will kill Clarice, but in fact she couldn’t be safer from him. By the end of the third book, “Hannibal,” it would appear that Lecter has achieved this fantasy of his. But is Clarice a suitable substitute for Mischa? Only time will tell.

There is another way of approaching this subject though. Perhaps it is that Lecter, from a social-cognitive perspective, learned these behaviors as a child from his captors. That is to say, he learned his psychopathology from the cannibals that killed his sister. Such a view is not out of the question, it does not, however, address his victimology, or his penchant for opulence in the preparation of his victims. The aristocratic heritage that he was brought up in may be the source of the fine dining he needs to satisfy his fantasy, and this may also be the cause of his contempt for those he sees as “below” him. This approach does

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