Hannibal Lecter Character Analysis Essay

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The Character Hannibal Lecter, from Thomas Harris's series of suspense novels as well as the movie adaptations, represents the bestial truth behind every man and woman. Lecter was a renowned psychiatrist with cannibalistic tendencies and a thirst for vengeance. The scariest element of Hannibal was how human he was; furthermore, Hannibal wasn't a vampire, werewolf, or zombie, he was an extremely intelligent and polite man who was partially a victim of remarkably unfortunate circumstances. The juxtaposition of the monster within Lecter and the civil, rational human being part of Lecter gives him depth of character and makes him more relatable to the audience, scaring them more than any supernatural monster ever could. Hannibal Lecter experienced
Hannibal loved his sister dearly and tried to protect her the best he could, later on he would question his protection and blame himself for his sister's death because Mischa had such a special place in his heart. At just the age of eight Hannibal and Mischa were captured by deserters from the war. These deserters tortured the children mentally and cannibalized Mischa, but Hannibal escaped, only to be traumatized and rendered mute. When Mischa died from cannibalism, her spot in Hannibal's heart was left empty leaving room for hate and pain to fill the space. Hannibal soon developed an obsession with revenge and in the process also became secluded and bottled up his emotions, shown by his mute nature and aggressions towards bullies. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, had the idea that around the first six or so years of an individual's life is when they truly develop into the person they will be for the rest of their lives. This can support the idea that Hannibal became such a dangerous person because of his background;
There were multiple dimensions to Hannibal; for example, he showed signs of a sociopath in that "his pulse never got above 85, even when he ate [the nurses] tongue" (Silence of the Lambs 1991). But despite his obvious socially unacceptable behavior Hannibal still presents signs of compassion. For example, although Hannibal was a serial killer he was not born a monster and took care of both his sister and Lady Murasaki. Moreover; besides for simple amusement Hannibal helped aid in the capture of infamous serial killers because of his knack for perception and ability to profile people. There was also a certain gentleman presence to Hannibal and he mentioned multiple times in his adulthood how important politeness and common courtesy was to him. In Hannibal's serial killer adulthood Mr. Barney Matthews was one of the few people that Hannibal did not in fact consider a threat or found amusement in torturing, Barney explains that he believes it was because he was always courteous to Hannibal and treated him like a person instead of a patient. It is my belief that Hannibal overly prioritizes politeness in an attempt to create the more sophisticated life that he believes he deserves; futhermore, Hannibal kills those who are not to his standards of acceptance in order to cleanse his world. Hannibal Lecter exhibited narcissism and lack of empathy but somewhat still

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