Silence of the lambs: psychological and narrative analysis

Silence Lambs good portion of Jonathan Demme's 1991 film Silence of the Lambs is set in a psychiatric prison. With bars between inmate Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) and Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), tension is visually and symbolically apparent between the two protagonists. The setting for the story could not possibly be anywhere else. What makes Hannibal Lecter such a remarkable villain is that he conducts his affairs and works his wily plans from behind bars. He is brilliant, and the setting proves that it is Lecter's mind that makes him the genius serial killer that he is. The audience is simultaneously creeped out by Dr. Lecter's cannibalism and intrigued with his mind just as Starling is. Therefore, the primary setting for the film parallels the paradoxes and tensions inherent in the story: parallel bars are but a small barrier between Lecter and Starling, who develop an oddly intimate relationship during the course of the movie.

The relationship between Starling and Lecter is one of mutual respect but also of mutual suspicion and aversion. Starling is the obvious heroine of Silence of the Lambs. She is a rookie agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and thus not yet jaded by her job. Her naivety and innocence, her willingness to trust Hannibal Lecter just enough, helps set the tone and pacing for the film. However new she is to criminal investigations, Clarice Starling is no idiot and Lecter knows it. His respect of her proves that Lecter also sees in Starling something of himself. Starling is morally upright. She strays from the official procedures for interviews but only because of the special circumstances of the Lecter case. Starling never acts in a way that would compromise her moral values and she is determined to catch Buffalo Bill, not to undermine the intelligence of Hannibal Lecter. She uses Lecter to investigate Bill and never once belittles the psychiatrist. Her fear-driven respect for Lecter endears him to her; Lecter aids Starling's investigation as a form of entertainment.

Lecter is the epitome of a sociopath. He has no ethical qualms about killing or consuming his victims. His mind is acute. His decisions are not as much immoral as they are amoral; Lecter does not believe in right vs. wrong in terms of his own behavior. He is far more concerned with his own personal victories in outsmarting a system he is familiar with, of proving himself to be a superior human being with greater intelligence than the mass of humanity he belittles by his cannibalistic behavior. He mocks humanity, he self-aggrandizes, and he makes no excuse for his actions except as a form of self-indulgence. Neither Lector nor Starling change dramatically during the course of the movie, but Starling does become wiser after her encounters with Lecter. Her innocence is all but absent toward the end of the film, but she is nevertheless as optimistic and as professionally driven as she was when she first became a federal agent. Hannibal Lecter changes not one bit; he is a complex character but a static one.