Hannibal Lecter - An Intelligent Psychopath?
Hannibal Lecter - An Intelligent Psychopath? What would any normal person think of when they pictured a homicidal cannibalistic psychopath? Someone who was mentally sick and twisted, with a very low intelligence level, and someone who could not properly distinguish between right and wrong. It would be very unlikely that such a psychopath would be thought of as intelligent. Hannibal Lecter is the homicidal cannibalistic psychopath created in Thomas Harris’ novel ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’. Hannibal Lecter is portrayed in the story as a genius who is capable of many intellectual achievements, but at the same time is a cannibalistic murderer. Lecter was described to have committed many savage deeds connected to his cannibalistic appetite. For example, eating a man’s liver. "A census taker tried to quantify once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone," This reveals a sardonic side to Lecter’s humour. But he still does not feel that it is wrong to murder people by eating them. This is what he
truly feels and we discover this when he says, "Can you stand to say I’m evil? Am I evil, Officer Starling?" "I think you’ve been destructive. For me it’s the same thing." "Evil’s just destructive? Then storms are evil, if it’s that simple. And we have fire, and then there’s hail, Underwriters lump it all under ‘Acts of God’,". This proved to me that Lecter, although was a very intelligent psychiatrist, he could not distinguish between right and wrong correctly. It is therefore a side to him which is not so bright. Another example of Lecter’s sardonic humour is when ...
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truly feels and we discover this when he says, "Can you stand to say I’m evil? Am I evil, Officer Starling?" "I think you’ve been destructive. For me it’s the same thing." "Evil’s just destructive? Then storms are evil, if it’s that simple. And we have fire, and then there’s hail, Underwriters lump it all under ‘Acts of God’,". This proved to me that Lecter, although was a very intelligent psychiatrist, he could not distinguish between right and wrong correctly. It is therefore a side to him which is not so bright. Another example of Lecter’s sardonic humour is when he is discussing one of his patient’s whom he ate. "Frankly I got sick and tired of his whining. Best thing for him, really. Therapy wasn’t going anywhere. I expect most psychiatrists have a patient or two they’d like to refer to me." But there were many other incidents where Lecter said and did things which showed a completely different side to him; one which was so clever and could easily impress anyone. An example of this was when from such limited information he came to a conclusion which was so accurate that it was almost unbelievable. The FBI agent who was investigating the actions of one of Lecter’s former patients who was currently roaming the country killing young women in atrocious fashions received a note from Lecter which read, "O wrangling schools, that search what fire, Shall burn this world, had none the wit, Unto this knowledge to aspire, That this her fever might be it? I’m so sorry about Bella, Jack," Bella was Jack’s wife who was currently dying and there was no possible way that Lecter could have come to know this. The only evidence which Lecter had to support this was the fact that Jack Crawford was still working despite his being so close to retirement and the fact that he was a stoic. "Jack would have packed it in ages ago especially because of Bella, I guess the only thing keeping him from it is Buffalo Bill," - Buffalo Bill bring the serial killer. The fact that Lecter was able to figure this out made a large impact on me. How could someone who thinks it perfectly all right to eat someone without significant cause be so alert to things? Another incident which impressed me about Lecter was how he was able to see things immediately which investigators would miss completely. This happened when the FBI were trying to track down ‘Buffalo Bill’; they were trying to gather any information on him to create a psychological profile and needed Lecter’s help since he was ‘Buffalo Bill’s’ psychiatrist. Lecter says, "Buffalo Bill has a two story house," This was later found to be true - and Lecter figured it out from the fact that Buffalo Bill had killed his victims by hanging them. "High ligature marks, cervical displacement, definite hanging…..the way it’s done is in a stairwell, Stairs are familiar. Tell them you’re taking them up to use the bathroom , whatever, walk them up with a hood on, slip the noose on, and boot them off the top step with the rope fastened to the landing railing. It’s the only good way in a house." I found Hannibal Lecter to be a very alert and observant person. He had an extraordinarily good sense of smell and it is doubtful that it was some sort of special power he had. More likely it would be an ability he had to shut everything off and concentrate on smell. There were many times that this happened. "You use Evyan skin cream, and sometimes you wear L’Air Du Temps, but not today," "How did you know about the perfume?" "A puff from you bag as you got your card out,". There was also another incident like this. "’You have on a fresh Band-Aid, Clarice,’ the band aid was out of sight on her calf beneath her trousers - he must smell it,". His ability to smell things - even when there were such small quantities of them was an ability which represented Lecter’s much larger ability to observe and analyse things and always end up with the best and correct outcome. Hannibal Lecter was described as a "sociopath" in the novel - and to a certain extent, I agree with this. But sometimes I wonder if he was actually just so intelligent that it was sometimes easy for him to get stuck on one point of view like he was about his cannibalistic habits - he thought it was just like a storm, an "Act of god". He was a very interesting character who profoundly intrigued me.
