Analyzing Evil: Dr. Hannibal Lecter

hello everyone and welcome to the 21st episode of analyzing evil featuring the oft requested dr hannibal lecter in this video i'll be covering hannibal as he appears in the novels by thomas harris as well as the films featuring anthony hopkins with gaspar uliel and aaron thomas playing the young hannibal in hannibal rising we get a line from dr lecter in the silence of the lambs where he states that nothing happened to make him the way he is but that notion fortunately or unfortunately is not the case for the character i know that some of you watching this video may loathe parts of the backstory harris created for his character but i cannot ignore the canonical and intended narrative of a character as laid out by his creator and this video will go into every aspect of hannibal that was given to us by thomas harris i also understand that the only reason thomas harris wrote hannibal rising in the first place is because the producer of the latter three films dino de laurentiis told harris he would collaborate with another writer to write a backstory for lecter if he didn't nonetheless the story is from harris and is thus canon to simplify things and to give us a solid structure to transition through this video will contain seven sections of varying length first i'll be providing a summary of information regarding lector's backstory to those who are either unaware of it or who need to refresh their memory on the subject second i'll be delving into lector's relationships with the people closest to him as well as those few who we encounter that he didn't murder or mutilate third will be a breakdown of the talents and skills he employs throughout the series as well as his appearance and mannerisms the fourth section will be an overview of his personality and psyche in the fifth section we'll be delving into the many vices the doctor has his philosophies on life and his beliefs to see how they factor into the lifestyle he lives as well as the crimes he commits in section 6 we'll classify his murders and crimes by motive and go through some of the methods he employed as well as how everything we discuss in the previous sections tie into his crimes and we'll finish everything off in section 7 where i'll give you a summary of everything we've learned having at that point explored every aspect of his character and we'll see if it's possible to understand just exactly who and what dr hannibal lecter is before we get into the first section i'd like to address the fact that a lot of real people and events are referenced in the doctor's story and family history and thomas harris did take inspiration from real world serial killers in fleshing out hannibal's character and backstory namely the serial killer dr alfredo baitrovino whom he met during a visit to a mexican prison the unconfirmed story of the brother of infamous soviet serial killer andrei cicotilo being kidnapped and eaten by neighbors and pietro pachiani the real ill maestro the monster of florence whose trial harris was seen taking notes at it's also speculated by charlotte grigg author of a book called evil serial killers that lecter may have in part also been based on the american serial killer albert fish but other than these inspirations lecter and his family are entirely fictional and there is no basis for elector family in reality now we have a lot to cover in this video so without further ado let's begin hannibal actor eighth of his name was born in 1933 into a wealthy family of lithuanian aristocrats headed by his father known to us as count lecter and his wife madame simeneta swarza lecter an italian noblewoman of melanie's descent hailing from the visconti and spharza families two families which ruled milan one after the other between the 13th and 16th centuries their rule spanning a collective 255 years between the two hannibal had a few notable ancestors a few of which can be confirmed those being the notable members of the visconti and sforza families and his namesake hannibal the grimm who built the family's castle after playing a decisive role at the battle of zaldiris or as it's also called the battle of grunwald against the teutonic order in 1410 hannibal the grim used the soldiers he captured from the battle as his labor force to build the castle but later released them from their bondage the fulfillment of a promise he had made to them upon their capture from fragments of family records hannibal suspected he was also related to a man named giuliano bevesange bevesange meaning blood drinker in italian who in the novel is said to have been a ruthless and feared individual who lived in tuscany during the 12th century though this man is entirely fictional as i can find no real world basis for him hannibal suspected that through him he was also related to nicola machiavelli who was suspected to have been of tuscan lineage needless to say hannibal has a storied lineage and as a result a fortunate upbringing inside the walls of castle lecter having all the resources available to a boy of his status at his disposal for eight years hannibal would live in this castle with his family prospering under the care of his household servants in his sixth year he would at first scorn but then welcome into the world his sister misha who he came to love dearly all was well in hannibal's life until june 23rd of 1941 when his family evacuated lecter castle in fear of the imminent german invasion that was sweeping its way through eastern europe hannibal and his family fled to the safety of their hunting lodge deep within the lithuanian forest where they survived for the three long years of the german occupation of lithuania however in that third year as the red army was making its way across eastern europe a soviet tank crew happened to stop at the lodge for water a german pilot that may have been tailing the tank caught the tank in the lodge in his sights and proceeded to open fire upon the tank losing the fight in the process and crash landing directly into the tank causing an explosion that took the lives of hannibal's family and everyone else in his household save for misha rendered orphans hannibal and misha were left to fend for themselves during the harsh lithuanian winter and to further add to their misery they were eventually found by grutas and his crew in order to survive grutas and his friends eventually kill and devour hannibal's sister misha making a broth from her remains and feeding it to hannibal this event found its way into hannibal's memory palace as a dark shed at the edges of its grounds one where he could not tread a memory repressed by his mind due to the horrible trauma it caused it was only later in his life during his time in paris that through the influence of drugs he would remember what happened to his sister a memory that would have an effect on multiple avenues in his life which we'll be exploring in the next section of this video after the lodge is destroyed and his captors have fled young hannibal wanders into the lithuanian wilderness with a chain around his neck until he stumbles upon a soviet tank crew who take him back to lecter castle which has now been converted into an orphanage hannibal after enduring the trauma of the last few months would not speak again for over two years and it was at this orphanage that he first began to show some semblance of martial skill when retaliating against the other boys who bullied him while also showing a softer side towards the younger children of the orphanage hearkening back to his relationship with his sister in the film hannibal eventually escapes the orphanage but in the book he's taken to france by his uncle the painter robert lechter where his wife lady murasaki waited at their estate by the assan hannibal would flourish here learning new and refining existing skills during his time studying in medical school and under the care of his aunt and uncle hannibal at this time would go on a journey towards rediscovering the tragedy that befell misha and this is as far as we'll go for now for hannibal's backstory i've left out quite a lot of important events that occurred during these years but we'll soon be exploring those key elements in other sections of this video so far we've touched on three key things hannibal's birth into an aristocratic family his attachment to his sister and a mention of his memory palace the first his birth into an aristocratic family is a window into the development of hannibal's high-class taste being born into a privileged family and then subsequently raised in another privileged household explains how hannibal grew to develop such refined tastes in all things however he's also had his share of hardship and misfortune but these events didn't seem to humble him in any way and his taste for the luxurious and the taboo only grew as time went on i made small mention of his memory palace which isn't something present in the films but something prevalent in the novels and we'll be covering it more in a later section now that we've given ourselves a refresher on his background let's move on to section two in this section we'll be covering each of lecter's important relationships and their positive or negative effect on him as well as the lasting impact they had on him we won't be going over characters that were involved in his crimes as they will be addressed in section six this includes will graham dr children francis dollar hyde james gum and mason verger let's begin with hannibal's parents hannibal seemed to have a loving relationship with both his father count lecter and his mother madame simonetta remembering them fondly well into his teenage years though it would seem he had more of an attachment to his mother than his father he still remembered him well but cited that he was less warm and more guarded than his uncle robert he seemed to hold his mother in high regard some of the happiest memories of his childhood involving her and in particular her room ended sense of which he remarked to yakov before their flight from castle lecter that it was the most beautiful room he knew his exposure to their elegance and luxury would have an influence on the young lecter's development being the beginning of his hunger for only the best in life but unless you count this as a partially negative influence it's easy for us to say that hannibal's relationship with his parents was positive and his parents had no negative impact on his development in this way they had a lasting effect on hannibal as for the remainder of his life he would keep to the lifestyle that he was brought up in hannibal's relationship with his parents ends upon their death which had a lasting effect on him as along with his dreams of misha he would frequently dream of the day they died next we have misha hannibal's beloved younger sister whom he would grow to share an intense bond with and care for like no other he had known at that time in his life misha and hannibal were constant companions and hannibal did his best to please misha and cater to her every whim he would blow soap bubbles for her through her bracelet when she was bathing pluck eggplants for her to play with the deep purple being her favorite color and sing songs with her this attachment to misha and her subsequent death had a deep impact on the young hannibal and any inkling of hannibal leading a normal life died the same day as his sister suffice to say that hannibal's relationship with misha was one of the most impactful loving relationships of his childhood and would have a lasting effect on him as he grew older it's important that we also mention mr yakov hannibal's tutor a castle lecter through yakov hannibal would learn much including what he referred to as the keenest single pleasure of his childhood that being his understanding of a non-mathematical proof of the pythagorean theorem presented to him by yakov through tiles in the sand stating that the rush of understanding he felt felt like being launched from a catapult not only would his tutor further his education but he would also present the young hannibal with two concepts both of which would become instrumental in hannibal's success throughout his lifetime the first was a response yakov made to hannibal when he asked him if he was worth his time yakov responded to hannibal and i quote every person is worth your time hannibal if at first appearance a person seems dull then look harder look into him hannibal would display this interest in nearly every person he encountered for the remainder of his life he would always be curious of the people he encountered probing them with questions and assumptions as he strived to learn the inner workings of a person's soul the second concept is the idea of a memory palace presented to us first in the novel hannibal a memory palace is a place in the mind of an individual constructed to organize various thoughts and sections in this case rooms within a palace in your mind hannibal is gifted with a near photographic memory and this perhaps the greatest gift given to him by his tutor would be where hannibal would archive every experience every taste every smell he ever encountered this gives him the ability to quickly and easily access any information about any manner of subject as well as giving him the ability to endlessly entertain himself in times of both distress and boredom next in line is hannibal's uncle robert lecter and his aunt lady murasaki robert doesn't make an appearance in the film cited as being dead upon hannibal's arrival at his home but in the novel hannibal rising robert is the one who comes to collect hannibal from lecter castle after the war hannibal would share a tender moment with his uncle robert which can be found in hannibal rising in chapter 18 where his uncle explains the hannibal that their family is somewhat unusual and proceeds to show him a spot in his studio that he set aside especially for hannibal while this relationship was warm and caring hannibal would find himself drawn to his aunt more so than his uncle perhaps out of fond memories for his mother and sister a desire to have a replacement for them the definite attraction he felt to his aunt or all three hannibal would fall in love with his aunt over the time he knew her experiencing feelings he had never felt before meeting her lady murasaki would be his frequent confidant inspiration and guardian having a lasting effect on hannibal throughout his entire life helping to shape him into the man he would become and affecting his views and attachment towards a certain woman later in his life just as his mother and sister did as were a positive or negative impact i'd have to say that much like misha lady murasaki had both a positive and negative impact on hannibal being that he learned a great deal from her but he also suffered due to his attachment to her it's interesting to note that the first three most impactful relationships of his life other than his tudor yakov were all women and as hannibal matured it seems he would keep this preference towards women with a sort of antagonistic attitude with much of the men we see him encountering throughout the series next is a rather minor character in hannibal's life but impactful nonetheless marco verger margot wasn't featured in the film but in the hannibal novel she is one of the driving forces behind hannibal's maiming of mason verger margot was a patient of hannibal's just as mason was when she divulged to hannibal all the terrible abuse she had suffered in her life at the hands of mason hannibal suggested to her that she kill him his knowledge of her abuse coupled with knowledge of mason's other atrocities which we'll cover when we get to him is what drove hannibal to attempt to rid society of mason it's also possible that hannibal's soft spot for children factored into this as well when he's in mason's clutches at the end of the novel he even speaks to margot in a friendly way and even tries to help her in getting some of mason seaman to inseminate her wife call it what you will positive or negative but margot and her story certainly had an impact on hannibal the last two characters we'll talk about in this section had quite the relationship with hannibal barney was hannibal's caretaker for six out of the eight years he was locked in the asylum barney was always courteous with hannibal and took care of him to the best of his abilities and with what limitations he had to follow regarding the doctor's care barney and hannibal would have long talks during the nights of his incarceration about all manner of subjects hannibal respected barney for not only his courtesy and manners but for the conversations they had and for his desire to learn above all else barney treated hannibal like a human and not as a subject to be researched or a monster to be feared and i think it would be true enough to say that the relationship hannibal and barney shared was that of friendship a relationship not otherwise seen between dr lecter and other people throughout the series and they both benefited from one another's company barneying what he learned from dr lecter and dr lecter from the privilege of civilized company during his confinement and at last we have the most impactful relationship hannibal had with another person besides his sister clary starling initially interested in starling in the way a man like dr lecter becomes interested in another person dr lechter uses starling for his own amusement to satisfy his desire for toying with people and probing their minds he initially mocks her appearance chastises her about her background and muses that she's only been sent to him to serve as a pretty piece of bait and luring him to cooperate but over time he becomes genuinely interested in her inner independence potential intelligence resourcefulness and her beauty this interest infatuation and obsession with clarice culminates in hannibal wishing to have clarisse take the place of his sister misha to brainwash her into becoming his sister in the film hannibal this doesn't happen at all and it's clear here that hannibal desires to take her as his lover eventually resulting in hannibal losing a hand in his attempt to escape capture from the police after she rebuffs his advances but in the novel hannibal brainwashes clarice with an unknown concoction of drugs and puts her in a hypnotic state that has a revealing her innermost self here she takes joy in the mutilation of krendler and partakes gladly in the dinner hannibal prepares for them she ends up convincing him to abandon his hopes for misha's return and instead convinces him to take her as his lover they end up living what appears to be a happy life in argentina living the high life together he finds in clarisse what he's been searching for since the death of his mother and sister which he attempted to find in lady murasaki a release from his pain and a replacement for the love he lost section 3 let's start this section off by covering one of the most crucial and notable things about hannibal his intellect from early on in his childhood hannibal was noted to have been an exceptionally intelligent individual his nanny thought that the young hannibal could always read as at the age of two he would follow the words as she read to him later finding him on his own pressing his forehead into the books a quirk of his he would use to seemingly absorb information and reading aloud from the books in her own accent his father provided for his young son dictionaries in english german and lithuanian which hannibal undoubtedly spent hours poring over at six years old he was reading through euclid's elements a mathematical treatise spread among 13 volumes containing illustrations that hannibal would again put his forehead against hannibal's intellect would continue to grow taking it upon himself to take measurement of his castle's towers using its shadows a principle he took from euclid after his escape from lithuania hannibal would go on to learn from varied and cultured sources hannibal is intelligent to the point that any and every concept is easily understood by him and though he has his areas of expertise and his areas of base understanding he's essentially a jack of all trades when it comes to studying any subject you can think of three things are in tandem with hannibal's intellect his eidetic memory or as it's more commonly known photographic memory his incredible perception and his ingenuity while it could be possible that a person might have as firm a grasp on their memories as hannibal does without a photographic memory but you'd certainly be hard-pressed to find someone who's capable of recalling even half the amount of information hannibal has stored within his memory palace this memory palace and its use also classifies hannibal as a neminist and mnemonics is an area of study for people to partake in if they wish to improve their memory but a photographic memory coupled with numinous practices gives hannibal an unimaginable source of memory and the amount of information he contains within his own mind is staggering to say the least with the ability to store even the tiniest details of a person or place in his mind and without this natural talent in a photographic memory and his practice skill as a nemenist hannibal wouldn't be able to perform the incredible intellectual feats he displays throughout the series his perception into the minds and hearts of people is chilling as hannibal is not only able to surmise the background and mind of an individual from a few key indicators like speech patterns scent and appearance but he's also able to empathize with a person and read their emotions understanding their thought process weaknesses and strengths to take advantage of them and further his own ends this doesn't only apply to people however and can come up with intricate plans and plots with access to only minimal resources seeing the future so to speak such as when he hopes to get will graham murdered by francis dollar hyde by calling into dr bloom's office in red dragon or when he's given the opportunity to take dr chilton's pen planning out well in advance his chance at escape from the authorities all of these intellectual traits make him a prodigy and a genius with an intellect and hypersensitivity rarely found in people and it's this intellect this higher thirst for knowledge that will be one of the many driving forces that cause hannibal to gravitate towards the forbidden other natural talents hannibal is known for are his enhanced senses and his strength hannibal is gifted with a natural strength that is described as being comparable to an ants which is an over-exaggeration as if that were the case he would have no problem in escaping anyone or anything in his path but he is exceptionally strong especially for a man of his stature his senses are heightened and refined beyond anything typically capable of a human being except those who have certain senses a tune to compensate for lack of another such as in the blind or deaf he can smell even the slightest sense on a person able to pick out the individual ingredients of perfumes lotions and foods through scent alone and to recognize the many complex scents coming off of a person storing their scent away in his memory palace to easily identify them later his palate coincides with his sense of smell and hannibal had an appreciation for the culinary arts ever searching for new and divine cuisine to expand his already vast sense of taste his hearing was such that he could pick out the flute of benjamin rassbale playing poorly in the baltimore orchestra and his eyes were able to store an accurate picture of everything he ever saw into his memory palace from the shoes a person wore to the finer details of the buildings in florence hannibal sees everything and nothing goes unnoticed beneath his penetrating gaze last of course is his sense of touch to which he was highly attuned frequently observing the complexities of an object and appreciating the slightest details of even the most mundane things hannibal's appearance and mannerisms also coincide with the traits we've just discussed he's lithe short of stature and wiry and sinewy in his strength his maroon eyes which he inherited from his mother are flecked with red and shimmer in the light and he has tight slicked back black hair that begins with a widow's beak to add effect to the character's person anthony hopkins chose to blink seldomly and while his eyes weren't that strange maroon color it certainly added to the intensity of dr lecter he's said to have small white teeth and a distinctively red small tongue that he enjoys poking out from between his teeth his voice is described as cultured by clarisse in the silence of the lambs and in the films he speaks with an air of elegance though absent in the films in the books hannibal has a perfectly replicated middle finger on his left hand known as mid-ray polydactyly hannibal moves with grace and respect ever polite in the way he addresses people and in the way he holds himself putting on a straight jacket as if it were dinner clothes and never airing from courtesy when speaking he's also described many times throughout the series as being unnaturally still as if he truly were planning each movement before moving even an eyebrow muscle in short hannibal's appearance is that of someone who's in total control of every facet of their body who takes great care in every movement they make and every word they speak a body that deceives and disarms a person his clothes when not in an asylum or on the run are expertly tailored and form-fitting giving him the air of a gentleman of the highest caliber in my view the best way to describe hannibal's strength senses and mannerisms is to compare them to that of a feline and if i had to pick one i'd pick a leopard who is lithe and strong with the enhanced senses that hannibal has overall i'd describe hannibal's appearance and mannerisms as unnerving and strange yet charming and docile to those who don't pay close attention with elegance and sophistication in every movement he makes section 4 personality and psyche as far as personality goes hannibal is above all an incredibly charming and courteous individual and this factors into every quirk of his personality he's amiable and able to disarm nearly anyone he's not jovial but polite and entertaining able to give off the impression of a calm and collected individual without being snobby he's reserved but mostly out of courtesy except of course when he's flaunting his intellectual prowess hannibal knows he's smarter than 99 of people but he rarely feels the need to overtly express his intellect he'll speak to you about intellectual topics but only when appropriate and never in a condescending way it's only when he's up against a perceived adversary that he begins to one-up a person with his keen observations of their appearance and character another aspect of dr lecter's psyche is his psychological sadism he isn't too sadistic when it comes to physical pain but dr lecter absolutely loves to toy with his victim's mind in this way he's also like a feline in that he likes to bat around his prey with his intellectual paw playing with them before going for the kill he knows how to find your buttons and he decimates not pushes them he's smug in a way that almost feels earned as he's rarely defeated when challenged by another person but i wouldn't go so far as to call him a narcissist before his crimes hannibal was perceived as the perfect gentleman and one was grateful to have a man of such stature and elegance in your presence after the revelation of his crimes and his perception by the public is nothing short of a monster dr lechter became a much more daunting and feared individual to be in front of the incarcerated doctor was seen as a terrifying ordeal as he was a man who no longer had any reservations about toying with anyone and everyone and would now aim his intellect pinpoint against your very soul he still maintained a reputation as one of the country's greatest minds in the field of medicine and was still very much respected in many circles along with being feared dr electra's personality can best be described as being reserved but subtly and expertly vicious when necessary now on to his psyche this aspect of the doctor is an incredibly mystifying area to study as has been noted by many professional psychologists over the years hannibal lecter's psyche is rather unrealistic as far as giving him a specific label the most common labels we give to serial killers anti-social personality disorder psychopathy and sociopathy disassociative personality disorder narcissistic personality disorder do not fit in totality for dr lecter he's referred to in the novels as a true sociopath namely by will graham who in a conversation with a police officer states the following they say he's a sociopath because they don't know what else to call him he has some of the characteristics of what they call a sociopath he has no remorse or guilt at all and he had the first and worst sign sadism to animals as a child both doctors bloom and chilton seem to agree with this assessment as well referring to him as a pure sociopath dr chilton believes he truly is but he's hiding the more defining traits of sociopathy remarkably well that may or may not be true though likely it isn't true let's take a look at the parameters of not just sociopathy in particular but antisocial personality disorder and see which ones apply to dr lechter so we can be as accurate as possible in this assessment disregard for right or wrong i'd have to say this is true of dr lecter in a sense it's not that he disregards it but that he defies it believing societal norms to be at odds with what is truly right and wrong persistent lying or deceit to exploit others he hardly ever lies but he is deceitful especially when attempting to outmaneuver his adversaries but before his capture i'd imagine that he didn't make a habit of lying or being deceitful as he despises the trait in others being callous cynical and disrespectful of others this is certainly true of the doctor when again he's up against an adversary but outside of that he's polite and courteous to essentially everyone using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or pleasure i think this is a weak yes he does so in his plots to murder and consume people and in his battles against his opponents like when he charms a clerk into giving him will graham's address and when he convinces older rich members of his practice to sign away parts of their fortune to him but i don't think it's an obsessive and constant tactic he employed in his everyday life recurring problems with the law including criminal behavior obviously dr lechter has been apprehended by law enforcement once but this could hardly be called recurring he had problems with inspector popeel in his youth and then would evade capture for many years after his escape from the baltimore institution but he didn't have constant issues with the law during his lifetime now these are the traits that partially apply to dr lecter but there are several others that the doctor doesn't exhibit at all those being repeatedly violating the rights of others through intimidation and dishonesty impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead hostility significant irritability or agitation aggression or violence unnecessary risk-taking or dangerous behavior with no regard for the safety of self or others poor or abusive relationships failure to consider the negative consequences of behavior or learn from them being consistently irresponsible to fulfill work or financial obligations the only one that can slightly be applied to him is the aggression which he does experience bouts of anger but who doesn't his relationships might be described as poor in regard to lady murasaki and clarice but they were hardly damaging to his developing mind any similar set of parameters you find that are associated with psychopathy sociopathy or antisocial personality disorder will lead you to the same result dr lecter is only partially compatible with these conditions as i said before i wouldn't call dr lecter a narcissist or state that he has narcissistic personality disorder but dr lecter is in some ways a narcissist although not a very overt one and he's also a showman to a certain degree as when he commits some of his murders he makes sure to do it in a symbolic way now the one condition that does manifest in dr lecter more than any of the others i've mentioned so far is post-traumatic stress disorder specifically in regards to his younger sister misha and to a lesser extent his parents dr lechter was so traumatized by his younger sister's death that he repressed the memory of it for north of five years during his adolescence frequently experiencing terrible but foggy nightmares surrounding the incident this would have a notable effect on the doctor as well into adulthood he exhibited the ramifications of this disorder frequently dreaming of his sister even after he had satisfied his need for revenge and striving to bring his sister back to life in the form of a replacement in clarisse section 5 vices philosophy and beliefs we can't fully know hannibal until we know what in part drives him forward in life that being his many vices hannibal being born and raised in a cultured and wealthy family had a taste of luxury from the moment he was born in his never-ending quest for higher knowledge he would happen upon more and more extravagant food commodities clothes cars music and people as he journeyed through life a specific line from the hannibal novel applies particularly well for hannibal taste the wine the truffles taste in all things was a constant between dr lechter's lives in america and europe between his life as a successful medical practitioner and fugitive monster his face may have changed but his tastes did not and he was not a man who denied himself while his cannibalism was partially explained by the trauma he suffered when his sister was eaten by grutas and company i believe that had this have not happened hannibal may have ventured into cannibalism of his own volition that line from clarisse is key hannibal is not one who would deny himself after tasting the finest caviar dining on the most extravagant meats and eating luxurious culinary delights from all across the world why should he deny himself why should he deny himself anything just because it's forbidden all the better reason to pursue it what if it's the finest delicacy unknown to the common man imagine the satisfaction of consuming someone you hate the community hates they may not have served much of a purpose in life so the least they could do is provide some use in death these are some of the many possibilities that may have run through hannibal's head when he came to the decision to not only kill but eat his victims for grutas and the rest i see those murders as both revenge and a macabre justice and that he was also eating parts of these men as an homage to misha and i'll eat you because you ate her sort of thing it's speculation on my part but due to him already having tasted it in a base way cooking the meat over a fire or eating it quickly after these murders he was still reminded of the taste as life went on and as his culinary pride was increased and he felt he had exhausted the limits of his palate he remembered that taste he had so long ago and what fine dishes he could make with some careful butchery of the finer cuts on a person one thing i haven't mentioned yet is his sexual appetite which while present seems to be little until his union with clarice and from what i can tell it doesn't factor much into how he lives his life the last thing i'd like to touch on regarding his vices is that though he has fine tastes dr lechter certainly doesn't abuse them he doesn't deny himself but he doesn't overindulge we see him smoking once in hannibal and i imagine he would smoke and he drinks as well but only to satisfy himself to taste these things not to lean on them i believe it's these indulgences and much of what we learned in the previous sections that guide dr lector's philosophy on life he's a man who through the experiences he endured as an adolescent at the hands of grutas his compatriots and paul mund coupled with his elevated upbringing that make him extremely hostile to those that display rude behavior if there's anything dr lecter considers to be the most sinful act a human can indulge it would have to be rudeness in contrast to that concept the greatest virtue for the doctor would be courtesy and decency the thing about dr lecter's warped view of humanity is that even murder and cannibalism are below rudeness there are exceptions sometimes one has to forego their own morals to satisfy one's urges or to escape the confines of one's imprisonment but overall dr lechter remains exceptionally polite or if not polite at least elegant elegance would be another aspect of the doctor's philosophy to hold yourself to a higher standard and the pursuit of elegance luxury and higher knowledge factor heavily into dr lector's life nothing in life is forbidden and the finer things in life are to be appreciated enjoyed and captured as far as beliefs the doctor has little if any beyond his own personal ambitions and desires he doesn't believe in god having lost that after the death of his parents and misha he does however study and embody almost every form of science and art known to man imbibing in surgery architecture toxicology physics cuisine painting drawing music and on and on i'm sure at some point or another dr lecter has studied almost any subject matter you could imagine the only intellectual concept he frowns upon that we know of is ironically his own profession in psychology as he doesn't consider it a science i imagine it's more about perception and attention to detail to dr lecter rather than anything that can be explicitly studied if his philosophy and beliefs could be summed up in a sentence i imagine this is what it would be there are no limits in life holding oneself to a high standard is crucial and one should pursue greater knowledge and understanding of all things at any cost section 6 victims crimes and motives now we've finally arrived at the true evil of dr lecter his many crimes some of them are more noble than others however the vast majority of them aren't quite so heroic this section will have its own categories which will be divided into the different motivations hannibal had for committing each murder and crime those are in order revenge courtesy cannibalism whimsy proxy murders and convenience but i'll be categorizing them by their primary motive and giving mention to their secondary starting with revenge we have the deaths of paul mahmoud enriquez thortlick zigmas milko petras kolnas vladi bronice grince the first monitor at the lecter castle orphanage will graham and dr frederick chilton only the murders of mo moond first monitor graham and chilton don't involve the death of misha but those murders were due to a personal affront to the honor of hannibal's family or hannibal himself each of these revenge murders have the same motive in common but at least four of them involved a quirk of hannibal's that will come into contact with frequently in this section a penchant for showmanship and symbolism palma moon was murdered with a slash to his stomach referencing the way he insulted lady murasaki being beheaded afterward as a trophy in the style of the samurai and then carving his cheeks from his face to consume later just as he did with dortlek albeit in a more gruesome way tying him to a tree and pulling his head off with a horse while forcing him to sing ain't mana line for grutas he carved a multitude of m's in his skin in honor of misha and with first monitor he impaled him through the hand and set a bear trap for him that had the word sing written on it a reference to the first monitor chastising hannibal for not singing stalinist songs the rest were done in varying ways one being the drowning of milko in a cadaver tank and as hannibal's first murders these would make him a more vengeful killer at this particular moment in his history with a penchant toward symbolism in his kills as i said before the cannibalism here is more of a symbolic justice for misha rather than just the desire to taste the meat as well as the murders of the other members of grutas gang the majority of these kills are his more quote unquote noble crimes as the people he murders are war criminals and the maiming of someone who tormented him and with that in mind these particular murders could be considered vigilantism which may or may not be morally sound based on your views on the subject personally i don't feel bad for any of them but vigilantism isn't exactly something to be encouraged no matter how correct it may seem this subject may warrant its own video as vigilantism is an interesting concept let me know what you guys think of that idea down below graham wasn't mutilated to begin with because of revenge rather out of a desire to escape apprehension but the second time dr lecter influenced francis dollar hyde to travel to will's house to murder both will and his family he ended up mutilating will's face in the novel and according to jack crawford will was now drinking himself into a stupor due to the traumatic circumstances of everything he's gone through this was retribution for his capture by will showing that hannibal wasn't what you would call a good sport and holds grudges against those who interfere with his plans and his life he held a similar grudge against dr chilton but the primary reason seemed to have been just that of plain hatred for the man he considered him not only rude but incompetent and chilton was the primary antagonist to dr lecter during his years at the baltimore asylum this is an unknown as we never get confirmation that he kills chilton but it's heavily implied that he did and likely tortured and cannibalized him as well in return for the torment he caused him our next category courtesy kills which i have named such because dr lecter believed he was doing the community of courtesy by committing these murders is considered a just and proper reason to murder a person according to dr lecter the victims of his courtesy are benjamin raspale the less than talented flautist of the baltimore orchestra an unconfirmed but likely victim of the doctors in an unknown and unskilled florentine violist who he likely cannibalized mason verger who wasn't killed by the doctor but mutilated and killed by proxy and paul krendler who was killed to please clarisse two of these kills have their significance in highlighting how absolutely crucial perfection is for the doctor and again his penchant for showmanship and self-satisfaction when he feeds raspale to dinner guests and with mason's mutilation this is his only instance of what you could call selfless humanity he seems to have pity on not only margot but for those who suffered at the hands of mason as mason was an exceptionally deplorable human in his own right molesting children including his sister drinking the tears of children in martinis and torturing people with the infamous dictator idi amin dr lecter had initially proposed that margot murder mason but she requires mason alive to secure an heir for her family that's directly tied to her after sessions with mason and gaining further knowledge of his many crimes dr lector chooses to maim and paralyze him instead of killing him by having him feed his face to dogs who he was starving to see if they would eat one another and snapping his neck with a noose all three of these kills have their own courtesy about them two of them being a perceived service to the community in enhancing their respective orchestras in ridding the world of mason and his abusive practices mostly as he still enjoys his martinis from his bedridden state in the end mason would die due to dr lector's influence as in the film he's pushed into the pit of man-eating pigs by cordell and in the novel he's killed when margot attached his eel to his tongue choking on his own blood as the eel feeds on him the fourth victim of his courtesy paul krendler was born out of a desire to both please clarisse and indoctrinate her into his own line of thinking and at the same time ease her into becoming a replacement for misha however you want to look at it though the killing of krendler is ultimately a selfish act and it isn't really a noble or warranted kill in the sense of vigilantism since krendler's greatest crime was essentially being a scumbag the third category cannibalism is a feature in a good majority of his kills and crimes and quite a few can be chalked up to being strictly for the purpose of consumption although most of these people weren't in the novels or the films the victims that are solidly in this category being the first four victims of his baltimore killing spree the census taker he mentions the clarisse and the silence of the lambs the princeton student he was suspected of making it to dip and the rather gruesome and feral mutilation of the nurse whose tongue he savagely rips out when he's taken out of his cell the census taker he may have had a reason for killing and that he tried to quantify him as dr lecter says and he mutilated the nurse due to easy access to flesh after being locked up but i think it's interesting that none of these victims are fleshed out or mentioned by name it's almost as if harris was trying to make a point that these particular victims were nothing more to dr lecter than meat but i could be wrong seeing as the rest of the characters don't mention their names either but it's worth noting as a possibility another possibility is there were motives beyond hunger for dr lecter but were just unaware of them either way it's interesting to note that this ties into a theory i put forth earlier in this video that suddenly dr elector found himself in need of a new taste and he remembered faintly the taste of human from a time long past and now that he had crossed that part of his memory palace once again he suddenly went on a spree to discover the taste he could find from different individuals there are only two murders in our next category whimsy and they only appear in the books but they're both of note and that neither person seems to have been killed for a specific purpose although the second was cannibalized but they were murdered on a whim and to show off more than anything the first in this category was the unnamed bowman he pinned against the shed in the style of the medieval wound man diagram and the second was the hunter donald barber who was shot through the head with a crossbow his corpse then being arranged into the norse blood eagle which is when you cut open the back of your victim sever their rib cage and pull their lungs out through the wound to display them like wings which may or may not have been a real practice the ancient norse indulged but dr lechter certainly found it inspiring both of these kills were more quote unquote art than anything else and dr lechter though having a penchant for showmanship in some of his other kills perhaps had a moment of artistic inspiration and felt it appropriate to put on an artistic display beautiful to him and to perhaps find someone in the world who shares in his sense of beauty as far as proxy murders and crimes go we've already mentioned a couple in will graham and mason berger and this category is short but both multiple migs and james gum die specifically from the influence of dr lecter without ever having been touched by him miggs is an interesting case as it's unimaginable what the doctor could have been saying to him that would make him swallow his own tongue with his keen knowledge of the human mind it's terrifying to think that he could influence someone with words alone to such utter despair jame gum while simply being a victim of information was killed because of the information he gave to clarisse and james likely never even knew it this is worth pointing out but it isn't very notable as far as a motive for dr lechter as anyone could kill a person in this way by providing information to the police our last category convenience isn't too notable for dr lecter either except for highlighting what lengths he's willing to go to to keep himself free or for vengeance all of the following murders were done out of necessity and opportunity with no particular motive in mind other than advancing his own agenda toward freedom or revenge from hannibal rising we have gasman and mueller who are shot on his way to rescue lady murasaki and in the film the boat captain john who is shot for the same reason from silence of the lambs we have officer boyle who was splayed out to look like a butterfly stuck with a pin sergeant pembry and an unknown ambulance emt and ambulance driver who were all murdered in order to escape confinement in tennessee we also have lloyd wyman whose name only appears in the novel but who dr lecter killed to steal his identity and aid in his escape from hannibal we have the curator of the capone library who dr lecter is suspected of murdering but never confirmed killing him to replace him as curator then we have noco the romani ronaldo ponzi employs to get a fingerprint from dr lecter by staging a pickpocketing being slashed with a knife to his femoral artery during the attempt renaldo patsy killed in an extravagant display of showmanship in the same manner as his ancestor after trying to apprehend dr lecter to present to mason verger and matteo de gracias killed while fleeing the capone library now all of these different murders which total a staggering 33 kills if you include the proxy kills are all of varying motives and methods making dr lecter a diverse killer beyond only the intent to cannibalize a person so now in the end with all this information that we're given who and what is dr hannibal lecter he's a man who was born into fortune with heightened natural strength and senses unknown to exist in mankind a man who as a young boy displayed a supreme amount of talent and ingenuity rivaling and even surpassing some of the greatest minds the world has ever known this mind would be infected by the horror that is ptsd and the death of his family in particular his sister would transform this still promising young man into a cold and vengeful individual who makes use of their grand intellect to pursue those who had wronged him and giving his sister a macabre justice in the consumption of the flesh of her killers in his pursuit of the forbidden and the luxurious dr hannibal lecter would remember the taste of the cheeks he had taken from his sister's killers and he would yearn to expand his palate beyond its already immense breath this desire spilling over to a spree of murders to sate his hunger that would end in his incarceration though he has killed for revenge courtesy and food dr lechter isn't above killing for the sake of it or for killing to get what he wants murdering and maiming numerous individuals to satisfy his own personal satisfaction and to keep him from being caged he's deeply familiar with the human mind and can read a person almost in their entirety from a few small details he's condescending and patronizing when he's toying with someone often playing with his food so to speak taking delight in not only figuring out the puzzle that is a person but taking immense pleasure from the torment that he causes them calm respectful elegant curious ruthless and cunning dr lecter is learned and knowledgeable beyond imagining skilled and talented without equal and cruel and remorseless past understanding and enthralls those who know of him and who come in contact with him even maintaining his status as one of the most respected medical practitioners in the united states and perhaps the world even after his incarceration for his later crimes now with all of this in mind and everything we've learned we have a good idea of who dr lecter is but now we have to try and answer the question that has plagued the minds of individuals real and fictional since the doctor's inception what is dr hannibal lecter in the series he's been given the label of a true sociopath which we now know to be incorrect and for a lack of a better way to quantify him some call him a monster or a demon something supernatural i think this last classification a monster is an interesting way to define him as by all accounts he seems to be something inhuman something past our understanding however i'd like to make a proposal to you and feel free to disagree with me but i believe after all of this information and a lot of thought i have an answer for you and that answer is nothing and by nothing i mean that hannibal lecter is nothing more than a man which in my opinion is the most terrifying answer conceivable we spend our time attempting to understand an individual's motives and we try to assign to them a psychological designation that can provide us an explanation into how and why someone can do the terrible things they do but i don't think we can find ourselves an answer in that way for dr lecter as many others have already put forth some chalk it up to unrealistic writing on thomas harris's part or that he was simply created to be a supernatural being but i think the answer of nothing gives us the perfect answer with two caveats one is that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder in regards to his revenge against those who murdered his sister and his attempted conversion of clarisse the other is a label will graham assigns to dr lecter in red dragon that of insanity i propose to you that will wasn't wrong when he claimed the doctor was insane but he's not insane in the traditional sense of the word dr lecter is quite clearly fully competent and aware of what he's doing and the way he acts his insanity is not in a fractured mental state but in his warped morals and values and his strange perception of humans in general he is a man who simultaneously has the ability to empathize with other humans while also viewing them as nothing more than meat and applying to society at large his strange moral structure that plays courtesy and manners above murder and the pursuit of the forbidden like the taste of human is not to be frowned upon and that is what makes him insane not only insane but that is where you will find evil in abundance in a man or woman who has taken upon themselves to decide their own morals to value human life as much as one would value a cut of meat on their plate and chooses to run against what we all as humans have come to agree on that murdering people for selfish reasons and eating them is almost universally agreed upon to be an evil act and though his physical attributes and his intelligence are highly unlikely i don't think they're necessarily impossible we've only documented and experienced a fragment of human evolution and there are untold centuries before us into which a human could be born as a match to hannibal lecter this is who and what hannibal lecter is he's a genius and a naturally gifted man who subscribes to his own set of morals and who is ultimately an extraordinarily selfish man who lives his life in pursuit of the finest things the world has to offer even if that means harming and murdering people along the way though he's had his stints as a vigilante meeting out justice to those who by all accounts deserved it these actions do not excuse his depraved and morally backwards behavior that causes death destruction and misfortune to those who cross his path and though he fascinates us with his supreme intellect and charm he's a man who undoubtedly deserves to be considered evil thank you all for tuning into this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on hannibal lecter feel free to let me know down in the comment section below if you liked this video and want to see others like it appearing in your feed feel free to subscribe and leave a like while you're at it thank you once again to all my existing subscribers your support means the world to me if you'd like to support the channel even further consider signing up as a patron over on patreon where you'll get access to a few different perks as well as more to come in the near future you can find a link to patreon on screen now or down in the description thank you to everyone who has signed up so far and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server to interact with myself and others and to participate in events we have planned for the future by clicking the link in the description and follow me on the social media platforms listed there for occasional updates on the channel as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 1,017,230

Keywords: Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins, Hannibal, Clarice, Buffalo Bill, Jame Gumb, Francis Dolarhyde, The Tooth Fairy, Mason Verger, Hannibal Rising, The Silence Of The Lambs, Silence Of The Lambs, Red Dragon, Clarice Starling, Will Graham

Id: Ct7KDCa0ui8

Length: 53min 24sec (3204 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021