Above left: Will takes one last puff of his cigarette, before his call to Hannibal Lecktor is put through. Above right: After he has been conversing with Lecktor a little while, Will assumes a relaxed posture.
In part 18 of the analysis, we left off with Reba and Dollarhyde having spent the night together. In the scene that follows, Graham speaks with Hannibal Lecktor by phone from his hotel room (this call had been previously arranged). In this post, we will make some very detailed observations about things which occur just before and during the phone conversation.
We note that just prior to his making the call to Lecktor, Will lights a cigarette. He takes a long 'draw' on it just prior to addressing the person who is to put him through to Lecktor; then he puts the cigarette out while identifying himself to this person.
After Will's call is put through, there is a period of silence during which Will looks as though he is intently waiting for Lecktor to answer; then he (Will) says, "Hello?" Lecktor intentionally delays answering because he needs to draw out that part of Will which is actively seeking help to resolve the dilemma within himself, that is, the dilemma within his own psyche, of whether or not he is a killer.
When Lecktor answers, the first thing he does is congratulate Will on the "job" he did on Lounds (a reference to Dollaryhde's earlier murder of Lounds). The purpose of Lecktor's saying this so early in the conversation, is to immediately recall to Will's unconscious that part of himself that is a killer (Lecktor is having Will believe that Dollahyde himself is connected to the killer within Will). Lecktor then tells Will that he'd be more comfortable if he relaxed with himself. At this point, Will leans back in his chair and puts his right leg up over one of its arms; he assumes a more relaxed posture and countenance. Also, his tone of voice becomes more informal.
Then Lecktor says, "We don't invent our natures, they're issued to us along with our lungs and pancreas and everything else. Why fight it?" Here Lecktor is suggesting to Will that it is his nature to kill, and that he should become comfortable with that. The fact that Will maintains his relaxed posture implies that he is, in fact, now becoming comfortable with the idea that he is (or will be, if Lecktor has his way) a killer. The mention of lungs here by Lecktor is related to the fact that Will smokes, especially insofar as Will had been smoking just prior to the call, as stated above. That the lungs and pancreas are mentioned by Lecktor during this phone conversation, has to do with the fact that the vital bodily organs have been linked, in Hermetic tradition, to the 'seven planets of the ancients' (i.e., the seven classical planets): Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the moon, and the sun.
We will further discuss the relationship of the vital organs to the classical planets, in subsequent posts in the analysis.
