Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Silence of the Lambs analysis - part 72: Contrapasso in the movie

CATEGORY: MOVIES

Contrapasso is the process whereby souls serve penance in Dante's Inferno (Hell) according to the nature of their sins in life. A literal translation of the word 'contrapasso' would be "counter-suffering." It is the ironic theological law, ensuring that "the punishment fits the crime." The fate suffered by each of Gumb's victims is a kind of contrapasso: in life, each of them was a glutton: recall that Clarice confirms Lecter's guess that they are all 'big' girls, which if carried to the furthest extreme, would (theoretically) result in them 'bursting through' their skins; and it is, in fact, their fate that their skins are removed from them after they have been killed.












Like Gumb's other female victims, Catherine Martin is physically large, indicating that she is a glutton.


      

Posted at 8:58 PM
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