In Hannibal, Clarice Starling is depicted as somewhat ambidextrous; in the screen captures below, we note that she uses both her right and left hands. Carl Jung tells us that the right symbolizes the conscious mind and the left, the unconscious.[a]
Top left: Starling in the boar pen, with gun in right hand. Top right: Starling drawing with her left hand. Above left: Lecter signs his letter to Clarice with his right hand. Above right: Lecter drinking with his left hand. This shot is shown alternating with the writing of the letter. Left: Lecter has cut off his own left hand at the end; this symbolizes the 'severing'of that part of his unconscious that was tied up with his late sister, Mischa, and thus signals the end of his obsession for Starling (as indicated in part 13, Mischa Lecter was a character in the 2007 film, Hannibal Rising).
a. "[A] leftward movement is equivalent to a movement in the direction of the unconscious, whereas a movement to the right...aims at consciousness." (--Jung, C.G., The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 12, Princeton University Press, 1968, p. 127.)
[UPDATE: The analysis of Hannibal has been extended, in the 'unified analysis' of the first three Lecter movies.]
