Thursday, November 18, 2010

Hannibal Rising analysis - part 3: Hannibal Lecter's relationship to candles

CATEGORY: MOVIES








A candle is shown burning in Hannibal's room at Lady Murasaki's house, just before Hannibal injects himself with truth serum.


The surname Lecter is related to the name Lechter, which is derived from the name Lichter. Lichter is a German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) occupational surname for someone who made candles or possibly for someone who tended a light, from an agent derivative of from Middle High German lieht, Yiddish likht 'candle', 'light'.[a] Due to this name symbolism, we see that Hannibal Lecter represents Jews, within some context.

We note that in the scene in the movie in which the young Hannibal injects himself with truth serum so that he can recall information that might help him apprehend Grutas, there is a candle burning in Hannibal's room (as shown in the above screencap). At the moment of Hannibal's flashback to the point at which he was rescued (as a boy) in the snow, after having escaped from Grutas and his men at the Lecters' hunting lodge, we observe that at the exact point at which one of his rescuers cuts a chain that had been placed around Hannibal's body by Grutas's men, Hannibal awakens from the flashback, and the candle, which has by now fully burned down, goes out. The symbolic meaning of Hannibal's candle going out, will be discussed in part 4.





Above: Hannibal awakens from his drug-induced dream (left), at the exact moment of his recollection of the chain around his neck being cut after he had escaped from the childhood hunting lodge (right).


a. Ancestry, Lichter Family History: Lichter Name Meaning. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=lichter.


   





Disclaimers
1) In certain instances it has been determined that the creators of some of the productions analyzed on this blog, and/or the creators of source material(s) used in the making of these productions, may be making negative statements about certain segments of society in their productions. These statements should be taken as expressing the opinions of no one other than the creators.

2) This blog is not associated with any of the studios, creators, authors, publishers, directors, actors, musicians, writers, editors, crew, staff, agents, or any other persons or entities involved at any stage in the making of any of the media productions or source materials that are analyzed, mentioned, or referenced herein.

3) In keeping with the policies of the filmmakers, authors, studios, writers, publishers, and musicians, that have created the productions (and their source materials) that are analyzed, mentioned, or referenced on this blog, any similarity of the characters in these films or source materials to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All images on this blog are used solely for non-commercial purposes of analysis, review, and critique.

All Wikipedia content on this blog, and any edits made to it, are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Marcus Aurelius's Meditations - from Wikisource (except where otherwise noted); portions from Wikisource used on this blog are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Saint Augustine's Confessions and City of God from Wikisource (except where otherwise noted); portions from Wikisource used on this blog are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica from the 'Logos Virtual Library' website (except where otherwise noted), compiled and edited by Darren L. Slider; believed to be in public domain.