On this site will be posted analyses of popular media productions. These analyses will have to do with determining the underlying meanings of various movies, songs, and certain novels. Methods used to analyze a given production will include exploration of the creators' use of symbolism, allegory, metaphor, etc., and deciphering any arcane or obscure references that it may contain.
Showing posts with label Silence of the Lambs (1991). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silence of the Lambs (1991). Show all posts
CATEGORY: MOVIES; WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!
[Image at left from the Wikipedia 'The Silence of the Lambs (film)' page; "The Silence of the Lambs poster",[a] licensed under fair use via Wikipedia.]
Welcome to the analysis of The Silence of the Lambs. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis. You may want to view the table of contents. Regarding the appearance of possible anti-Semitism on this blog, please see the 'Disclaimers' section near the bottom of this page.
The Silence of the Lambs was released in 1991, and is based on the book of the same name written by Thomas Harris. It was directed by Jonathan Demme (pronounced 'DEM-ee'), and the screenplay was written by Ted Tally. It stars Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Ted Levine, and Scott Glenn.
The film centers around the actions of four main characters: Hannibal Lecter, the insane murderer who partially eats his victims; Jame Gumb, aka Buffalo Bill, the serial killer who skins his female victims; FBI agent-in-training Clarice Starling; and FBI agent Jack Crawford, Starling's supervisor. Underneath the surface action, the movie contains heavy symbolism and metaphor, which this analysis will expose.
Top left: Hannibal Lecter. Top right: Serial killer Buffalo Bill (Jame Gumb). Above left: FBI trainee Clarice Starling. Above right: Starling's supervisor, Jack Crawford.
Note that Jame Gumb's first name is word play on Jaime/Jamie, both of which can be the name of either a man or a woman; and his last name, Gumb, reminds one of chewing gum, which is placed in the mouth; Gumb places a moth cocoon in Benjamin Raspail's mouth, and in the mouth of one of his female victims as well.
Gumb's 'androgynous'-sounding first name functions as a reference to his gender identity confusion - he thinks he will have become a woman if he wears a 'suit' composed of women's skins. Shown at left is Gumb wearing an almost-completed suit of skin.
Gumb's skinning of his female victims reminds one of the shearing of sheep (i.e., lambs).
Regarding the act of silencing, recall that in a scene early in the movie, Lecter 'silences' fellow prisoner Miggs by making him swallow his own tongue, which results in Miggs' death. Also, Clarice relates to Lecter a story about how, as a child, she had tried to save a special lamb from being slaughtered by workers on the ranch she was living on at the time, by telling it to be quiet while she was running away with it, so that anyone who came looking for her would not hear the lamb and therefore not be able to find her.
Jack Crawford represents a father figure for Starling, in that he appears to her to be such. He assigns her to consult Lecter, to get information that will, hopefully, help the FBI apprehend Buffalo Bill.
a. Poster for The Silence Of The Lambs: The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, Orion Pictures, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 8 of the analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
Let us analyze the names of the two species of moths that are used in the movie, Acherontia styx and Acherontia atropos (as we will see later in the hidden plot thread, Benjamin Raspail's head actually contained a specimen of A. styx).
The Acheron is a river located in the Epirus region of northwest Greece. In ancient Greek mythology, Acheron was known as the river of pain, and was one of the rivers of the Greek underworld. In the Homeric poems the Acheron was described as a river of Hades.[a] The river Styx was a river in Greek mythology which formed the boundary between Earth and Hades. It circles the underworld nine times. Based on the foregoing, it makes sense for Gumb to have put Acherontia styx in Benjamin Raspail's head, since Gumb is Satan's pupil, and Satan resides in the underworld.
Atropos ("inexorable" or "inevitable", literally "unturning") was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of each person's death; and when their time was come, she cut their life-thread with her shears.[b] Going by this symbolism, it makes sense for Gumb to have placed Acherontia atropos in the mouth of one of his victims (that of the West Virginia girl), since he is tailoring (working with thread) to create the skin suit.
a. Wikipedia, 'Acheron'. Web, n.d. URL = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheron.
b. Wikipedia, 'Moirae'. Web, n.d. URL = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moirae.
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 25 of the 'unified analysis' of the first three Hannibal Lecter movies.]
[UPDATE: The analysis of The Silence of the Lambs has been extended, in the 'unified analysis' of the first three Lecter movies.]
Previously, we have looked at Augustine's Confessions on biblical creation. From Book 12, chapter 3, with Augustine speaking to God (as always),
"[T]ruly this earth was invisible and unformed, and there was an inexpressibly profound abyss above which there was no light since it had no form. Thou didst command it written that "darkness was on the face of the deep." [Gen. 1:2] What else is darkness except the absence of light? For if there had been light, where would it have been except by being over all, showing itself rising aloft and giving light? Therefore, where there was no light as yet, why was it that darkness was present, unless it was that light was absent? Darkness, then, was heavy upon it, because the light from above was absent; just as there is silence where there is no sound. And what is it to have silence anywhere but simply not to have sound? Hast thou not, O Lord, taught this soul which confesses to thee? Hast thou not thus taught me, O Lord, that before thou didst form and separate this formless matter there was nothing: neither color, nor figure, nor body, nor spirit? Yet it was not absolutely nothing; it was a certain formlessness without any shape."
The well in Jame Gumb's basement (shown at left), in which his victims are kept prior to skinning, represents the abyss present at the beginning of creation, of the 'evil kingdom' that Lecter and Gumb are (or were) to 'create'; and the respective victims in the well are, to Gumb, "formlessness without any shape."
Recall that we are interested in Gumb's (evil Freemasons') allegorical act of (more precisely, bungling attempt at) creation. From Augustine's Confessions, Book 11, chapter 5:
"But how didst thou make the heaven and the earth, and what was the tool of such a mighty work as thine? For it was not like a human worker fashioning body from body, according to the fancy of his mind, able somehow or other to impose on it a form which the mind perceived in itself by its inner eye (yet how should even he be able to do this, if thou hadst not made that mind?). He imposes the form on something already existing and having some sort of being, such as clay, or stone or wood or gold or such like (and where would these things come from if thou hadst not furnished them?). For thou madest his body for the artisan, and thou madest the mind which directs the limbs; thou madest the matter from which he makes anything; thou didst create the capacity by which he understands his art and sees within his mind what he may do with the things before him; thou gavest him his bodily sense by which, as if he had an interpreter, he may communicate from mind to matter what he proposes to do and report back to his mind what has been done, that the mind may consult with the Truth which presideth over it as to whether what is done is well done."
In accordance with the above passage, Gumb, in his attempted act of creation, is unlike God: Gumb is fashioning body from body, and he is working with something already existing (the women's skins). Therefore, going by Augustine, Gumb is not creating.
Above left: Gumb's bungling attempt at creation is depicted in this scene in which he is sewing a piece of a woman's skin. Above right: Gumb believes that if he collects and stitches together patches of skin from various women's bodies, and then wears a skin 'suit' composed by this method, he will effectively have the body of a woman; thus, going by Augustine in the above, Gumb is "a human worker fashioning body from body."
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.
A copy of The National Inquisitor posted on a bulletin board in Jack Crawford's office says, "Bill Skins Fifth."
The FBI map showing Buffalo Bill's (i.e., Jame Gumb's) victims: The blue dots denote the locations from which the girls were abducted, and the red arrows show where their dead bodies were found.
Near the beginning of the movie, when Clarice Starling first walks into Jack Crawford's office, she sees some news clippings and photos on a bulletin board (as shown in the top screencap above). The headline on the posted copy of The National Inquisitor says "Bill Skins Fifth." Later, during Starling's first visit to the institution in which Lecter is kept, Lecter at one point asks her why the authorities call the killer 'Buffalo Bill' - he didn't know Bill skins the girls. This implies that Lecter has not yet seen the aforementioned news article, so at this point he doesn't know there has been a fifth victim, or that all the victims were skinned. The press, operating under directions from the authorities, must have held off on reporting (until this fifth victim was found) that Bill's victims had been skinned, to avoid panicking the public.
Still later, while Starling is flying with Jack Crawford to West Virginia to do an autopsy on a sixth body which has been found, we get a view of a map Crawford is holding (lower screencap above), which shows where each victim was abducted (shown by blue dots), and also where each of their bodies was found (denoted by red arrows). One thing Crawford tells Starling while showing her the map, is that the new victim (the aforementioned sixth victim) washed up today in the Elk River (in West Virginia), and that this victim is not marked on the map. Jack also states that Buffalo Bill keeps his victims alive for three days, then shoots them, skins them, and dumps them, each in a separate river. Crawford also tells Starling that Frederica Bimmel was the first girl murdered, but only the third girl found, because Bill weighted her body down.
Moving on to Starling's third visit to Lecter, we find that Hannibal now has knowledge of the West Virginia victim, a fact which is evident when he begins to ask Starling questions about this victim during this meeting, without being prompted by Starling. At this point, Lecter realizes that Catherine Martin is the intended seventh victim. Lecter asks if the West Virginia girl was a large girl, and Starling responds "yes", that all the girls were large. Starling tells Lecter that an object had been found inserted in the sixth victim's throat. When Lecter asks if the inserted object was a butterfly, Starling responds, "Yes, a moth." She tells Lecter that the insertion of the object has not been made public yet, and that it is just like the moth found in Benjamin Raspail's head "an hour ago." Lecter says that "the significance of the moth is change - caterpillar into chrysalis, or pupa, and thence into beauty." (Since it is butterflies, not moths, whose pupae are called chrysalis's, Lecter is here correcting himself when he says, "or pupa"). In this meeting, Starling sells Lecter the (phony) offer from Senator Martin.
What's actually the case is that Lecter was expecting Bill to use butterflies; when Lecter finds out moths are being used instead, he knows something is not going as he had expected it to go. Then sometime after Starling's third visit, when he studies the map and the rest of the Buffalo Bill case file given to him by Starling, and finds out that Frederica Bimmel's body had been weighted down, he realizes that Gumb is trying to trick him on the true number of victims: Gumb weighted Bimmel down thinking she'd never be found, so Lecter wasn't supposed to find out about her. (If Lecter hadn't found out about Bimmel, he would have thought Catherine Martin was to be only the sixth victim).
Gumb must have met Frederica while he was living in Calumet City, Illinois, which is just outside of Chicago - recall that Frederica's father tells Starling that she had gone to Chicago for a job interview two years earlier. Once Gumb got to know Bimmel and discovered that she was a a tailor, he realized that he could take advantage of this situation by having her teach him this trade, and then murdering her and setting himself up in Mrs. Lippman's house in Belvedere, Ohio (recall that Bimmel did occasional work for Mrs. Lippman). After Gumb killed Bimmel, he skinned her, and then began assembling his 'suit' earlier than had originally been planned.
Recall that while Gumb has Catherine in his basement well, his suit needs two more patches of skin for its completion. Gumb plans for Martin to provide the seventh patch of skin for the suit (the creation of which, as we've said, represents the creation by certain parties of an 'evil kingdom'/modern-day 'utopia'); and, Gumb also wants to eliminate the possibility of Lecter's resurrection becoming an eighth day of creation, by killing and skinning an eighth girl, i.e., Gumb wants to 'pre-empt' Lecter's planned resurrection. Lecter's intention is that when Starling shows up at Gumb's doorstep, Gumb is to think that he can use Starling's thigh as the eighth and final piece for the suit. It's true that Starling is too small to provide this piece, but Lecter 'sends' her to Gumb with this in mind: Gumb is botching his attempt at creation, and is a sloppy thinker, so he would consider killing Clarice for her thigh. (Lecter knows Gumb is sloppy, because of his ineffective weighting down of Bimmel's body).
In the dorm room scene, Clarice and Ardelia are shown looking at the case file map (the same map that Crawford showed Starling on the flight to West Virginia), and it shows Lecter's writing and a large black mark made by him in West Virginia (click on image to enlarge). Ostensibly, this mark was made to denote the discovery of Gumb's sixth victim, but keeping in mind that Starling herself is from West Virginia, it was also a subtle suggestion to her, to help guide her to Gumb. Once Lecter figured out Gumb was trying to trick him, he timed the sending of Starling to Gumb, and his immediately subsequent escape and attempt at resurrection, so that he would be resurrected prior to Gumb having enough opportunity to complete the formation of the suit and pre-empt his resurrection. Since Gumb represents evil Freemasons, the fact that he is trying to cheat Lecter symbolizes that these Freemasons are attempting to cheat the evil hermaphroditic Jews (as represented by Lecter), out of their position as the leaders of the aforementioned modern-day utopia that these two (and other) evil parties are seeking to establish (this utopia being planned to be located in the United States, in southern Indiana).
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 75 of the analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
Above left: A group of FBI trainees (shown) watches Senator Martin (Catherine Martin's mother) on television. Ardelia Mapp is standing on Clarice's left. Above right: We see Clarice's face and hear what are ostensibly her thoughts, while her lips are not moving.
In the scene in which some FBI trainees are clustered together watching Senator Martin on TV, we are at one point shown a close-up of Starling's face, and while the camera is focused on her we hear a female voice say, "Boy, that's smart; Jesus, that's really smart." (This voiceover statement is a comment on Senator Martin's television appearance, in which the Senator speaks about her daughter Catherine's childhood to evoke sympathy for Catherine within Jame Gumb, who is holding her captive in his basement.) Then just after this voiceover, we see Clarice's lips moving as she begins speaking aloud. Since Starling's lips do not move while we hear the voiceover, we are supposed to realize that the words it contains could be Clarice's own thoughts, or they could be words Ardelia is speaking; what's being suggested is that Ardelia is inside Starling's head - this is what is being represented in this part of this scene. In her capacity as 'working for' evil forces (Jame Gumb, representing evil Freemasons), part of Ardelia's function is to act as a psychopomp for Starling, that is, as a mediator between her unconscious and her conscious mind. In performing this function, she influences Starling's thinking.
We can see the above-mentioned influence at work in the dormitory scene where, in commenting on the map of Gumb's victims that Clarice shows her, Ardelia makes some statements that are actually subtle suggestions to Clarice's unconscious, to effectively guide her toward reaching a certain conclusion: that Gumb personally knew Frederica Bimmel prior to killing her. This is, in turned, designed to guide Clarice to Bimmel's home, and ultimately, to the house that Jame Gumb himself is occupying.
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 71 of this analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
Let us examine some supposed 'goofs' made by the movie-makers, and show that they are, in reality, intentional aspects of the movie. The following two items are listed as "factual errors" in the movie on the Internet Movie Database website.[a]
1) "Although [the creation by Jame Gumb of] a human skin garment is implied, most of the sewing examples [in the film] are blatantly wrong to anyone experienced in tailoring. For example, [one scene] shows [Gumb] sewing on one end, single thickness. He's not sewing anything to anything else, and he's using a piece that is typically cut off and discarded during garment construction."
Gumb at work.
We, the readers of this analysis, know that there is an explanation for what is said above about Gumb's work: we know that each of Gumb's (evil Freemasons') victims represents a day of creation, insofar as the suit he is assembling represents the 'spreading' of Lecter's (evil hermaphroditic Jews') 'word' (scripture); but, we have seen from St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica that only God can create. Gumb's bungling attempt at creation is doomed to fail. (Note to those viewing only the parts of this analysis that explain the movie's hidden plot: It is not necessary to have read the posts in which the writings of Thomas Aquinas are discussed, to understand the hidden plot).
2) "The biologist identifies the moth found behind [one of Jame Gumb's] murder victim's soft palate as Acherontia styx, the Deaths Head moth. The Deaths Head moth used in the [movie's theatrical release] poster is actually Acherontia atropos. (A third Deaths Head moth is called Acherontia lachesis.) While A. styx is native to Asia, as identified by the biologist, A. atropos is native to the Middle East and Mediterranean."
The above is explained by the fact that insect biologists are lying to Starling, when they examine the moth cocoon that she brings them (the one found in the mouth of the murder victim who was shown being autopsied - the same victim mentioned above): the moth's species actually isAcherontia atropos, but the biologists want Starling to believe it is Acherontia styx, so they tell her it is. The biologists are working with Jame Gumb, as stated previously in the analysis, and they are assisting Gumb by deceiving Starling on the species of the moth. More information on the moths and the details of this deception, will be covered later in the film's hidden plot thread.
The species of moth (whose cocoon is shown at left) that is examined by the two Smithsonian biologists is Acherontia atropos (click screencap to enlarge). One difference between the skull-like marking of A. styx, and that of A. atropos, is that it is anteriorly narrower in A. styx.[b]
The theatrical release poster for The Silence of the Lambs.[c] The skull-like marking in the image of Acherontia atropos is bright white here, due to the fact that the image was edited by one or more of the film's artists, so that the marking is composed of strategically-placed tiny drawings of bodies of naked white women.[d]
a. "The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Goofs." The Internet Movie Database. Internet Movie Database Ltd. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/goofs.
b. Rothschild, Walter and Karl Jordan. A Revision of the Lepidopterous Family Sphingidae. London and Aylesbury: Hazell, Watson, and Viney Ld., 1903. Google Books, p. 154. URL = https://books.google.com.
c. Image from the Wikipedia 'The Silence of the Lambs (film)' page; "The Silence of the Lambs poster", licensed under fair use via Wikipedia. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the item promoted, Orion Pictures, the publisher of the item promoted or the graphic artist.
d. Wikipedia, 'Silence of the Lambs (film)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_(film).
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 70 of the analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
Let us perform an analysis of the last name of one of the two insect biologists consulted by Starling on the moth cocoon found in Gumb's sixth victim's mouth: regarding the name Pilcher, one (archaic) meaning of the British word pilch is "an outer garment, originally one made of skin";[a] this meaning is reminiscent of the idea of Gumb's victims' skins, which are being removed from them and assembled into a suit that Gumb can wear. Based on this name analysis, we see that Pilcher is associated with (i.e., working with) Jame Gumb.
We can go further and conclude that the other insect biologist, Roden, and Starling's roommate, Ardelia Mapp, are also working with Gumb. This conclusion is based on the fact that Roden and Pilcher work together very closely in performing their job functions, and the fact that near the end of the movie, at the FBI academy graduation ceremony, Ardelia meets up with Roden and Pilcher and poses for a photograph with one of them (Roden, with Pilcher handling the camera; see screencap at left). This occurs while the three of them are alone together after Crawford and Starling have walked off, and indicates a comradeship among the three of them.
a. Collins English Dictionary, "Definition of pilch." Web, n.d. URL = http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/pilch.
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 69 of the analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
According to behindthename dot com, the name 'Clarice' possibly comes from a medieval French form of Claritia, a derivative of Clara.[a] Clara is a feminine form of the Late Latin name Clarus which meant "clear, bright, famous." The name Clarus was borne by a few early saints. The feminine form was popularized by the 13th-century Saint Clare of Assisi (called Chiara in Italian), a friend and follower of Saint Francis, who left her wealthy family to found the order of nuns known as the Poor Clares. As an English name it has been in use since the Middle Ages, originally in the form Clare, though the Latinate spelling Clara became more popular in the 19th century.[b]
Pope Pius XII in 1958 named St. Clare the patron saint of television.[c] This reminds us of there being a television set sitting nearby during Clarice's second visit with Lecter (as shown at left).
a. Behind the Name, 'Clarice'. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.behindthename.com/name/clarice.
b. Behind the Name, 'Clara'. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.behindthename.com/name/clara.
c. LETTRE APOSTOLIQUE PROCLAMANT Ste CLAIRE PATRONNE CÉLESTE DE LA TÉLÉVISION (Apostolic Letter proclaiming Saint Claire as Heavenly Patron of Television) (French). 1958. Official website of the Holy See. 11 Nov. 2015. URL = http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/fr/apost_letters/documents/hf_p-xii_apl_21081958_st-claire.html.
From Augustine's Confessions, Book 10.31 (Chadwick translation):[a]
"There is another 'evil of the day', and I wish it sufficed for the day [Matt. 6:34]. We restore the daily decay of the body by eating and drinking, until in time you destroy both food and stomach [1 Cor. 6:13], when you will kill need with a wonderful satiety and when you clothe this incorruptible body with everlasting incorruption [1 Cor. 15:53]. But at the present time the necessity of food and drink is sweet to me...
"My pains are driven away by pleasure. For hunger and thirst are a kind of pain, which burns and can kill like a fever, unless the medicine of sustenance brings help. Because this cure is granted to us, thanks to the consolation of your gifts, by which earth and water and sky minister to our infirmity, a calamity can be called a delight...
"I hear the voice of my God giving command: 'Your hearts shall not be weighed down in gluttony and drunkenness' [Luke 21:34]..." (bible citations inside square brackets in original).
The denial of good food and drink and other sensual pleasures to Lecter, due to his being imprisoned, is God's way of punishing him for disobeying the command given in Luke 21:34 (quoted by Augustine above); for Lecter, while free, was a connoisseur of fine food and wine, and also of human body parts and organs.
During Starling's first visit to Lecter, he says to her (regarding a test questionnaire she had given him), "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans, and a nice Chianti."
a. St. Augustine. Confessions. Trans. with introduction and notes Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. pp. 204-207.
[UPDATE 1/9/11: See part 8 of the Hannibal Rising analysis on this blog, for a listing of the reasons why Lecter is a cannibal.]
Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century CE, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and early Platonists.[a] Saint Augustine was influenced by the works of some Neoplatonists, particularly in The Six Enneads of Plotinus. Augustine found there an original synthesis of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics (Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic). Among other topics, Plotinus writes on the relationship between sense perception and memory:
"Perceptions are no imprints, we have said, are not to be thought of as seal-impressions on soul or mind...Memory is not to be explained as the retaining of information in virtue of the lingering of an impression which in fact was never made; the two things stand or fall together; either an impression is made upon the mind and lingers when there is remembrance, or, denying the impression, we cannot hold that memory is its lingering. [We] reject equally the impression and the retention...
"But if perception does not go by impression, what is the process? The mind affirms something not contained within it: this is precisely the characteristic of a power — not to accept impression but, within its allotted sphere, to act...Our tendency is to think of any of the faculties as unable to know its appropriate object by its own uncompelled act; to us it seems to submit to its environment rather than simply to perceive it, though in reality it is the master, not the victim...
"The very fact that we train ourselves to remember shows that what we get by the process is a strengthening of the mind...
"Sensation and memory, then, are not passivity but power..."[b]
If we go by the above, then it would seem that Hannibal Lecter uses what Marcus Aurelius would call his directing mind when he perceives Starling with his bodily senses, and when he remembers these sensations.
Top left and right: During Starling's first visit with Lecter, Lecter can detect Starling's scent through the holes at the top of his cell plexiglass barrier. Above left: Starling during this meeting. Above right: A short while after detecting Clarice's scent, Lecter says, "Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view."
a. Wikipedia, 'Neoplatonism'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism.
b. Plotinus. The Six Enneads, Fourth Ennead, Sixth Tractate. Trans. Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Page. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, URL = http://www.ccel.org/ccel/plotinus/enneads.v.vi.html.
Let's explore the etymology of Hannibal Lecter's name, to see if we can confirm that he represents a personification of evil Jews, and of Satan.
Starting with Hannibal's last name, 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.
One traditional Jewish celebration during which candles are lighted is Hanukkah. Hanukkah (also romanized as Chanukah), also known as the Festival of Lights, is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a special candelabrum, the nine-branched Menorah or Hanukiah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night.[b]
Left: The nine-branched Hanukiah.[Image from the Wikipedia 'Menorah (Hanukkah)' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.] Above: Lecter bites Officer Pembry on the face in Memphis.
Let us now analyze Lecter's first name. The name 'Hannibal' means "grace of Ba'al" from the Phoenician hann "grace" combined with the name of the god BA'AL. Hannibal was the name of a Carthaginian general known for his cruelty, who threatened Rome during the Second Punic War in the 3rd century BC.[c] BA'AL is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that was used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant. Worship of all such spirits was rejected as immoral, and many were in fact considered malevolent and dangerous.
The demonization of Ba'al Zebûb led to much of the modern religious personification of Satan as the adversary of the Abrahamic God.[d]
As can be seen, the etymology of Lecter's first name confirms that he represents a personification of Satan, and this taken with his last name indicates a correspondence between evilness and certain Jews. As we've already observed, Lecter represents evil hermaphroditic Jews (recall from part 8 of the analysis, that the hermaphroditic aspect of Lecter is due to the 'femaleness' within him, insofar as he corresponds to the witch, Baba Yaga).
a. Ancestry, Lichter Family History: Lichter Name Meaning. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=lichter.
b. Wikipedia, 'Hanukkah'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah.
c. Wikipedia, 'Hannibal'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal.
d. Wikipedia, 'Baal'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal.
Previously in the analysis, we have observed that Hannibal Lecter's storage unit and the items in it, especially the mannequins (shown at left), represent Clarice Starling's unconscious and its contents, respectively. We determined that the psychoanalysis Dr. Lecter is doing on her, which begins as an exploration of her unconscious, has as its purpose to 'set up' the conditions in Clarice's psyche such that she will see confronting Jame Gumb as necessary for her to become a complete woman.
The point of reviewing all of this here is to highlight the importance of the storage unit and its contents: their existence is crucial in order for Lecter to implement the manipulation of Starling's unconscious. The question is, what prompted him to set up the unit in the first place? Did he 'know' ahead of time that God would send an angel of death, someone like Starling? - Recall that he set up the unit and paid for it several years in advance. Let us examine in detail the chronology of events that are related to the rental of the unit:
When Starling is preparing to enter the storage unit Lecter rented (as shown at left), the storage company owner tells her that the unit was prepaid in full for ten years at the time it was rented, in the name of a Miss Hester Mofet. Starling then asks the owner, "So no one's been in here since 1980?" (Note that this implies that the movie is set in the year 1990).
Later, in Memphis, Lecter tells Senator Martin, who is accompanied by Agent Krendler (of the FBI) and some other people, that "Louis Friend" was referred to him by another of his patients, Benjamin Raspail, in April or May of 1980. ("Louis Friend" is Lecter's fictional 'alias' for Buffalo Bill - he is here misdirecting the authorities.) Note that Lecter met Gumb, and rented the storage unit, in the same year (1980). (Since Lecter has been in prison for eight years when he first meets Starling, he must have been imprisoned in the year 1982, so there was a two-year time span between the year in which he met Gumb, and the year in which he entered prison).
Above left: Senator Martin and her party (with Agent Krendler standing to her immediate right) have assembled at an airplane hangar in Memphis, Tennessee to discuss with Lecter the terms of his transfer to a different prison facility. Above right: Lecter is wheeled toward the Senator.
One could say that Lecter did not know that an angel of death would come, but that he only set up the unit in case one should come. But Lecter knew about the pursuit of Buffalo Bill from reading the papers, so one would have to ask why he didn't come forward prior to Starling showing up – it seems that he could have told Dr. Chilton (or other officials) about the storage unit and Raspail's head, and about the connection between Raspail and Gumb, and then worked a deal so as to get transferred, all without the involvement of Starling.
The implication is that Lecter knew ahead of time, that an angel of death would arrive on the scene.
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 68 of the analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
Jame Gumb lying on his back just after having been killed by Starling, with curled up arms and 'bug-like' eye goggles making him appear like a dead insect.
The wind twirler hanging in Gumb's basement shown spinning, just after his death, depicts a butterfly flying among flowers. The Dictionary of Symbols says that the Aztecs considered the butterfly to symbolize "the soul or the breath of life exhaled by the dying. A butterfly fluttering among the flowers represented the soul of the warrior who had fallen on the battlefield [a]."[b]
As evidenced by the military helmet, small American flag, and toy soldier in Jame Gumb's basement window sill, Gumb must have been in the armed services at some point during his life (click image to enlarge).
a. Krickeberg, Walter, 'Les religions des peupels civilisés de Mezo-Amerique', in Religions amerindiennes, translated from the German by L. Jospin, Paris, 1962, p. 43.
b. Dictionary of Symbols, Ed. Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, Trans. John Buchanan-Brown, London: Penguin Group, 1996, p. 141.
"Now who but you, our god, made for us that firmament of the authority of your divine scripture to be over us? For 'the heaven shall be folded up like a scroll';[Isa. 34:4] but now it is stretched over us like a skin. Your divine scripture is of more sublime authority now that these mortal men through whom you dispensed it to us have departed this life. And you know, lord, you know how you clothed men with skins when they became mortal because of a sin.[Gen. 3:21] In something of the same way, you have stretched out the firmament of your book as a skin - that is to say, you have spread your harmonious words over us through the ministry of mortal men. For by their very death that solid firmament of authority in your sayings, spoken forth by them, stretches high over all that now drift under it; whereas while they lived on earth their authority was not so widely extended. Then you had not spread out the heaven like a skin; you had not yet spread abroad everywhere the fame of their death."
This passage reminds us of Gumb's (Satan's/Lecter's pupil) 'suit' of skin. The idea of Gumb's physical body being enclosed by a suit of skin assembled from patches obtained from his female victims, must therefore be an allegory for the construction of a firmament 'surrounding' Satan's pupil, i.e. an 'evil firmament', keeping in mind that in the passage from Augustine above, 'firmament' means scripture. Thus, the formation of the suit of skin represents the unfolding of Satan's (Lecter's/evil hermaphroditic Jews') evil word (i.e., scripture) over mankind. And, 'fame of their death' refers to the fact that the killings of the women have become widely known among the public largely due to Catherine Martin's mother, a U.S. Senator, appearing on national television to address her daughter's plight (specifically, to plead with Buffalo Bill so that he will not kill Catherine).
Above left: Jame Gumb, wearing his almost-completed suit of skin. Above right: Catherine Martin's mother, Senator Ruth Martin, pleads with Catherine's captor (Gumb, aka Buffalo Bill) on national TV, to be merciful with Catherine and to release her unharmed.
This completes the 'abstract' analysis phase 3, which consists of parts 51-61.
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 63 of the analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
The "Shield of the Trinity" or Scutum Fidei diagram of traditional medieval Western Christian symbolism, since 12th-century CE. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Trinity' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
Marcus Aurelius discusses what one could think of as certain tripartite divisions in his Meditations which, upon close examination, seem to be matches for the Christian Holy Trinity, which consists of three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. First, some preparatory material:
In the bible's Gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 20-23, a correspondence is drawn between breath, and the Holy Spirit:
20. [T]hen the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." 23. "If you received the sins of any, they are forgiven them..." [New Revised Standard Version; emphasis not in original.]
There are several ways in which the entities of Aurelius's division are put into words by him. From the Hammond translation of Meditations:
[2.2] "Whatever it is, this being of mine is made up of flesh, breath, and directing mind..."[a]
The correspondence with the Holy Trinity here seems to be, 'flesh = God the Son (Jesus), breath = Holy Spirit, directing mind = God the Father.'
[3.16] "Body, soul, mind. To the body belong sense perceptions, to the soul impulses, to the mind judgments..."[b]
'body = God the Son (Jesus), soul = Holy Spirit, mind = God the Father.'
Aurelius's other formulations are, 'directing mind, sensual soul, body' [7.16], which corresponds to 'God the Father, Holy Spirit, God the Son (Jesus)', and 'body, breath, and mind' [12.3], corresponding to 'God the Son (Jesus), Holy Spirit, God the Father'.
a. Marcus Aurelius. Meditations. Trans. with notes Martin Hammond. London: Penguin Group, 2006. p. 10.
b. Ibid., p. 22.
Continuing with the topic begun in the previous post, in Confessions Book 13, chapter 9, Augustine says,
"... The body tends towards its own place by its own gravity. A weight does not tend downward only, but moves to its own place. Fire tends upward; a stone tends downward. They are propelled by their own mass; they seek their own places. Oil poured under the water rises above the water; water poured on oil sinks under the oil. They are moved by their own mass; they seek their own places. If they are out of order, they are restless; when their order is restored, they are at rest. My weight is my love. But I am carried wherever I am carried. By your gift, we are enkindled and are carried upward. ..."
The above suggests the idea of the placement of Gumb's victims' bodies in flowing water, and their subsequent movement through it. Recall that Gumb weighted down the body of his first victim (Frederica Bimmel), and that therefore she was found third - thus, 'out of order' with respect to the later victims.
A photo of Frederica Bimmel from the FBI Buffalo Bill case file.
The red arrows on this FBI map, show where the bodies of some of Gumb's female victims were discovered by the authorities. Each body was found in a different river.
In this post, we connect some of Augustine's writings on 'the waters', with the fact that Jame Gumb places his victims' bodies in rivers. Book 13, chapter 7 of the Confessions says,
"Now let him who is able follow your apostle with his understanding when he says, 'Your love is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy spirit, which is given to us'[1 Cor. 12:1] and who teaches us about spiritual gifts and shows us a more excellent way of love;[1 Cor. 12:31 ff.] and who bows his knee to you for us so that we may come to the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ. Thus, from the beginning, he who is above all was "moving over" the waters.
"To whom shall I tell this? How can I speak of the weight of concupiscence which drags us downward into the deep abyss, and of the love which lifts us up by your spirit who moved over the waters? To whom shall I tell this? How shall I tell it? For concupiscence and love are not certain places in which we are plunged and out of which we are lifted again. What could be more like, and yet what more unlike? They are both feelings; they are both loves. The uncleanness of our own spirit flows downward with the love of worldly care; and the sanctity of your spirit raises us upward by the love of release from anxiety - that we may lift our hearts to you where your spirit is 'moving over the waters.' Thus, we shall have come to that supreme rest where our souls shall have passed through the waters which give no standing ground."
The ideas here of being "plunged" and of flowing downward, are suggested by Gumb's placement of his victims' bodies in rivers: Each body is 'plunged' into the water, then 'flows downward' through the water.
In the previous post, we began to discuss the importance of bodies of water in the movie. In the Confessions, Augustine speaks of the Holy Spirit 'moving over' the waters at the beginning of creation, as told in the biblical book of Genesis. From Book 13 of the Confessions (Outler translation):
[13.5] "See now, how the trinity appears to me in an enigma. And you are the trinity, my god, since you, father - in the beginning of our wisdom, that is, in your wisdom born of you, equal and coeternal with you, that is, your son - created the heaven and the earth...And now I came to recognize, in the name of god, the father who made all these things, and in the term 'the beginning' to recognize the son through which he made all these things; and since I did believe that my god was the trinity, I sought still further in his holy word, and, behold, 'your spirit moved over the waters.' Thus, see the trinity, my god: father, son, and holy spirit, the creator of all creation!"
Recall that Clarice Starling's green clothing in certain scenes, indicates that she represents the 'presence' of the Holy Spirit.
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Saint Augustine's Confessions andCity 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.
