The Silence Of The Lambs

Dr. Hannibal Lecter is an inmate at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, charged with multiple murders and cannibalism—which gives him the nickname “Hannibal the Cannibal” (4). Lecter was a professional psychiatrist and still publishes work in psychiatric journals from behind bars. Lecter is incredibly observant of others’ behaviors and can accurately predict how people will react to his words or actions. This quality helps him to escape from the Memphis jail in Chapter 36 and allows him to plan his escape from prison years in advance. Despite this skill, Clarice and Crawford see that Lecter is too afraid to analyze “his own little anomalies” (5). Lecter tries to use his analytic ability against Clarice to make her give him the Buffalo Bill casefile, and he becomes fascinated with her when she withstands his taunts.

Lecter is both an antagonist and a mentor for Clarice. He hides the identity of Buffalo Bill—which he knows from the start—for the entirety of the book, only giving Clarice clues. He speaks cryptically and only provides straightforward answers in quid pro quo games of exchange. To the end, Crawford believes Lecter only “want[s] to amuse himself” (359), but Harris shows that Lecter genuinely wants Clarice to succeed when Lecter contemplates how to lead Clarice toward Gumb with better clues. Lecter makes Clarice question the certainty of her training by opening her to ways of understanding peoples’ motivations, believing the FBI’s methods are elementary. Lecter claims that he would have liked to be Clarice’s friend under different circumstances, and this leads Clarice to believe that he wouldn’t “ever bushwhack [her]” (356). Barney is another outlier to Lecter’s games, as Lecter appreciates Barney’s care.

Clarice describes Lecter as having maroon eyes that “reflect the light with pinpoints of red” and six fingers on one hand (16). He is extremely pale from living in a cell with no access to sunlight. He has a charismatic demeanor and stands “poised like a dancer” (231), but he can dramatically morph with vulgar and contorted movements, as seen when he mimics Sammie, who is schizophrenic. Clarice sees that Lecter’s crimes “had purged him of lesser rudeness” (25); he values courtesy, dignity, and good manners. However, he treats people in ways that reflect their own behavior toward him. For example, he toys with Chilton and Miggs because he finds them rude and boring. By the end of the book, Lecter plans to permanently alter his appearance and flee the country, leaving him open to reappear in Harris’ future books.

Jack Crawford is the Section Chief of the Behavioral Sciences Unit at the FBI and the lead investigator on the Buffalo Bill case. He is Clarice’s mentor over the course of the investigation who teaches her both the mechanics of investigating and the social aspect of investigating with other jurisdictions. Despite having a glowing track record of catching three major serial killers for the FBI, Crawford is under fire for not yet catching Buffalo Bill. Clarice admires Crawford’s “peculiar cleverness” and trusts that he will be the one to solve the case (2). Crawford is primarily motivated by saving more women from becoming Buffalo Bill’s victims, but he also wants to keep the reputation of Behavioral Sciences intact, and, as his boss says, get “a win” (114).

Crawford is a workaholic, always taking phone calls from multiple departments around the world and receiving updates on the case at all hours of the day, even on his home computer. Clarice admires that even with his status in the FBI, he still goes into the field. As an investigator, Crawford manipulates others to get information. He will do anything from performing sexist gender tropes for small town police to outright threatening the entire Gender Identity Clinic to get his way. He teaches Clarice that a certain level of schmoozing is necessary to make people want to help, which she applies to her professional relationships.

Paul Krendler believes Crawford should be on compassionate leave because his wife Bella is terminally ill, but Crawford feels compelled to stay on the case. Clarice notes that the multiple levels of stress noticeably change Crawford’s appearance from “a fit, middle-aged engineer” (1) to a thin man with “dark puffs under his reddened eyes” (2). Lecter nicknames him “Crawford the Stoic” for his lack of emotion, and indeed he is reserved and doesn’t like to communicate his emotions (20). Crawford also teaches Clarice how to suppress her emotions. After Bella dies, Crawford more openly displays his feelings, like when he hugs Clarice to congratulate her in Chapter 57 or when he cries in the street in Chapter 48. Despite Crawford and Clarice’s win on the case, Crawford still must retire in two years at age 55, which he resents after all the time he has spent with the FBI.

Jame Gumb is the real name of serial killer Buffalo Bill, who is the main antagonist of The Silence of the Lambs. As Buffalo Bill, Gumb killed and skinned five young women, but news outlets reveal he has a lengthy history of murder extending all the way back to childhood. Gumb’s distant relationship with his mother who had alcoholism impacts his current behavior intensely; he believes he can make a suit out of real human skin and transform himself into her image. He watches a VHS tape recording of his mother ritualistically, which fuels his delusional fantasy. Gumb is obsessed with moths and believes his project to become his mother will involve the kind of transformation that moths experience. Benjamin Raspail describes Gumb as “not anything, really” and as having a complete lack of personal presence, which leads Gumb to adopt the identity of others (172). Lecter believes Gumb has “tried to be a lot of things” (165), none of which have stuck.

Gumb believes that his project will be accepted by others—evident in his painstaking considerations of how his skin garment will look and feel. Despite this delusion, Gumb is highly intelligent. He methodically evades the FBI by confusing their profiling and concocts elaborate ruses to capture his victims, knowing how to read their vulnerabilities. Gumb is patient and methodical and can perform his meticulous tasks under the pressure of excitement. To do this, he repeats a mantra to himself: “You have to be orderly, you have to be precise, you have to be expeditious, because the problems are formidable” (284). However, he can also be impulsively violent, showed in his assaults against gay men in Harrisburg and against the doctor of the Gender Identity Clinic who rejected his application for sex-reassignment surgery.

Gumb is a “white male, thirty-four, six feet one inch, 205 pounds, black and blue, no distinguishing marks” (135). Due to his belief that he is transgender, his outward demeanor is feminine and demur. He wanders his house naked or in a robe, and he has an elaborate pampering routine with expensive cosmetics. Gumb is appalled by his male body and “[uses] a dishmop on the parts he did not like to touch” (136). Gumb speaks “in the upper range of his naturally deep voice” with a sing-song rhythm, especially when addressing his dog, Precious, like in Chapter 20 when he calls, “Ye-e-e-e-s. Are you famished, Precious?” (136) In contrast, Gumb addresses Catherine with dehumanizing terms like “the material” (205), “this one,” and “it” (206). Gumb maintains his delusion until the end when he dons the partial skin-garment and chases Clarice around the basement.

Lecter and the Gender Clinic theorize that Gumb does not have gender dysphoria. Rather, we learn that Gumb wants to become his mother and gain acceptance from her.

Dr. Frederick Chilton is the head administrator at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane where Lecter is imprisoned. Chilton acts as an antagonist for both Clarice and Lecter, and he says that Lecter considers Chilton “his nemesis” (11). Chilton’s antagonism stems from his tendency to retaliate after feeling embarrassed. Clarice rejects Chilton’s romantic advances in Chapter 2; from then on, he tries to make her job difficult by ignoring her or by outright blaming her for things that go wrong under his watch—like Miggs’s death and Lecter’s escape. Lecter, who claims that Chilton “has no medical degree” (230), wrote a humiliating article that still angers Chilton. Chilton hides behind a façade of self-importance; when outside of his work he has an unremarkably “lonesome life” (141).

Chilton is 58 years old and has brown hair that Lecter compares to the color of feces. He is ambitious and narcissistic, with an inflated sense of his own abilities and intelligence, which is why he takes Clarice’s rejection and Lecter’s exposé so personally. Lecter exposes the cracks in Chilton’s intelligent façade to Clarice when he corrects Chilton’s misdiagnoses of Sammie, the new inmate. Chilton is motivated by professional clout, as shown in his nonnegotiable deal with the Senator that secures him exclusive rights to Catherine Martin’s traumatic story. Chilton’s self-centered ambition leads him to impose on Clarice and the FBI’s investigation, which Clarice believes almost guarantees Catherine’s death. When Lecter escapes, Chilton’s bombastic display of taming Lecter crumbles: he demands to be put into witness protection out of fear that Lecter will kill him.

Ardelia Mapp is Clarice’s roommate and close friend at the FBI Academy. Ardelia is a minor character but acts as an important confidant for Clarice when Clarice is overwhelmed by the Buffalo Bill investigation. Ardelia can read Clarice’s stress levels and knows exactly how to distract and cheer Clarice up. Ardelia has a compassionate, motherly demeanor shown through her constant surveillance of Clarice’s wellbeing. Clarice describes Ardelia as “broad, brown, and eminently sane” (29). Ardelia comes from a lower income family, like Clarice, as she lived in the “housing project” of her hometown (37). Ardelia hides the “colorful patois” dialect that she grew up with to be taken seriously as a woman at the FBI (37). She and Clarice connect on their struggles as women, but don’t wallow in self-pity; instead, they push each other to constantly improve their abilities.

Barney is an orderly at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane who works under Dr. Chilton. Barney is a minor character who primarily watches over Lecter. Lecter lauds Barney’s observational capabilities, noting that he only stole contraband materials “on Barney’s days off” (236). Barney feels he understands Lecter better than anyone else due to the amount of time they spend together. Barney treats Lecter with human compassion, which Lecter thanks him for. Barney acts as a foil to Chilton with his compassionate treatment of the inmates. Rather than studying them at a distance, Barney is truly concerned with their rehabilitation. Clarice develops a friendly professional relationship with Barney. This relationship comes in handy when she asks for Lecter’s possessions, which she uses as a ruse to talk to him in Memphis. Barney helps Clarice understand Crawford’s lesson about the usefulness of personability for investigations.

Catherine Baker Martin is the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin and a victim of Buffalo Bill. She is his only victim who survives. Clarice describes Catherine as a “self-absorbed, blunted, boarding-school kid” and she resents the luxuries Catherine’s mother’s money affords her (208). Catherine uses her mother’s influence to negotiate unsuccessfully with Gumb and threatens Clarice when she doesn’t immediately hoist her out of the oubliette. Like Buffalo Bill’s other victims, Catherine is bigger, but unlike the other girls, “Catherine wasn’t lonesome” and has confidence (320). She refuses to appear as a victim to the public; her plan to capture Precious and barter for her life shows her determination.

Senator Ruth Martin is Catherine Martin’s mother: her primary motivation is finding her daughter. As a senator, Ruth Martin has extra resources to search for her daughter that weren’t options for other victims. As a public figure, the Senator wants to keep her and her daughter’s reputation intact; she hides scandalous photos rather than allowing Clarice to follow the lead. Senator Martin is strong and rational throughout the investigation, and she maintains a diplomatic demeanor even while speaking with Lecter. Clarice describes her as “a tall woman with a strong, plain face” (118). When she meets the Senator in real life, she looks “drained” but still has “a lot of presence” (214). Although Clarice and the Senator have the same goals, Clarice views the Senator antagonistically because she commandeers Clarice’s investigation and questions her abilities.

Noble Pilcher and Albert Roden are both entomologists at the Smithsonian Museum. They aren’t doctors, but because of their extensive knowledge, Clarice refers to them as Dr. Pilcher and Dr. Roden. The men talk to each other quickly and knowingly with complicated scientific jargon that impresses Clarice. Pilcher is Clarice’s love interest, although she holds his attempted intimacy at a distance. By the end of the book, Clarice accepts Pilcher’s advances and finds herself looking forward to hearing from him. Pilcher and Roden are both minor static characters, but they are crucial to identifying the moth evidence that leads Clarice and the FBI to Gumb.

Paul Krendler is the Deputy Assistant Attorney General from the Department of Justice who works with Senator Martin in her separate investigation. Krendler is a minor antagonist for Clarice as he threatens her position at the FBI Academy and publicly questions her honesty. Krendler is a static character who looms as an off-page threat more than he is present in the text. Krendler is an archetype of the flip-flopping bureaucrat that makes Clarice question her desire to be an agent. Krendler’s attitude changes drastically between wanting Clarice’s expulsion and requesting a meeting to congratulate her, which makes Clarice doubt his authenticity. Clarice describes Krendler as having shiny shoes “from walking on much deep carpet” (216). Krendler is acclimated to the sheltered side of justice versus on-the-ground investigating, creating tension between his and Clarice’s motives.