The Silence Of The Lambs

“Nothing happened to me, Officer Starling. I happened. You can’t reduce me to a set of influences. You’ve given up good and evil for behaviorism, Officer Starling. You’ve got everybody in moral dignity pants—nothing is ever anybody’s fault.”

In Clarice’s first interview with Lecter, he refuses to fill out her questionnaire because he believes it is too simplistic. Lecter’s understanding of his inherent motivations conflict with the FBI’s profiling standards that look to categorize criminal behavior. Lecter’s disdain for the FBI’s methods solidifies throughout the book, and he tries to teach Clarice how to look beyond this restrictive viewpoint.

“I won’t deny anything you’ve said. But here’s a question you’re answering for me right now, whether you mean to or not: Are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself? It’s hard to face.”

Lecter makes a show of guessing at Clarice’s upbringing and personality based on her appearance, which she painfully agrees is correct. She taunts Lecter back, saying he is too afraid to look deep within himself in the same way he looks at others because what he finds may contradict his perfectly calculated exterior. Clarice’s honesty and courage begins to interest Lecter, and he develops a fascination with her strength and deductive abilities.

“Now is when it’s important to think. Now is more important than all the crap you tell your pillow for the rest of your life. Suck it up and do this right. I don’t want to destroy evidence. I do want some help. But most of all I don’t want to cry wolf.”

This passage shows Clarice’s internal thoughts when she discovers what she thinks is a body in the back of Raspail’s limousine. The finding frightens Clarice, but she doesn’t want to be seen as a coward by her colleagues if she is wrong and raises a false alarm. The quotation illustrates Clarice’s habit of forcing herself to be logical and disciplined.

“He hustled the smaller man into a cluttered office off the hall and closed the door. Starling was left to mask her umbrage before the gaggle of deputies. Her teeth hard together, she gazed at Saint Cecilia and returned the saint’s ethereal smile while eavesdropping through the door.”

At the Potter’s Funeral Home, Crawford publicly leaves Clarice out of his meeting with the deputy sheriff, embarrassing her in front of the policemen who already believe she’s out of place. Clarice feels that Crawford’s behavior—even if it is a performance for the small-town police—reinforces the sexist belief that women shouldn’t be in law enforcement. The shut door is a physical symbol of the extra barriers Clarice must overcome as a woman in a male-dominated field.

“Crawford saw that in this place Starling was heir to the granny women, to the wise women, the herb healers, the stalwart country women who have always done the needful, who keep the watch and when the watch is over, wash and dress the country dead.”

Clarice reconnects to her rural roots at the Potter’s Funeral Home when she remembers the strength of her poor mother in the face of death. Crawford and the policemen recognize her authority because she reminds them of the strong caretakers in their own communities that they respect. This moment transforms Clarice, as she finds a power in her West Virginian heritage that she previously rejected.

“That’s not a guess. He’s very likely right, and he could have told you why, but he wanted to tease you with it. It’s the only weakness I ever saw in him—he has to look smart, smarter than anybody. He’s been doing it for years.”

This quotation, spoken by Crawford, illuminates Lecter’s character and his motivations. Above all, Lecter wants to amuse himself; he gives Clarice information that Crawford can deduce easily from the evidence, but he presented it to Clarice as if he had intimate knowledge of the killer. In later chapters, the reader sees Lecter manufacturing clues to give to Clarice that can show off his intelligence and test her investigative abilities.

“Over this odd world, this half the world that’s dark now, I have to hunt a thing that lives on tears.”

A main symbol in the book is the moth, which represents transformation as well as destruction. Clarice mentally connects Buffalo Bill directly to a moth that feeds on tears, as Buffalo Bill lives by killing and torturing women. The image of Buffalo Bill as a night creature emphasizes the sinisterness of his actions as a predator hunting the vulnerable in the dark.

“In the Potter Funeral Home, standing at the sink, she had found strength from a source that surprised and pleased her—the memory of her mother. Starling was a seasoned survivor on hand-me-down grace from her late father through her brothers; she was surprised and moved by this bounty that she had found.”

Clarice recognizes a new source of strength in her womanhood that she previously tried to repress in hopes of being taken more seriously by the men in her field. Clarice acknowledges that her father and brothers’ masculine strength isn’t the only source of power she can tap into; her mother has a gentle strength that is just as useful. Clarice begins to allow compassion to guide how she approaches the investigation, which motivates her to face the gruesome deeds of Buffalo Bill head-on.

“‘What do your two disciplines tell you about Buffalo Bill?’

‘By the book, he’s a sadist.’

‘Life’s too slippery for books, Clarice; anger appears as lust, lupus presents as hives.’”

This exchange between Lecter and Clarice exemplifies the motif of classification and the inability for objective categorizations to account for the intricacies of behaviour. Lecter rejects Clarice’s “by the book” reading of Buffalo Bill, later stating that the killer’s actions contradict this easy ready when they look closer. The exchange highlights the mentorship/mentee relationship between Lecter and Clarice, where Lecter tries to open Clarice’s mind to new ways of thinking.

“Dr. Lecter could remember every word, and much more too. Pleasant thoughts to pass the time while they cleaned his cell. Clarice Starling was astute, the doctor mused. She might get Jame Gumb with what he had told her, but it was a long shot. To get him in time, she would need more specifics.”

Lecter recollects word-for-word a conversation with his patient and victim, Benjamin Raspail, about Jame Gumb and his murder of Klaus. The passage reveals that Lecter knows the identity of Buffalo Bill, but that he has been toying with Clarice to see if she is smart enough to figure it out on her own. Lecter wants to help Clarice find Catherine before Catherine dies, both because of his growing interest in Clarice’s abilities and because of the deal’s caveat that he’ll only receive privileges if Catherine lives.

“‘I hadn’t heard your voice in years—I suppose the last time was when you gave me all the misleading answers in my interviews and then ridiculed me in your Journal articles. It’s hard to believe an inmate’s opinions could count for anything in the professional community, isn’t it?’”

Dr. Chilton reveals to Lecter that he secretly recorded Clarice’s last interview. Despite Chilton’s claims that he has no personal investment in Lecter’s treatment, Chilton is still bothered by Lecter’s defamatory article about him. Lecter’s psychiatric research is still respected by the scientific community despite his incarceration for multiple murders, which offends Chilton, who sees Lecter as nothing more than an inmate.

“To even mention Buffalo Bill in the same breath with the problems we treat here is ignorant and unfair and dangerous, Mr. Crawford. It makes my hair stand on end.” 

Dr. Danielson, the head of Johns Hopkins’ Gender Identity Clinic, represents allyship to transgender peoples. Here, Danielson is appalled that Crawford suggests Buffalo Bill’s violence is connected to being transgender, as trans people are already unfairly stereotyped as threats to mainstream society. Danielson advocates for the vulnerable trans community in the face of Crawford’s threats, trying to open Crawford’s eyes to the harm his investigation could create. 

“God dammit. God DAMMIT. GOD DAMMIT. You’ve killed her, Dr. Chilton. You’ve killed her, Dr. Fuck Face. Lecter knew some more and I could have gotten it. All gone, all gone now. All for nothing. When Catherine Martin floats, I’ll see that you have to look at her, I swear I will.”

In an internal monologue, Clarice lets her frustrations out after hearing about Chilton and the Senator’s interference in her investigation. The progressive use of capitalization in the repeated phrase “God dammit” shows the quick escalation of her rage that she struggles to hold back. Clarice feels defeated and helpless now that the case is out of her hands because of Chilton’s selfishness, and she believes the man will be directly responsible if Catherine dies.

“I want you to freeze something now. Freeze the business with Chilton. Keep the information you got from Lecter and freeze the feelings. I want you to keep your eyes on the prize, Starling. That’s all that matters. You worked for some information, paid for it, got it, now we’ll use it.”

Crawford, as a mentor, teaches Clarice how to handle her growing frustrations about the case. Clarice wanted to charge Chilton with obstruction of justice for his actions, but Crawford reminds her that their priority is saving Catherine, not seeking personal vengeance. Crawford understands her anger, but he doesn’t want the work she has done to be for nothing and for her to lose sight of their true goal.

“When her pupils darkened, Dr. Lecter took a single sip of her pain and found in exquisite. That was enough for today.”

This quotation illuminates why Lecter asks for personal traumas in exchange for information. Lecter likes to use personal knowledge to manipulate the people around him, but he also takes pleasure in seeing the pain he inflicts. Lecter sustains himself on these moments, which he revisits in the solitude of his mind to pass the time in incarceration.

“She didn’t give a damn about commanding. She found she didn’t give a damn, or a shit for that matter, about being Special Agent Starling. Not if you play this way.”

Clarice questions whether she wants to be an FBI agent after Paul Krendler questions her integrity in front of Senator Martin and dismisses her from the case. Clarice is offended that Krendler thinks she was stealing evidence, and she resents his threats to end her career for standing up for herself and Crawford. Clarice cannot fathom why Krendler and the Senator don’t want to follow the new lead she found from the secret photos; to her, by being more concerned with Catherine’s reputation, Krendler and the Senator are hindering the search.

“Do you think if you caught Buffalo Bill yourself and if you made Catherine all right, you could make the lambs stop screaming, do you think they’d be all right too and you wouldn’t wake up again in the dark and hear the lambs screaming?”

The screaming lambs are the central symbol of the book that show Clarice’s motivation as an FBI trainee. Lecter guesses that Clarice’s unconscious memories of the screaming lambs are linked to her search for Catherine, who is also screaming for help. His hypothesis turns out to be true, as Clarice only finds peaceful sleep after she saves Catherine and kills Buffalo Bill.

. “Gumb caressed the back of the form at the natural reach of his arms. Then he walked behind it to consider the powder marks. Nobody wanted to feel a seam. In an embrace, though, the hands lap over the center of the back. Also, he reasoned, we are accustomed to the center line of a spine.”

This passage displays the thorough planning that goes into Gumb’s murders as Buffalo Bill. Although his crimes are brutal, Harris explores the careful—and in Gumb’s mind, rational—considerations Gumb makes in his horrific project. Gumb’s decision making about how a person will hug him while wearing his skin suit emphasizes the extent of his delusion; Gumb believes that his skin suit will not only make him accepted by others, but desired.

“I’m as good as anybody you’ve got at the cop stuff, better at some things. The victims are all women and there aren’t any women working this. I can walk in a woman’s room and know three times as much about her as a man would know, and you know that’s a fact.”

Clarice openly acknowledges the importance of her perspective to the case and emphasizes the investigation’s incompleteness for only using male investigators. From her experience of finding new evidence in Catherine’s jewelry box—despite the room being thoroughly searched—Clarice realizes that the other crime scenes may produce overlooked evidence because they were searched by men only. Rather than being an impediment, Clarice asserts that her gender makes her more qualified for the job.

“Now he greased the head of a wig stand, packed coarse salt over the grease and set the stand in a shallow drip pan. Playfully he tweaked the nose on the face of the wig stand and blew it a kiss.”

Gumb prepares a wig stand for Catherine’s hair, with a pan underneath to catch the blood. Gumb knows the process thoroughly: the lack of detail Harris includes forces the reader to fill in the horrific blanks. Gumb’s playfulness with the apparatus that will hold his victim’s hair and blood emphasize the normalization of his cruelty and his lack of sympathy for his victims.

“Starling saw herself in the full-length mirror on the end wall and was glad to be different from Fredrica. But she knew the difference was a matrix in her thinking. What might it keep her from seeing? How did Fredrica want to appear? What was she hungry for, where did she seek it? What did she try to do about herself?”

In Fredrica Bimmel’s room, Clarice considers how she understands Fredrica as a woman, but also how she and Fredrica are different. Clarice recognizes that Fredrica’s motivations to fit in are different from hers, but she tries to understand her better. Clarice has learned how to alter her inquiries to take on another person’s patterns of thought, and here she finds the connection between Fredrica and Buffalo Bill which earlier investigators missed.

“Still, to be so close, to get a hand on the rump of it, to have a good idea a day late and wind up far from the arrest, busted out of school, it all smacked of losing.”

Hearing that two SWAT teams are preparing to capture Gumb at once excites and upsets Clarice. After all her work interviewing Lecter, chasing his leads, and skipping school to investigate, Clarice feels like she is being left out of the most important part of the case. She tries to take comfort in collecting evidence against Gumb, but she can’t help but feel that her family’s history of bad luck has doomed her; however, her dedication to her task in Belvedere eventually leads her straight to Gumb’s real address.

“Feel the space opening up. Open room. In the crouch in the open room, arms out, both hands on the gun. You know exactly where the gun is, it’s just below eye level. Stop, listen. Head and body and arms turn together like a turret. Stop, listen.”

Clarice wanders around Gumb’s labyrinthine basement in the pitch dark with her gun cocked. The diction illustrates Clarice’s use of disciplined thinking to calm herself; despite her fears, she knows she needs to find Gumb to save Catherine. The short sentences mirror her urgency and distress and lack of visual awareness.