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Why Is Hannibal Lecter Considered A Villain

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In every great novel or film there is an antagonist, and in some cases what people would consider a villain. Every villain has different motives for what they do and different character traits. The one thing in common with most villains is being an opposing force to a hero. In many cases, the best villains are the most complex. One example of a complex villain from both a series of films and novels is the character Hannibal Lecter. In the books you can see that Hannibal Lecter is a villain with many positive traits that are perceived negative because of the way he uses them. Some people may even say that towards the end of the series, Hannibal is more of an anti-hero than villain. Hannibal Lecter is the main character of the novels by Thomas …show more content…

It has even been said that Hannibal could have a narcissistic personality disorder or another type of social disorder. Throughout the books, films, and the TV series Hannibal sees himself as superior to almost all other characters. He finds it hard to talk with some people because he doesn't see them fit intellectually, and he toys with them because he thinks it's funny. There are very few he respects, one of the people he respects being Clarice Starling who is an FBI agent that goes to him for help in a case. In this quote you can see that Clarice was different for Hannibal compared to others when the author states, "It occurred to Dr. Lecter in the moment that with all his knowledge and intrusion, he could never entirely predict her, or own her at all. He could feed the caterpillar, he could whisper through the chrysalis; what hatched out followed its own nature and was beyond him. He wondered if she had the .45 on her leg beneath the gown. Clarice Starling smiled at him then, the cabochons caught the firelight and the monster was lost in self-congratulation at his own exquisite taste and cunning." The quote shows that even though Hannibal believes he is superior to most, there will be at least person to perplex him and have him …show more content…

Hannibal is an extremely intelligent character. It's mentioned in the books and throughout the films/TV series that Hannibal could go through tests that show intelligence scores with no struggle at all and scored perfectly. Hannibal uses his intelligence to get himself out of situations where he would be arrested, and uses his intelligence to manipulate people. In The Red Dragon, the author states this, "Lecter is so lucid, so perceptive; he's trained in psychiatry... and he's a mass murderer." Despite being to intelligent and perceptive, having degrees in thing — he is a mass murderer. Hannibal is a cannibalistic serial killer, and how he manages it is because of his intelligence. Hannibal's level of intelligence makes him interesting, but makes his own character disinterested in others. Hannibal has used his intelligence to escape from prison, manipulate people in authority, and lead a life of cannibalism behind closed doors for years with no one noticing. He managed to live his life as a psychiatrist while secretly killing people and feeding them to his associates for a good amount of time before being apprehended by Will Graham. Hannibal is capable of reading people very easily, pin pointing their weaknesses and anything important to know about them within one short glance. Overall, Hannibal is one of the most intelligent villain characters there

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