What made Clarice so important to Hannibal Lecter?
In the final scenes of Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter could have killed Clarice but he let her go and cut off his own arm, and there's also the perfume in the letter scene. So what exactly was it? Was it love, respect or what? What exactly made Clarice so important?
Best Answer
"Mischa, we take comfort in knowing there is no God. That you are not enslaved in Heaven, made to kiss God's ass forever. What you have is better than Paradise. You have blessed oblivion. I miss you every day." -Hannibal Rising
And so I came to believe, " Dr. Lecter was saying, "that there had to be a place in the world for Mischa, a prime place vacated for her, and I came to think, Clarice, that the best place in the world was yours." -Hannibal pg 535
Hannibal's obsession with Clarice starling derives from parallels he draws from both himself and with his dead little sister, Misha, whom died tragically, and whose murder he witnessed, is responsible for the origins of Hannibal's cannibalism.
In the novel Hannibal (as this part of the story is omitted from the film version) Hannibal, whose been playing some sort of cat and mouse game with Clarice for seven years, unexplainably gets it into his head that Clarice is the perfect vessel for Misha's conscious. However, Hannibal admits to both not being able to control Clarice, but also simultaneously tries to take credit for the manipulation by siting he built better than he knew, where Clarice tells him what better place for Mischa than in his own mind. Uncharacteristically Hannibal mostly accepts this and Harris is careful to word the final lines in the novel to suggest the characters have changed due to being in love. Hannibal sees less and less of Mischa in his dreams, and Clarice does not want to be "awakened" from her conditioning...
I wrote a great deal about this in terms of the TV series approach to the source material here: http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/05/hannibal-bryan-fullers-metamorphisis.html
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Why did Hannibal Lecter help Clarice?
Evidences: At first, Lecter agrees to help Clarice, presumably after one of the inmates threw semen at her, which Lecter considers "unspeakably ugly". Later, he forms a personal bond with Clarice, in a scene where he asks her of her uncle's ranch, revealing that Clarice only desires "the silence of the lambs".What is the relationship between Hannibal and Clarice?
For Clarice, it's her father. For Hannibal, it's his little sister. The Hannibal novel, however, has a lot going on that isn't really explained. Hannibal somehow comes to believe in necromancy; that Clarice is a perfect vessel for his little sister's (Mischa's) consciousness.What is the story behind Clarice?
Trainee FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling has been placed on administrative leave with federally-mandated therapy sessions following her harrowing ordeal at the hands of the notorious serial killer Buffalo Bill, though Starling refuses to acknowledge herself as one of his victims.What did Clarice Starling do?
In the 1991 film adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs, she was played by Jodie Foster, while in the 2001 film adaptation of Hannibal, she was played by Julianne Moore....Clarice M. StarlingOccupationFBI agentSignificant otherHannibal Lecter (novels)ReligionLutheranismNationalityAmerican7 more rowsWhat did Hannibal see as special in Clarise?
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