Hannibal Lecter - the Byronic Hero?

The Byronic Hero as presented in the numerous works of Romantic literature of the 19^th century is an enigmatic character that attracts close attention because of his contradictory nature, namely his general contempt for humanity combined with unbreakable devotion toward those few he cares about. Comparing him to Hannibal Lecter, a dark hero of "Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal" and himself an enigmatic artistic creation, and analyzing their similarities will allow to show that the notion of a dark, scary, and yet enigmatic hero is as attractive today as it was almost 200 years ago.

One of the first attributes of this dark hero, as described by Byron, is his passions and powers that are much greater than those of the ordinary people, and this difference is the main reason why he regards the rest of humanity with contempt. In this, Hannibal is similar to the Byronic Man in that he is, intellectually, a genius. He possesses extensive knowledge of things, events, and people, as well as an extraordinary memory. People that surround him interest him more as study subjects, or pawns in the game he plays, or simply as culinary items, than as individuals. He has in him the Byronic Hero's "vital scorn of all." Even Agent Clarisse Starling, for whom he later develops the faithful and fatal attraction typical of a Byronic Hero, is at first only another case for him to study, and only draws his attraction after he finds in her some elements of a dark hero that he considers himself to be.

In Lara, Byron describes his hero as someone who "owned that smile, it oft observed and near, waned in its mirth, and withered to a sneer" (lines 299-300). In Hannibal, one of his scariest features, due in large part to a masterful acting job by Anthony Hopkins, is how suddenly his facial expression changes from civil to maniacal. For both the Byronic Man and Hannibal, this ability to instantly change facial expression points at civility as being only a mask that he puts on in order to exist in the society of people around him, or as Byron says, "'Tis true, with other men their path he walked, and like the rest in seeming did and talked" (355-356). Both the Byronic Hero and Hannibal are capable to do so because, although other people around them would consider them crazy, their minds are actually clear and fully functional. Byron confirms this when he says that his hero's "madness was not of the head, but heart" (358).

Just as the Byronic Man who "haughty still and loath himself to blame... called on Nature's self to share the shame, and charged all faults upon the fleshy form she gave to clog the soul, and feast the worm" (321-324), Hannibal sees himself as only exploiting all the depravities of character that his victims have and punishing them for it. One of his former attendants at the mental institution to which he was committed recalls Hannibal saying that he preferred to eat "the free-range rude," which confirms this line of Hannibal's reasoning. These poor character traits are, by the way, another reason why he despises humankind in general, with the exception of Starling, who appears to be free of them.

Hannibal's relationship with Starling is one of those enigmatic attractions that the Byronic Hero experiences and which often lead to his destruction. Hannibal risks himself on a number of occasions in "The Silence of the Lambs" in order to help Starling. He protects her faithfully and with determination, discrediting or eliminating people who intend to hurt or exploit her, despite the fact that she tries, time and again, to find and arrest him. His ultimate sacrifice comes at the end of "Hannibal," when, faced with a choice of crippling Starling or himself in order to escape arrest, he chops off his own hand and spares hers.

Despite his efforts to remain unfound, Hannibal's charismatic character draws attention of many people, from those who try to find him in order to collect a reward for it, to those who try to find him to avenge their own sufferings, to those, like Starling, who want to bring him to justice for his crimes. He leaves a strong and unforgettable impression on everyone with whom he comes in contact. According to Byron, these are also the qualities of the dark Hero. Byron describes them as follows: "With all that chilling mystery of mien, and seeming gladness to remain unseen, he had... an art of fixing memory on another's heart" (361-364). He later reinforces this notion: "None knew, nor how, nor why, but he entwined himself perforce around the hearer's mind" (371-372). The three individuals whose search for Hannibal is described in detail are obsessed with finding him to the point of neglecting personal comforts. His one surviving victim throws money around to locate and secure Hannibal and to devise the most vicious scheme for punishing him. The Italian inspector is so obsessed with the reward for finding him, he goes against his own fear, even after Hannibal kills his assistant and threatens to eat his wife. Finally, Starling risks her career and her personal safety in her obsession to find Hannibal and turn him over to legal authorities.

These apparent similarities between the dark hero of the early-nineteenth century and the dark hero of the late-twentieth century indicate that human interaction changed little over this period of time, and the constancy of human emotions make the existence of such a character relevant even today.