Hannibal Lecter and Character Archetypes

In his screenwriting manual, Story, Robert McKee says, "The function of Character is to bring to the story the qualities of characterization necessary to convincingly act out choices. Put simply, a character must be credible: young enough or old enough, strong or weak, worldly or naive, educated or ignorant, generous or selfish, witty or dull, in the right proportions, Each must bring to the story the combination of qualities that allows an audience to believe that the character could and would do what he does." The character is not only the conduit from which we learn the message and meaning of a well-written story, but he also forces a relationship with the audience and the writer. And there are many types, archetypes, which define the morality of their side of the plot and inform our love or hatred toward them. And, like all literary tools, there are some misconceptions of how to apply the different labels. So, I've chosen to have the horrible saga of Hannibal Lecter teach us the proper classifications of Character Archetypes.

His is a famous story, spanning four volumes: Hannibal Rising, Red Dragon, The SIlence of the Lambs and Hannibal. After a harsh winter during World War II, Lithuanian aristocrat, young Hannibal Lecter has repressed his time in his family cabin as a hostage of mercenary soldiers. As he discovers those who are responsible for his sister's death, he begins to remember and embarks on a road of revenge; the building blocks of his rise toward infamy. Many more years later, he is a forensic psychologist assisting in the investigation of a series of murders pursued by FBI Agent Will Graham. When Graham deduces that his quarry is eating his victims, he proposes his theory to Lecter and while observing, realizes too late that Lecter is the man he's looking for. Gravely wounding each other, Lecter is caught and incarcerated at a mental hospital for the criminally insane. Years later Graham returns to ask for Lecter's help in solving another serial murder. And, soon after, helps FBI Cadet Clarice Starling on another, and facilitates his escape from custody after pointing Starling in the right direction. After having an old friend for dinner, Lecter disappears for nearly a decade. He later surfaces, having packed away the curator of a museum, in Rome after drawing the attention of the FBI and a disgraced Agent Starling. Chased by law enforcement and an old enemy, Hannibal is cornered, and narrowly escapes with his own life.

And so, in this saga, who do we relate to? To whom is granted our pity; our sympathy? Who do we favor? Most would favor law enforcement: the heroic hunters who stalk our notorious serial killer, because they represent truth and justice and give so much for the sake of stopping him; but I don't. My favor rests with this charming, polite, and proper sociopath due to his character's construction. Also because, regardless of it sounding twisted, we're meant to favor him. And why is this? Because the series is about him. And so we'll study four basic archetypes in our examination of the saga of Hannibal Lecter: The Protagonist, The Antagonist, The Hero and The Villain.

The protagonist is the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel or other fictional text. From the greek word protagonistes meaning "first in importance," the protagonist has the will and capacity to pursue the object of his conscious and/or unconscious desire to the end of the line. The protagonist must be empathetic, we must be able to relate to him on the most basic and human level as he is portrayed realistically; however, he may or may not be sympathetic: we may not share his feelings or proclivities. For all intents and purposes, I believe Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins and Gaspard Ulliel) is the protagonist of the series we study this week. The four films, on their own, each have their own protagonist, as well and we'll see how they differ from the fact that Lecter is the series' protagonist. For two of the four films, he is clearly the protagonist, but is he for the other two? Hannibal Rising is a fictional biopic and, as the title suggests, the birth of the character we love to fear. After the death of his sister, he drives the plot as he hunts his five targets and systematically eliminates each according to his pleasure. He is central to the plot and it is for him and through him we travel the length of the story. Red Dragon, however, focuses on someone else. It seems that Will Graham (Edward Norton) is the protagonist. We focus our thoughts and feelings toward him, and Lecter takes a more supporting role as he is incarcerated for the entire plot, save for the teaser which tells us of Graham's capture of Lecter and their strange relationship. We feel for him, his family, his suffering and his feelings. But in the series, he is not a protagonist, in fact he's the opposite. Similarly, Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore) is the protagonist in Silence of the Lambs, but in the last film, Hannibal, she is the opposing force for the series' protagonist as well as in the film.

Contrary to popular belief, the protagonist is not necessarily The Hero. The Hero is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. This individual, in the face of danger and adversity, displays courage and the will for self sacrifice. Hannibal Lecter, regardless of his command of presence in the series and polite intentions, boasts none of these things; thus, he cannot be a hero no matter how helpful he is. We must turn to some of his opposition for this, from those who pursue him: Hannibal Rising's Inspector Popli (Dominic West) and Lady Murisaki (Gong Li); Red Dragon's Will Graham and Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel); Silence of the Lambs' and Hannibal's Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore). Usually coming from law enforcement, chosen to follow him, sometimes to their destruction; Graham, for instance. The series exception being, Lady Murisaki, who is an emotional opponent offering the conscience and soul Lecter does not have and cannot cultivate. A hero, our protagonist is not; he's something else.

Villains are evil characters. An effective villain is not just pure evil: he has what Aristotle called "goodness" in him, a sense of morality, appropriate to the needs of the plot. The word comes from the 15th century, defining a person of less than knightly status, eventually coming to mean a person who was not chivalrous. A villain represents the opposing values of a hero. Because of this, a convincing villain must be given a characterization making his or her motive for doing wrong convincing, as well a being a worthy adversary. Conversely to most plots, our protagonist is also our primary villain. But there are other villains in the series, too. Hannibal Rising is populated by those he hunts, the men who kidnapped Lecter and his sister, Misha, and also ate her in the harsh winter. At some point, they cease being the hunted and start hunting him and intend on killing him. Rhys Infans' Grutas is a perfect example of someone who is not an effective villain, but is an effective antagonist. He's pure evil, nothing is endearing and his motives are not portrayed. However, Red Dragon's Francis Dollarhyde (Ralph Fiennes) is the perfect example of an effective villain. He's loving toward his love interest and could easily forsake the evil path, but in the end choses his alter-ego's persona and tries to kill Graham's family. Therefore the moral choice is in him, but he choses the evil path. Our series' protagonist, unconventionally, is a villain. When offered the choice to sacrifice his vengeance and begin a life with Lady Murisaki, Lecter chooses the evil path and says, "Never."

What villains tend to be is the antagonist. From the Greek word antagonistes meaning "opponent, competitor or rival," an antagonist overtly clashes with the protagonist and, in equal will, strives against the conscious or unconscious desire of his counterpart. Around the mid-point of any season of Fox Television's series 24, the heroes of the United States Government agencies become the antagonists and protagonist and hero, Jack Bauer, is forced to go the distance of the rest of the season alone. These agents aren't evil, per se, they just actively oppose the protagonist. The antagonists for this series include Grutas and his crew, Fredrick Chilton (Anthony Heald,) Inspector Popli, Clarice Starling, Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta), Inspector Pazzi (Giancarlo Gianni) and Mason Verger (Gary Oldman.) An antagonist seems to be the simplest to classify, due to the simplicity of being an opponent to the protagonist.

Character archetypes help a viewer choose to be a fan of, or be a "hater" of, any certain character. Archetypes assist writers in defining who each member of their story is and where they fit in the moral tone, and action inside the plot. I love unconventional applications of anything, whether it be a story paradigm or plot formula or a new way to prepare and serve macaroni and cheese. Whomever said, "Variety is the spice of life," was absolutely spot on. This series is brilliant in its unconventional application of these four major character types nailing each with clarity and finesse.

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Coming Soon: Hannibal Lecter: Series Analysis