Editing Hannibal Lecter (section)

==Character==
Hannibal Lecter is a child of [[Lithuanian nobility]] and of the [[Visconti of Milan|Visconti]] and [[House of Sforza|Sforza]] families of [[Italy]], and he is also a [[Human cannibalism|cannibalistic]] [[serial killer]]. He is highly intelligent and cultured, with refined tastes and impeccable manners. He is deeply offended by rudeness, and often kills people who exhibit bad manners; according to the novel [[Hannibal (Harris novel)|''Hannibal'']], he "prefers to eat the rude".<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Clarke |first=Cath |date=October 13, 2017 |title=An old friend for dinner ... why we're not scared of Hannibal Lecter any more |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/13/an-old-friend-for-dinner-why-were-not-scared-of-hannibal-lecter-any-more |access-date=November 17, 2020 |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London, England |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Hopkins described Lecter as the "[[Robin Hood]] of killers", who kills "the terminally rude".<ref name="actor">{{cite news|last=Rose|authorlink=Charlie Rose|first=Charlie|date=30 January 2001|title=60 Minutes: Actors' Take On Ridley Scott|work=[[CBS News]]|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/actors-take-on-ridley-scott/|access-date=8 June 2007}}</ref>

In the novel ''[[Red Dragon (novel)|Red Dragon]]'', the protagonist, [[Will Graham (character)|Will Graham]], says that psychologists refer to Lecter as a [[Antisocial personality disorder|sociopath]] "because they don't know what else to call him". Graham says "he has no remorse or guilt at all", and tortured animals as a child, but he does not exhibit any of the [[Macdonald triad|other criteria]] traditionally associated with sociopathy. Asked how he himself would describe Lecter, Graham responded, "he's a monster. I think of him as one of those pitiful things that are born in hospitals from time to time. They feed it, and keep it warm, but they don't put it on the machines and it dies. Lecter is the same way in his head, but he looks normal and nobody could tell."<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Harris|author-link=Thomas Harris|title=Red Dragon|publisher=[[G. P. Putnam's Sons]]|location=New York City|date=1988|page=67|quote=He's a monster. I think of him as one of those pitiful things that are born in hospitals from time to time. They feed it, and keep it warm, but they don't put it on the machines and it dies. Lecter is the same way in his head, but he looks normal and nobody could tell.}}</ref>

In [[The Silence of the Lambs (novel)|''The Silence of the Lambs'']], Lecter's keeper, Dr. [[Frederick Chilton]], claims that Lecter is a "pure sociopath" ("pure [[Psychopathy|psychopath]]" in the film adaptation). In the film adaptation of ''The Silence of the Lambs'', protagonist [[Clarice Starling]] says of Lecter, "They don't have a name for what he is". Lecter's pathology is explored in greater detail in ''Hannibal'' and ''[[Hannibal Rising]]'', which explains that he was [[Psychological trauma|traumatized]] as a child in [[Lithuania]] in 1944 when he witnessed his beloved sister, Mischa, being murdered and cannibalized by a group of deserting [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#Lithuania|Lithuanian]] [[Hiwi (volunteer)|Hilfswillige]], one of whom claimed that Lecter unwittingly ate his sister as well.

All media in which Lecter appears portray him as intellectually brilliant, cultured and sophisticated, with refined tastes in [[art]], [[music]] and [[cuisine]]. He is frequently depicted preparing gourmet meals from his victims' flesh, the most famous example being his admission that he once ate a census taker's [[liver]] "with some [[fava bean]]s and a nice [[Chianti]]" (a "big [[Amarone]]" in the novel). Prior to his capture and imprisonment, he was a member of [[Baltimore, Maryland]]'s social elite, and a sitting member of the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra's Board of Directors.

In the novel ''The Silence of the Lambs'', Lecter is described through Starling's eyes: "She could see that he was small, sleek; in his hands and arms she saw wiry strength like her own." The novel also reveals that Lecter's left hand has a rare condition called mid-ray duplication [[polydactyly]], i.e. a duplicated middle finger.<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Harris|author-link=Thomas Harris|title=Silence of the Lambs|url=https://archive.org/details/silenceoflambs00harr_0|url-access=registration|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|location=New York City|date=1988|page=[https://archive.org/details/silenceoflambs00harr_0/page/15 15]|isbn=9780312022822|quote=Dr. Lecter has six fingers on his left hand}}</ref> In ''Hannibal'', he performs plastic surgery on his own face on several occasions, and removes his extra digit. Lecter's eyes are a shade of maroon, and reflect the light in "pinpoints of red".<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Harris|author-link=Thomas Harris|title=Silence of the Lambs|url=https://archive.org/details/silenceoflambs00harr_0|url-access=registration|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|location=New York City|date=1988|page=[https://archive.org/details/silenceoflambs00harr_0/page/16 16]|isbn=9780312022822|quote=Dr. Lecter's eyes are maroon, and they reflect the light in pinpoints of red}}</ref> He has small white teeth<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Harris|author-link=Thomas Harris|title=Silence of the Lambs|url=https://archive.org/details/silenceoflambs00harr_0|url-access=registration|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|location=New York City|date=1988|page=[https://archive.org/details/silenceoflambs00harr_0/page/17 17]|isbn=9780312022822|quote=He tapped his small white teeth against the card and breathed in its smell}}</ref> and dark, slicked-back hair with a [[widow's peak]]. He also has a keen sense of smell; in ''Red Dragon'', he immediately recognizes Will Graham by his brand of aftershave, and in ''The Silence of the Lambs'', he is able to identify through a plexiglass window with small holes the brand of perfume that Starling wore the day before. He has an [[eidetic memory]] with which he has constructed in his mind an elaborate "[[memory palace]]" to relive memories and sensations in rich detail.

According to ''[[The Guardian]]'', before ''The Silence of the Lambs'', films portrayed psychopathic killers as "claw-handed bogeymen with melty faces and rubber masks. By contrast, Lecter was highly intelligent with impeccable manners."<ref name=":2" /> [[Anthony Hopkins]], the actor most closely identified with Lecter, said he played him as "ultra sane, very still ... He has such terrifying physical power, and he doesn't waste an ounce of energy. He's so contained. He's all brain."<ref name=":1">{{Cite magazine|first=Meredith|last=Berkeman|title=Playing Hannibal Lecter|url=https://ew.com/article/1991/03/29/playing-hannibal-lecter/|date=March 29, 1991|access-date=November 17, 2020|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|language=EN}}</ref> His performance was inspired by [[HAL 9000]] from [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. The critic [[Roger Ebert]] elaborated on this comparison: "He is a dispassionate, brilliant machine, superb at logic, deficient in emotions."<ref>{{cite book|first=Roger|last=Ebert|author-link=Roger Ebert|title=The Great Movies|publisher=[[Broadway Books]]|location=New York City|date=2003|isbn=978-0767910385|page=418|quote=His approach to Lecter's personality, Hopkins says on his commentary track, was inspired by HAL 9000 in ''2001'': He is a dispassionate, brilliant machine, superb at logic, deficient in emotions.}}</ref> In the same essay, Ebert wrote:<blockquote>
One key to the film's appeal is that audiences ''like'' Hannibal Lecter...He may be a cannibal, but as a dinner party guest he would give value for money (if he didn't eat you). He does not bore, he likes to amuse, he has his standards, and he is the smartest person in the movie... He bears comparison, indeed, with such other movie monsters as [[Nosferatu]], [[Frankenstein's monster|Frankenstein]]... [[King Kong]] and [[Norman Bates]]. They have two things in common: They behave according to their natures, and they are misunderstood. Nothing that these monsters do is "evil" in any conventional moral sense, because they lack any moral sense. They are hard-wired to do what they do. They have no choice. In the areas where they do have choice, they try to do the right thing.<ref>Ebert, pg. 419</ref></blockquote>