Hannibal Lecter Character Analysis

I believe one of the most interesting characters within the film is Hannibal Lecter. Hannibal Lecter’s personality seems to be antisocial in the fact that he does not like interact with people too often. He seems to tolerate most people, like the police officers that feed him and Clarice. Hannibal suffers from Antisocial Personality Disorder; also know as a psychopathy.  Within the movie Dr. Chitton describes Hannibal Lecter as “a pure psychopath” (Demme). Some of the key symptoms of psychopaths that match up with Hannibal’s personality include: “glib and superficial, grandiose sense of self-worth, lack of remorse or guilt, lack of empathy, deceitful and manipulative, impulsive, [and] poor behavioral control […]” (suite101.com). As far as motives go for Hannibal Lecter, his main objective seems to be escaping from jail and continuing on with his cannibalistic ways. He mentions to Clarice after he escapes jail “I do wish we could chat longer but...I'm having an old friend for dinner […]” (Demme). Hannibal’s character within the movie remains constant, except for the fact that he decides to spare Clarice’s life. Hannibal says to Clarice on the phone: “I have no plans to call on you, Clarice. The world's more interesting with you in it […]” (Demme). I think Hannibal is the antagonist in the film, because he tries to avoid and/or oppose any questions Clarice asks. Hannibal also opposes the police that try to feed him by unhooking his handcuffs, hooks one of the police officers onto the jail cell bar, beats him to death, and skins off the skin of the other officer to cover his own face to fool the EMTs. Overall Hannibal Lecter is a purely demented, but interesting character that makes The Silence of the Lambs an outstanding film.