filthybonnet:

I don’t believe she’s brainwashed or emotionally compromised because the sessions Hannibal and Clarice engage in come across as hypnotherapy and regression therapy. Yes he drugged her, but the impression I got as it was a way to lower her inhibitions so she could face things about her past and herself she wouldn’t as easily face otherwise. He wants her get over her hang ups on her father, who had turned into this abstract, can do no wrong figure she was always trying to please. He wants her to get over the emotional abuse and manipulation she’d suffered at the FBI as a result of always trying to please authority figures. While I don’t think he should have drugged her without her permission, once the therapy sessions were happening she knows what was going on, she knows where her gun, knife and car keys were and was free to leave at any time.  She didn’t. She’s been drawn to Hannibal this whole time she doesn’t want to leave.

Anybody who’s been through therapy understands that it does change you, but that doesn’t equate emotionally compromised.  Before I read the book I had heard so much about the ending that I went in expecting Hannibal to berate her, to shove her father’s bones in her face. It was the exact opposite. He was nothing but compassionate and tender. Everything was at her pace; even if Hannibal is tired of hearing the same thing over and over. She finally faced the anger she felt about her dad’s stupid decision that lead to his death.  She understands why she needs to let him go. When he takes Clarice to see her father’s bones, they are respectfully laid out. When she walks into the room and sees the bones she turns around and walks right out in a moment of disgust, disbelief.  Hannibal doesn’t chase her down; he doesn’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to. She eventually comes back and after talking with her about letting go, how this is what he is now and that she needs to keep him alive in memory, Hannibal leaves her alone with her father’s remains. When she comes out of that room, she is changed, she’s healed. Other pieces of her personality are allowed to show more.

And that’s exactly what happens in the dinner scene. The dark streak Clarice has always had comes to the surface because there’s nothing there to suppress it. She’s able to give Krendler a piece of her mind, while enjoying a piece of his.  Clarice is downright giddy and we’ve never seen her this way; we’ve never seen her happy, we’ve never seen her actually enjoying herself.  The man who screwed her over is getting his just desserts by the only man who treated her like his intellectual equal, why shouldn’t she joyfully go along with it? Morality in “Hannibal” isn’t black and white; it’s not even up and down.

Though my favorite things to point out are if Clarice had been brainwashed and emotionally compromised certain scenes would have never happened. When she comes out dressed for dinner Hannibal says she’s beautiful. When she thanks him, he grows annoyed. She tell him people thank other people for compliments and if will make him happy she’ll word it differently. Hannibal’s also slightly scared of her. At this point he’s worried she has her .45 strapped to her ankle under her gown.  If he was that good at brainwashing would he be worried about her pulling a weapon on him? 

During dessert Clarice uses Hannibal’s own tactics on him. She calls him on his bullshit, saying why are memories of her father good enough for her but memories of Mischa not good enough for him? She tells him he needs to let her go the way she let her father go. She even mocks him in way, remembering his old comments to the senator about breastfeeding. She turns it into you were breastfed, but you had to give it up for Mischa and is right. Then she really gets his number by combining two of his favorite things: dripping his favorite wine on the her breast (his favorite person) and telling him he doesn’t have to give this one up. These just don’t add up as the actions of a woman who is brainwashed. They are the actions of a woman who has found freedom.

I often think what happens with people and the end of “Hannibal” is they have such a gut reaction that they can’t push past it and see how it’s fitting. I’m not saying you have become a diehard Clannibal but just be able to look at it go, that’s nice, that works.

The other thing I feel happens is people put Clarice on a pedestal. She’s seen as a moral compass in “Silence of the Lambs” and that image carries over in and through “Hannibal.” When seen like that, her union with Hannibal is seen as a fall from grace.  It’s easier to believe she’s brainwashed than to think it’s something she could want.  When seen like this you do the character a disservice. Thomas Harris created one of the most complex female characters in 20th century literature (and it still blows my mind that she is the creation of a male). Clarice has a dark streak, she has issues and she has desires that draw her to Hannibal from almost the beginning. Yes she has strong convictions and principles but Thomas Harris didn’t create a sacrificial virgin, an angel to fall from grace no matter how hard people try to put her on that moral high ground.  He created a complex female character who goes through a gamut of emotions and changes who takes what she wants whether it’s saving a senator’s daughter, a complete serial killer’s collection from a college or that serial killer himself.  And a character that strong and complex could not be brainwashed.