Summary
Clarice Starling is a student with hopes of becoming an FBI agent. She is picked by Jack Crawford of the Behavior Sciences Unit of the FBI to give a VICAP questionnaire to the notorious Dr. Hannibal Lecter who was once a renowned psychiatrist, and is now housed in a maximum-security mental institution for his cannibalistic style murders. The FBI have been trying to catch a serial killer who is kidnapping young girls and skinning them nicknamed Buffalo Bill, they hope that speaking to Hannibal will give them an insight to how to catch this psychopath. Hannibal is a cultured and extremely smart individual; he is courteous at first to Clarice but soon gets impatient at her attempts to dissect him. Lecter gives Clarice a riddle about his …show more content…
Hannibal is described as a “pure psychopath” (Silence of the Lambs) in this movie, meaning he is devoid of emotions, he feels no empathy therefore he cannot communicate properly. Mark Redmond said “by definition, a person cannot produce a message that is empathic that is not also communicatively competent” (Adler and Proctor II 23); Hannibal’s inability to feel empathy causes his communication style to be neutral, “[a] fourth behavior that arouses defensiveness” (Adler and Proctor II 328). Hannibal’s neutrality causes problems with communication because “it communicates a lack of concern for the welfare of another and implies that the other person isn’t very important” (Adler and Proctor II 328). Hannibal superiority complex also causes a climate of defensiveness because his “patronizing messages irritate receivers” (Adler and Proctor 329). When Hannibal’s superiority is questioned he reacts with direct aggression, using personal attacks about character or competence. Hannibal also uses passive aggression to “punish another person without direct confrontation” (Adler and Proctor II 361) When he found out that Clarice is just a student, he responds with a competence attack “You’re not real FBI are you?” when Clarice tells explains she is just a student to him, he is offended that Clarice misrepresented herself in order to gain his
Clarice Starling is a student with hopes of becoming an FBI agent. She is picked by Jack Crawford of the Behavior Sciences Unit of the FBI to give a VICAP questionnaire to the notorious Dr. Hannibal Lecter who was once a renowned psychiatrist, and is now housed in a maximum-security mental institution for his cannibalistic style murders. The FBI have been trying to catch a serial killer who is kidnapping young girls and skinning them nicknamed Buffalo Bill, they hope that speaking to Hannibal will give them an insight to how to catch this psychopath. Hannibal is a cultured and extremely smart individual; he is courteous at first to Clarice but soon gets impatient at her attempts to dissect him. Lecter gives Clarice a riddle about his …show more content…
Hannibal is described as a “pure psychopath” (Silence of the Lambs) in this movie, meaning he is devoid of emotions, he feels no empathy therefore he cannot communicate properly. Mark Redmond said “by definition, a person cannot produce a message that is empathic that is not also communicatively competent” (Adler and Proctor II 23); Hannibal’s inability to feel empathy causes his communication style to be neutral, “[a] fourth behavior that arouses defensiveness” (Adler and Proctor II 328). Hannibal’s neutrality causes problems with communication because “it communicates a lack of concern for the welfare of another and implies that the other person isn’t very important” (Adler and Proctor II 328). Hannibal superiority complex also causes a climate of defensiveness because his “patronizing messages irritate receivers” (Adler and Proctor 329). When Hannibal’s superiority is questioned he reacts with direct aggression, using personal attacks about character or competence. Hannibal also uses passive aggression to “punish another person without direct confrontation” (Adler and Proctor II 361) When he found out that Clarice is just a student, he responds with a competence attack “You’re not real FBI are you?” when Clarice tells explains she is just a student to him, he is offended that Clarice misrepresented herself in order to gain his