Characters / Hannibal Lecter Literature

Characters from the Hannibal Lecter book series by Thomas Harris and its film adaptations. For the NBC TV Series, go here.

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FBI Agents

Will Graham:

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• Broken Ace: His work for the FBI caused him a great deal of physical and psychological trauma, and when we last hear of him he's been reduced to a disfigured drunk.
• Knight in Sour Armour: Despite his resentment for being constantly thrown up against the worst humanity has to offer and the toll it takes on his life, his need to save lives and do good pulls him back into detective work.

• The Profiler: Famed in his department for being able to ascertain the psychological state of the criminal. Played a bit more realistically than some examples—his profiling isn't enough to catch Dolarhyde, and most of his successes on screen are more about luck or police work than his empathic talents.

Agent Clarice Starling

• Action Girl: Goes up against dangerous killers.
• Adapted Out: Does not appear in the TV series Hannibal, which adapts the third novel, with which it shares its title, as the first half of Season 3.
• Alone with the Psycho: Starling hunts Jame Gumb through his basement maze while waiting for backup that isn't coming.
• Animal Motif: Lambs. Birds. Horses. (Hannibal also frequently compares her to a lioness.)
• Consummate Liar: It's rarely dwelt upon, but in The Silence of the Lambs, she lies to Hannibal Lecter's face and gets away with it until Chilton exposes her lies to Dr. Lecter.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Will Graham was a veteran agent brought out of retirement with a personal history with Lecter. Clarice is a trainee on her first assignment. Whereas Lecter hates Will, he likes Clarice a lot.
• Determinator: Played with; in the novels, Clarice comes from one of the historically poorest areas in the United States, loses her father, and is given up for adoption by her mother and later relatives. Despite this, Clarice becomes a college graduate and FBI agent. In Hannibal, she nearly gives up when her career began to spiral, until the letter from Hannibal Lecter renews her determination and re-opens the Lecter investigation. Her determination and stubbornness helps her retain her personality at the end of the novel.
• Face–Heel Turn: She ends up becoming Lecter's lover by the end of the series, though only in the novels; in the film series, she stays a heroine throughout.
• Failure Knight: With dead lambs forming the center of the story's central analogy.
• Fair Cop: Whether played by Jodie Foster or Julianne Moore.
• FBI Agent: Starling builds her identity around being an agent, and is devastated when the FBI turns on her.

• Informed Attractiveness: Of a very peculiar type: other characters frequently comment on her attractiveness, yet the narrative itself never gives a physical description of what she might look like beyond the fact that she's in good physical condition. Even very basic details such as her eye and hair color are never mentioned (although there are a few hints that she's a ginger).
• Knight in Sour Armor: Starts off as an idealistic young agent, but gradually grows disillusioned with the system and finally goes rogue when she's thrown under a bus after doing everything right.
• Lying by Omission: She tells Dr. Hannibal Lecter that her father was a marshal. Later on, when she is recounting to him how the man died, Lecter catches enough clues to easily deduce that the man had actually been a night watchman. Starling's defense is that the official job description had read "night marshal".
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Julianne Moore sometimes has Clarice's accent and sometimes does not. Justified since it was established in The Silence of the Lambs that was she was trying to lose her accent.
• Sex–Face Turn: Arguably happens when Clarice and Hannibal become lovers in Hannibal.
• Worthy Opponent: Lecter considers her to be this.

Jack Crawford

• A Father to His Men: Cares deeply for Will and Clarice.
• Animal Motif: Molly likens him to an ape a couple of times- his thick arms reminding her of an orangutan, and disliking his "simian" features.
• The Atoner: Applies in the book version of Silence. Crawford remembers that putting Will Graham through a Mandatory Unretirement during the Tooth Fairy case ended up destroying the poor man's life. He does everything he can to help Clarice avoid a similar fate.

• The Big Guy: Described as having thick arms- though whether they're fat, muscular, or both is not clear.
• The Cassandra: Much of his warnings, especially for Clarice not to answer Hannibal's questions about her personal life, are ignored.

• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic. In the books Lecter even refers to him as such.

• Happily Married: A significant part of Crawford's arc in the books has to do with his devotion towards his terminally ill wife Bella, who passes away in Silence. When Crawford has a fatal heart attack in Hannibal, he shifts his body to Bella's empty side of the bed as he dies.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Starling.
• Manipulative Bastard: Molly Graham believes and Dr. Bloom considers that Jack may have used his intimate knowledge of Will's history and personality to lure him into helping with the Tooth Fairy case, or at least in becoming far more directly involved than originally intended. Will himself suggests it a few times. Jack denies it, but does cynically admit that he believes everyone uses everyone to get what they want.
• Oh, Crap!: When he and his men break into the wrong house, he is clearly shocked, but also mentions one name in sheer worry.
  Crawford: Clarice!!!

Paul Krendler

• Adaptational Attractiveness: Compare Vawter in Silence to Liotta in Hannibal
• Armoured Closet Gay: Implied; he accuses Hannibal and Starling of being gay based on little to no evidence, then has some bizarre and oddly specific nightmare in which he's about to have sex with Clarice, but he can't get an erection so she calls him a queer repeatedly.
• Asshole Victim: Krendler goes out of his way to destroy Clarice, not just because of the Buffalo Bill case (which she solved without his help), but also over her rejecting his advances (twice). Then he colluded with Verger to use her to lure Lecter into the boar trap.
• Autocannibalism: Hannibal feeds him his own brain.
• Brain Food: Paul Krendler has his own fed to him by Hannibal.
• Characterization Marches On: Evolves from a condescending, sexist Jerkass who at least shows some regard for Crawford's ability in Silence of the Lambs to Clarice's nemesis and eventual meal in Hannibal.

• Dirty Cop: Plans to collect Verger's bounty on Lecter after using Clarice as bait.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He make's Starling's life a living hell for not only grand-slamming the Buffalo Bill case, but also after he made a pass at Clarice which she rejected. Twice.

• Handsome Lech: At least in Hannibal

• Only in It for the Money: In Hannibal, he proves willing to undermine the FBI's search for a dangerous cannibal psychopath, collude with another psychopath who he knows plans to commit murder, and put Starling's life in peril, all to secure campaign funds for a cushy political job.
• Pet the Dog: His sole redeeming moment is remarking how Burke and Brigham were damn fine agents and their deaths are a great blow to the FBI.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Openly expresses his disdain toward gay people, people of color, and women—frequently in the most un-PC of terms.

Serial Killers

Dr. Hannibal Lecter

As portrayed by Anthony Hopkins.

Portrayed by: Brian Cox (Manhunter), Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon), Gaspard Ulliel (Hannibal Rising)

A serial killer who eats his victims. Before his capture, he was a respected forensic psychiatrist. After his incarceration, he is consulted by FBI agents Will Graham and Clarice Starling to help them find other serial killers.

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• Affably Evil: Usually unfailingly polite... providing the company is polite in return.
• Anti-Villain: Type I - Although this depends largely on personal interpretation. His targets are usually people who are impolite, or those he feels in some way that their death would be a service to the population at large. But he is not above killing those who would try to capture him, prevent him from escaping capture, and, when trying to secure a job in Florence, killing the man whose job he intends to take. His murders are exceptionally vicious, especially his "wound man" killing. That said, he is not without sympathetic qualities, and is a gracious, courteous host, unless you get on his bad side.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Was retconned into being Lithuanian aristocracy.
• Ax-Crazy: A particularly civilized example.
• Bait-and-Switch Amputation: At the end of Hannibal (film), Hannibal is forced to cut off either his own hand or Clarice’s with a kitchen knife to escape. He is shown bringing down the knife, followed by Clarice’s painful expression; the next scene shows she still has both hands, and the final scene shows Hannibal struggling to eat with one hand.
• Berserk Button: Just try to insult or harm Clarice Starling (or children), and see how long you last. Remember what happened to Miggs, Chilton, and Krendler? Yeah, that's right. In his own words: "Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me." Being an asshole is a good way to get you in Lecter's bad book. In Red Dragon he feels that Will Graham has insulted him in their meeting, so he unleashes Dolarhyde on his family.
• Big Bad Friend: Acts like this in the opening for the Red Dragon movie, where he seems legitimately sad about attacking Graham, whom he honestly seemed to like. Apparently, he's a really sore loser, because when he and Graham meet again, it's pretty clear that he now hates the guy.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Lecter's personal ethics are bizarre. Murder, torture, cannibalism and mutilation are fine, but sexual assault and rudeness are punishable by death. What Lecter considers to be rude behavior is unclear as he himself insults, ignores and talks down to people. And murder could be seen as being pretty rude as well. Furthermore, his definition of evil is to defy the rules of society and he made the deliberate choice to be evil by rejecting societal norms.
• Break Them by Talking: A specialty of his thanks to his background as a psychiatrist. His most notable example was him causing Miggs to kill himself by swallowing his tongue.
• Boxed Crook: Subverted: the authorities handling the Martin kidnapping believe he's this, and attempt to use it to manipulate him into helping them. Instead, he manipulates them into helping him escape.

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He is incarcerated, but still writes highly respected articles for psychiatric journals.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Much more so in the book than the movie. Dr. Lecter does not live in an obvious delusional fantasy (as Jame Gumb and Francis Dolarhyde do) and he rejects his Freudian Excuse (the death and consumption of his young sister). He derides psychology and behavioural sciences. He corrects Starling when she labels him as "destructive," telling her that he is most definitely evil.
• Characterization Marches On: In Red Dragon, he was described as having tortured animals as a child, behavior that seems out of place for Hannibal afterward; in fact, in Hannibal Rising, this behavior is absent.

• Combat Pragmatist: He bites a guard on the face, then pepper sprays him, and then bludgeons the guard's partner to death with a truncheon — said partner is unarmed and has his hands handcuffed to the cage bars.
• Commonality Connection: Although he and Lady Murasaki are strangers when they first meet, they gradually bond over their mutual loss of family due to war, as they are now the only two surviving members. This is lampshaded by Inspector Popil.
• Cultured Badass: He's a man of wealth and taste and a nigh-unstoppable serial killer.
• Creepy Child: Even as a small child, the servants were creeped out by this unsettlingly smart and observant little boy and purposefully avoided him.
• Creepy Monotone: As played by Anthony Hopkins, but often startlingly subverted in the novels.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: By Hannibal they've gone away.
• Cynicism Catalyst: It's revealed that Hannibal's Start of Darkness happened when deserting Nazi soldiers captured him and his sister Mischa and killed her for food and then forced Hannibal to eat her.

• Dissonant Serenity
  "His pulse never got above 85, even when he ate her tongue."
• Due to the Dead: He buries Mischa's bones in her copper bathtub, and he leaves behind one of his mother's brooches as an offering.
• Dumbstruck: The young boy becomes mute after losing Mischa. He is so traumatized by the event that he only starts speaking again after he meets his aunt 8 years later.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Hannibal's time imprisoned in the basement has left him with a paper-white complexion that contrasts harshly with his dark hair, maroon eyes, and red lips.
• Enemy Rising Behind: Does this.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Is genuinely disgusted with Mason, Chilton and Krendler. This is a major part of his character. He may be a murderer, a sadist and bit of an asshole, but he can't stand exceptional rudeness or discourtesy.
• Evil Chef: Lecter applies his excellent knowledge of cuisine by turning his victims into gourmet meals and eating them. He's not a chef by profession, though.
• Evil Cripple: At the end of Hannibal (film version), he severs his own hand to escape arrest, sparing Clarice the same fate. Although by this point he may or may not have gone through a Heel–Face Turn.
• Evil Tastes Good: Besides the obvious, in the novel he hurts Senator Martin with a line ("Toughened your nipples, didn't it?" in the movie), "takes a sip" of her pain and thinks it is delicious.
• Evil Is Petty: The whole dinner and a show he had Graham arrange in exchange for his help was done all to piss Dr. Chilton off. Even Barney and another orderly laugh at it.
• Failure Knight: He is haunted by his inability to protect Mischa.
• Faux Affably Evil: Lecter. He gets away with being both this and Affably Evil; Faux Affably Evil is for the people he's messing with. Or plans to eat, or serve. Or is eating or serving. Played straight when he is genuinely pissed off at a person.

• First Love: Lady Murasaki is the first woman he falls in love with.
• Freudian Excuse: Initially this notion was defied by Lecter himself, saying that nothing happened to him but instead he happened. Thanks to retconning, we learn his sister was eaten by Nazi Cannibals when he was a child. As executed, it made everything else about Lecter mention by others (like Doemling) mesh better (and completed the Failure Knight analogy hinted at since the previous book), but the extension of it into a full story makes Lecter’s initial characterization as pure evil somewhat more ambiguous, as a few passages in Hannibal imply he resented his sister and was actually inspired by her murder, feeling awe at the extent that evil can reach.
• Genius Bruiser: Often uses his knowledge of anatomy to devastating effect. Hannibal rarely just kills anyone, but makes sure that they are artfully mutilated and arranged in interesting tableaux—either pre- or post-mortem.
• A God Am I: Indirectly. He believes that God has never done anything worse than he's done, and therefore anyone who acts with God's random ruthlessness might as well be considered God in their own right.
  • During his conversation with Will Graham in Red Dragon, he reveals this to be the root of his pathology.
  • In Hannibal (film version), there is a recurring theme of comparing Hannibal to Jesus, complete with a Crucified Hero Shot and Pietà Plagiarism. The comparison, however, is not favorable: Hannibal compares Commandatore Pazzi to Judas for betraying him for avarice, and, by extension, himself to Jesus, forgetting that he well, eats people.
• Hannibal Lecture: Trope Namer.
• Hollywood Atheist: Hannibal Rising depicts him as one, saying during a funeral service for his sister that he's glad that (he believes) there is no God or afterlife because he thinks Cessation of Existence is a better fate than being "made to kiss God's ass forever".
• Hooks and Crooks: His favorite knife is a Harpy, a knife shaped like a talon.
• I'm a Humanitarian: One of his nicknames is "Hannibal the Cannibal" for a reason.
• Insufferable Genius: As Jack Crawford puts it to Starling, "He's very likely right, and he could have told you why, but he wanted to tease you with it. It's the only weakness I ever saw in him — he has to look smart, smarter than everybody. He's been doing it for years."
• Karma Houdini: In spades, though Thomas Harris admitted he had grown to like his character so much this trope became inevitable. At the end of the Hannibal novel Lecter even finally settles down with Starling following the events of the novel.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: More often than not, his victims do have it coming.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: "'M' FOR MISCHA! 'M' FOR MISCHA! 'M' FOR MISCHA!"
• Kubrick Stare: This is his default expression when revving up the creepy.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: At the end of Hannibal (film), after Hannibal locks her to the fridge, Clarice handcuffs him to herself as the police is on its way. He grabs a kitchen knife and threatens her with it, but ultimately cuts off his own hand to escape.
• Love Confession: He reveals to Lady Murasaki that he loves her, but she rejects him.
  Hannibal: I love you.
  Lady Murasaki: What is left in you to love?

• Narcissist: Is convinced of his superiority to everyone around him and doesn't mind telling them.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Requests an hour in private with the Tooth Fairy case file, which includes gruesome crime scene photos. Will knows that most of the time was spent with the pictures. Is also morbidly fascinated with church collapses, medieval torture instruments and cannibalism. Hannibal explicitly describes the pleasure he feels when he sees Starling consume the brain of Paul Krendler.
• Noble Demon: Grutas and his gang are so awful that they make Hannibal seem heroic in comparison.
• Nominal Hero: All of his victims in Hannibal Rising are war criminals, but Hannibal wants them to die for hurting his family.
• Nothing Personal: It's established that as much as Lecter may seem to actually like someone it won't stop him from killing them. He and Barney were fond of each other but they both knew that Lecter would kill him if he needed to. It's a courtesy that goes both ways: Lecter never holds it against Barney when Barney has to restrain him, threaten him or take away his books, and so after Lecter escapes he sends Barney a generous tip for his hospitality.
• Not So Stoic: After Miggs throws his semen at Clarice, Lecter bellows down the hall at her. In the novel, Clarice comments on how rare it is to see him agitated. (It later turns out that he's so offended by Miggs' "rudeness" that Lecter convinces the man to kill himself. That night. From two cells away.)
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Disfigured and crippled child molester Mason Verger during a therapy session.
• Pet the Dog: For Clarice, but he is also genuinely fond of Barney and Sammie. Was also Knight Templar Big Brother to Mischa.
• Pretty Boy: When played by Gaspard Ulliel in Hannibal Rising.
• Psycho Psychologist: Is a brilliant psychologist who uses his insight into the human mind to achieve his own ends. If a patient is rude, boring, or shows no hope of ever improving, Lecter has no qualms about either killing them or convincing them to kill themselves. He advises young Margot Verger that it would be therapeutically healing to murder her abusive brother as soon as she's old enough to get away with it, and he uses a combination of drugs, hypnosis, and psychoanalysis to eradicate Starling's entire personality so that he can reprogram her as his dead baby sister (though Starling ultimately resists and instead becomes his cannibal bride).

• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the books, he is described as having maroon (brownish-red) eyes. He appears with bright red eyes in some posters for Hannibal and Hannibal Rising.
• Red Right Hand: Lecter has a sixth finger on his right hand, as well as maroon eyes that appear red in bright light.
• Reputation Apathy: As stated outright in his letter to Clarice:
  "I have followed with enthusiasm the course of your disgrace and public shaming. My own never bothered me, except for the inconvenience of being incarcerated, but you may lack perspective."
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He goes on one in Hannibal Rising against all of the men who had killed his beloved baby sister.
• Sadist: It is strongly implied that most of his victims were tortured to death in various elaborate and particularly gruesome fashions; beyond that, he is a Manipulative Bastard par excellence who messes with peoples heads and gives them cutting Hannibal Lectures For the Evulz.
• Serial Killer: Killed nine people in his initial rampage and critically wounded two others (one survivor was Mason Verger, the other is in a mental institution).
• Serial-Killer Killer: At different points in the books and adaptations he's up against other killers.
• Shipped in Shackles: Lecter, with his iconic mask, is the Trope Codifier. Many franchises have imitated the image as shorthand to indicate Lecter-inspired characters.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Was a minor character in the book and has limited screen time in the movie, but he is a major force in moving the story forward.
• The Sociopath: Subverted as Lecter is capable of empathy.

• Stalker with a Crush: Definitely counts in relation to Starling.
• The Stoic: Taken to extremes during his rare acts of violence. When he brutally attacked a nurse, which involved breaking her jaw to get to her tongue, his pulse never got above 85 bpm. Even during his escape he mostly looks bored (save for one brief second where he wears a terrifying Slasher Smile).
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Hannibal Lecter, M.D. and don't you forget it. Did you know Dr. Chilton has no medical degree?
• Timeshifted Actor: The younger version of the character is played by Gaspard Ulliel and Aaran Thomas in Hannibal Rising.
• Tragic Keepsake: In Hannibal Rising, he has photographs of his family, Mischa's teddy bear, his mother's letters and pearl necklaces.
• Troll: The Dinner and A Show scene in Red Dragon was all just to tick off Dr. Chilton for removing his books and toilet seat. This antic caused the normally stoic Barney and a fellow orderly to laugh. Also, there's this scene from The Silence of the Lambs (book only):
  [Lecter] had refused to speak, but responded by folding for them an origami chicken that pecked when the tail was manipulated up and down. The senior officer, furious, had crushed the chicken in the lobby ashtray as he gestured for Starling to go in.
• Undying Loyalty: To Mischa. He had made a promise to his sister's memory that he would avenge her death, and absolutely nothing, not even his aunt (who he does love), can dissuade him from carrying out his goal.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Lady Murasaki.
• Villain Protagonist: In Hannibal and Hannibal Rising (although in the latter he's more of a Noble Demon and Nominal Hero).
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Lecter speaks with a weird blend of American and European accents that is very difficult to place.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His idyllic life was shattered when his parents were murdered and he and his little sister were abducted by German deserters who ate his sister and fed him some of her in a broth. No wonder he's Ax-Crazy.
• Wicked Cultured: His pathology is centered around this trope, as he eats (and serves) his victims as exquisite meals, apparently to prove how much better he is than them; or, in Starling's words, "show his disdain for those who exacerbate him" (or, sometimes, to perform a "public service"). Apart from this, and a more general love of fine dining and drink, he enjoys classical music, is a highly talented artist, and has sufficient knowledge of Dante, the Renaissance and Renaissance literature to get a temp job as a library curator at a Florentine museum, and impress the board enough to nearly make it permanent.
• Worthy Opponent: He considers Will Graham to be this, even after his incarceration.

Francis Dolarhyde

• Anti-Villain: While his crimes are unforgivable, he's severely affected by mental health problems and even makes a genuine attempt to stop killing and overcome the Red Dragon personality.
• A God Am I: Demands awe from his victims, although the novel (very briefly) makes explicit that he sees himself as the dragon of Revelation.
• Antagonist Title: An indirect example. "Red Dragon" is actually a shorthand for the painting "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed In Sun" that figures into the plot. Francis Dolarhyde, the villain, believes himself to be representative of it, and develops a murderous split personality that identifies itself as the Dragon.
• Blind and the Beast: Falls in love with Reba McClane partly because she's blind and can't see his harelip, although it's strongly implied that most women he knew were attracted to him already. He just thinks of his harelip as being a much greater problem then it actually is.
• Big Bad: Of Red Dragon and its adaptations, as he is the one Will Graham is trying to catch.
• Break the Cutie: Francis Dolarhyde's whole childhood seems to revolve around this.
• Bring My Brown Pants: As a child, when it was perfectly normal. His grandmother viewed it differently, threatening to castrate him. It becomes something of a Berserk Button for him.
• Broken Pedestal: Is a great admirer of Dr. Lecter but is disappointed by Lecter's response to his note. He feels that by giving him Graham's home address, Lecter is implying that it is possible for him to be harmed by Graham, and Dolarhyde thus determines that Lecter understands him little more than the rest of society.
• Control Freak: He has this reputation at work and it is mentioned a few times that he raises Hell at the lab when technicians make minor mistakes. It's possible that this is done out of mere professionalism but odds are it has to do with him choosing his victims through their film footage and requiring them to appear at their best.
• Freudian Excuse: Subject to severe abuses as a child from his grandmother. Graham even notes that he feels sorry for the boy Francis used to be when reading his journal. Deconstructed by Graham late in the film.
• Genius Bruiser: Apart being cunning enough to momentarily get away with committing serial murder, when he gets a captive audience to himself, he lets fly with a storm of scholarship and speechifying he otherwise carries around in his head. All this, and he's built like a 42-year-old Bronco linebacker.
• Grew a Spine: He often reflects on what an Extreme Doormat he was before his "becoming" due to his childhood of abuse and neglect. Once he begins "becoming" the Red Dragon, he starts using his strength and will to intimidate the people who cross him.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: He attempts to placate the Red Dragon aspect of his personality by eating the William Blake drawing. Unfortunately it's not enough, and the Dragon comes back with a vengeance.
• Heroic Suicide: He briefly considers hanging himself to stop the Red Dragon hurting Reba, but ultimately decides to eat William Blake's painting instead.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: His murder of Freddy Lounds.
• Kill It with Fire: How he kills Lounds.
• Naked Nutter: Spends a good chunk of each murder naked, apparently so he can admire his blood-splattered body post-massacre - and it's for this reason that he commonly targets isolated homes.
• Pet the Dog: As noted by Crawford and Graham, he only knocks out Paula Harper, despite it being far easier for him to just bump her off.
• Red Right Hand: Francis Dolarhyde's harelip, which played a major role in his descent into madness due to his being cruelly mocked and shunned. Dolarhyde's yellow eyes may also count. As an impressive piece of detail, it is briefly noted that his mother also had them.
• Room Full of Crazy: Francis Dolarhyde has his huge scrapbook of crazy going back to childhood, with photographs and journal entries. It also features clippings from the time of Lecter's arrest and trial.
• Serial Killer: Wipes out entire families.
• Sophisticated as Hell: In the novel, the voice of the Dragon in his head talks down at him in an "elevated", formal (and loud) way, interspersed with admonitions about "your little buddy," Reba, and his childhood nickname of "cuntface".
• Sympathetic Murderer: Defied in-universe by Graham. He acknowledges that Dolarhyde was abused and that the child he used to be deserves pity for having had to endure it, but he also states that Dolarhyde, as an adult, deserves no sympathy whatsoever and is a selfish, disgusting excuse for a human being.
• Trading Bars for Stripes: Received the choice when he was 17 after "entering the window of a woman's house for a purpose never established".
• Tragic Villain: A victim of abuse and bullying as a child. Throughout the book, and in particular during his relationship with Reba, there are brief moments where we see the kind of man he might have been...until the Dragon takes over.
• Verbal Tic: Dollarhyde avoids words with "S" sounds, as his cleft palate makes them difficult to pronounce. He always says "Um hmmm" instead of "yes." Graham picks this tic up halfway through the novel.
• Villainous Breakdown: Dolarhyde is pretty feeling good about his Becoming until he meets Reba and realizes it's possible for people to like him as a man without the whole "Red Dragon" thing. This causes his mind to split in two and he becomes even more unstable. Instead of being the identity he is becoming The Dragon is now a spiritual being who can move freely through space and physically harm people. He starts yelling to himself uncontrollably and having emotional outbursts. In the end The Dragon wins and kills the Dolarhyde identity.

Jame Gumb AKA Buffalo Bill

• Animal Motif: Moths.

• Big Bad: Of The Silence of the Lambs.
• Berserk Button: In his own words.
  Gumb: DON'T YOU HURT MY DOG!!!!
  • Also pronouncing his name as anything other than "Jame" (rhymes with name) despite it being a typo on his birth certificate.

• The Collector of the Strange: Skins of his victims.
• Creepy Crossdresser: Even when he's not dressing up in human skin, there's something a little...off about his interpretation of femininity. His wardrobe and cosmetics are described as a mish-mash of 1950s glamour.
• Effeminate Misogynistic Guy: To become a woman, he's willing to torture and kill a lot of innocent women, whom he refers to as "things."
• Freudian Excuse: Alluded to.
• Genuine Human Hide: His ultimate goal is to make a woman suit out of real women.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Most likely invoked on his part. He seems to refer to women — or rather, his victims — as "it", but he also seems to make it a point to not refer to them as "she" or "you". The only time he directly addresses his victim, he's on the verge of tears and appears incredibly discomforted. This doesn't stop him from trying to skin Catherine, though.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Genuinely loves his dog to the point where he all but has a breakdown when Catherine holds her prisoner and his willing to sacrifice the skin and hair he covets so much to ensure her safety.
• Lack of Empathy: This is invoked, subverted and played straight. As stated in his "It" Is Dehumanizing entry, he refers to his victims as "it" to try and distance himself from them as much as he can. However, the minute he's forced to see them as human, he will start to choke back on tears and lash out angrily. This doesn't stop him from skinning women, though.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Buffalo Bill.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's based on serial killer Ed Gein, who was infamous for skinning corpses to make furniture and clothing.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Gumb is a sadist but because he requires premium quality hides for his project he does not torture or physically mistreat his victims more than necessary. He had to learn this the hard way.

• Serial Killer: Kidnaps women and skins them.
• Sissy Villain: He acts effeminate and has had some minor work done to make him look more like a woman. The book notes that rather than looking like a woman he just looks like a man inclined to fight with his nails.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Implied to be one. Hannibal himself states "Buffalo Bill wasn't born a criminal; he was made one by years of systematic abuse."
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Bill collects his victims by wearing a fake arm cast and attempting to move furniture. When the victim approaches to give him a hand, he beats them unconscious with the cast.

Verger Family

In General:

A wealthy and influential Baltimore family whose meatpacking company dates back to the American Civil War.

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• Big Fancy House: They've resided in a manor known as Muskrat Farm since the 1930s, when they moved to Baltimore from Chicago to be closer to Washington D.C..
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Molson was a homophobic sociopath with mob connections, while Mason was a child molester, animal abuser, and murderer / accomplice to Idi Amin's reign of terror.
• Family Theme Naming: They all have names starting with the letter 'M' (Molson, Mason, Margot).
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!-Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: They are very wealthy and have big political connections dating back to the American Civil War. In Mason's childhood, Molson's contributions to his boarding school allowed his frequent absences to be excused. When Mason was arrested for child molestation, the Vergers connections allowed him to avoid prison time and instead be sentenced to community service and court-mandated therapy. Among the political connections Molson left to Mason upon his passing were a congressman and a member of the House Judiciary Oversight Committee who, according to Jack Crawford, "couldn't make ends meet without him." This even goes back to long before Mason was born as during the Spanish-American War, dangerous packing-plant conditions lead to several Verger employees getting rendered into lard which was then canned and sold, with the Vergers avoiding consequences by giving money to politicians.

Mason Verger:

A child molester who used his family's connections to avoid prison, he was a court-assigned patient of Lecter's who was disfigured and crippled by him during a therapy session for his pedophilia.

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• Asshole Victim: A pedophile, child molester, murderer, and animal abuser whom Hannibal disfigured and crippled. Margot kills him at the end of the novel by stuffing his pet moray eel down his throat. No one will shed tears for him.
• Big Bad: Of Hannibal.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Raped his sister Margot when he was a teenager.
• Chekhov's Gunman: While not featured or named, he was mentioned by Will Graham in Red Dragon as one of Lecter's two surviving victims, being described as "on a respirator at a hospital in Baltimore." He then goes from being an unseen throwaway character to the main antagonist of the third book.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: Requires a ventilator to breathe, is completely bedridden, and because one of his eyeballs is lidless, he requires a special device to keep it moist.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of a serial killer's surviving victim, who would typically be portrayed as the story's protagonist or at least as a sympathetic character. Mason is arguably much more of a monster than the man who disfigured and crippled him.
• Disappeared Dad: Before killing him, Margot uses a cattle prod to stimulate his prostate and harvest his sperm to impregnate her lover Judy so that they can have a baby of Verger blood and retain the Verger estate, Margot having been disinherited by her father for being a lesbian.
• Eviler than Thou: Arguably much more of a monster than Hannibal Lecter, to the point he makes Lecter look like a hero.
• Eye Scream: His injuries from Lecter involve a missing eyelid, with the eyeball requiring a device to keep it moist.
• Hate Sink: A serial child molester who used his family's wealth and connections to avoid going to prison. Additionally, he befriended Idi Amin, with whom he participated in several executions, one of which involved crucifying a migrant worker. Not to mention that he unethically "experiments" on a pair of dogs that he abducted from the animal shelter where he was forced to perform community service in lieu of prison time, nearly starving the poor creatures to death by giving them nothing but water to live on. He arguably holds the title for the most repulsive character in the series.
• It's All About Me: Wants Lecter dead not because he's a serial killer, but solely because of what Lecter did to him personally.
• Mysterious Middle Initial: Chapter 9 of Hannibal reveals his middle initial is "R," though what name it stands for is never revealed.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Not by choice, since he can't move.
• Rich Jerk: Uses his money to influence others and spend on his revenge plan.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: As a child, he attended a swine fair with his father where Molson stuck a child's 4-H pig and had the kid's father beaten up by his thugs when he confronted him, Mason's opinion of the incident being that it was funny.
• Viler New Villain: Despite not being a serial killer, he is arguably a much worse person than previous big bads Francis Dolarhyde and Jame Gumb.
  • It is also worth noting that Mason Verger is a multiple murderer even if he may not be a serial killer in the traditional sense, having participated in Idi Amin's reign of terror after befriending the dictator by executing people in Ugandan villages with a portable guillotine (including women and children), and even joining Amin in recreating the Crucifixion of Jesus using a live migrant worker as a substitute for the Messiah.
• Would Hurt a Child: A child molester, need more be said?

Margot Verger:

Mason's sister.

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• Adapted Out: Was entirely omitted from the movie. As such the manner of Mason's death is entirely different.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Vergers. Mason's a sadistic pedophile and murderer, and it's heavily hinted that his father and grandfather were sociopaths. Margot seems to be the most sympathetic one, whose issues are mostly excused by the fact that she's using them to protect herself from the crazy...but she's still a cold-blooded person who covers up for — and goes along with — her brother's deeds. Added to this, the entire family seems to think they can buy their way out of trouble, and for the most part, they're correct.
• Brawn Hilda: Her use of steroids earlier in life left her infertile, which is why she needs her brother's sperm to impregnate her girlfriend with an heir to the family fortune.
• Butch Lesbian: A tall and extremely muscular woman who keeps her hair in a short blond crew cut and who is occasionally mistaken for a man. She's been accused of "wanting to do everything the guys do" and boasts that she can pee standing up.
• The Dog Bites Back: Margot Verger takes very messy revenge on her brother Mason, who had sexually abused her when she was younger, and manages to make sure that her family will have access to the family's fortune by getting his sperm so she can impregnate her girlfriend with a blood-related heir.
• Freudian Excuse: It's implied that Margot works so hard to become strong and physically powerful to compensate for her helplessness when she was abused as a child. (In a less-sympathetic example, the book also hints that she became a lesbian after being raped by Mason and now Does Not Like Men for the same reason.)
• Karma Houdini: She and Barney are minor examples, with Margot getting away with killing her brother Mason in the book and Barney knowing about it and gets away with helping bury that knowledge, though since Mason Verger is an Asshole Victim par excellence, it's hard to hate them for this.
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: Most men in the book hold her in disgust for her appearance. Subverted by Barney, who finds her very attractive. She doesn't take his interest well, although later the two make up and agree to be friends.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Margot keeps her hackles up against Mason and his cronies, and can be as tough and violent as they are. When she's away from them, she can be surprisingly vulnerable and earnest.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Margot is the large, athletic, short-haired, angry tomboy to her partner Judy's cheery, feminine, domestic-minded Girlie Girl.

Molson Verger

The recently deceased father of Mason and Margot.

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• Bad People Abuse Animals: Once stuck a child's 4-H pig at a swine fair, having the kid's father beat up by his thugs when he furiously confronted him.
• The Ghost: Never appears in person, having recently died when Hannibal kicks off.
• Good Parents: To Mason at least, to the point he often affectionally held Mason's head in his hands.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of Hannibal. He's the reason why Mason turned out the way he is.
• Hypocrite: Disowned his daughter for being a lesbian but left everything to his son in spite of him being a child molester.
• I Have No Son!: Disowned his daughter Margot for being a lesbian, going so far as to cut her out of his will and leave the entire Verger fortune to Mason.
• The Mafia: Had solid relationships with organized crime for 30 years.
• Parental Favoritism: Favored his son over his daughter.
• Posthumous Character: Died shortly before Hannibal, having passed away earlier in the year, leaving Mason his fortune, business, and political connections.
• Strong Family Resemblance: The novel describes Mason as having strongly resembled him before his disfigurement.

Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane

Dr. Frederick Chilton

• Arch-Enemy: Subverted. Chilton smugly tells Clarice that Lecter considers him one. The truth is Lecter regards Chilton as little more than a nuisance.
• Asshole Victim: Considering that his behavior not only obstructed the Buffalo Bill investigation but put Clarice and Catherine in danger, the idea of Lecter exacting vengeance upon Chilton is both scary and gratifying.
• Bullying a Dragon: Towards a Serial Killer, no less. He's smart enough to put Lecter in restraints first, but it's still monumentally dumb considering how much of an Evil Genius he knows Lecter is.
• Bus Crash: Strongly implied. Chilton disappears while on a trip to Jamaica in-between Silence and Hannibal. It's implied Lecter killed him, but it's also not explicitly confirmed.
• Brainy Brunette: Subverted. While he loves to put on a show of this, his fumbling incompetence is dangerous. Lecter makes a Sophisticated as Hell joke about his hair color and intelligence, obliquely calling him a shithead.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Hannibal reveals he had a fiancee who desperately misses him.
• It's All About Me: Crawford reflects on Chilton's 'Monster Ego' being a factor in getting Lecter transferred to Tennessee where he eventually escapes.
• Jerkass: Makes a sleazy pass at Clarice? Check. Frequently taunts the Evil Genius? Check. Illicitly records Clarice's conversations with Lecter, leaks the FBI's deal with Lecter, then hogs the spotlight as the plan's brainchild? Check. Puts both Clarice and Catherine Martin at the mercy of Buffalo Bill in the process? Check. Becomes the only character in the story that we want Hannibal to kill horribly? Checkola.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Lecter arrives in Tennessee he forces the guards to go through all the painstaking security procedures before entering Lecter's cell. Pembry and Boyle then ignore those procedures when Chilton leaves and use less secure handcuffs instead of full body restraints.
• Lack of Empathy: Perfectly willing to risk lives if it makes him feel important.

• M.D. Envy: Not actually a doctor.
• Never My Fault: Is Hannibal's escape Chilton's fault for moving him to a less secure facility solely to steal the credit for stopping Buffalo Bill? His first move is to insist Clarice passed Lecter something.

• Slimeball: Basks in the notoriety that being Hannibal's "keeper" gets him, using it to try to impress Starling and others.
• Threshold Guardian: For Clarice. His smug attitude and come-ons are mixed with genuine warnings about Lecter's true nature, foreshadowing how Clarice has to deal with politics, misogyny, and disturbing violence in her chosen career.
• Too Dumb to Live: Constantly bullying and taunting Lecter. Sure, he was locked up, but did Chilton really believe he wouldn't seize his first opportunity?
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In ‘’Red Dragon’’, Chilton’s role is little more than just “head of the asylum” and is generally cooperative when called upon. In this novel, and the film, he is a sexist, incompetent, narcissistic sadist who hits on Clarice and then becomes dismissive of her when she does not respond, taunts Lector mercilessly, and dramatically screws up a federal investigation by secretly taping a conversation between Starling and Lecter, revealing the truth of Starling’s “deal” from the senator, and causing Lecter to decide to deliberately provide false information when he had been on the verge of telling Starling just what she needed to know, thus putting Catherine Martin’s chances of survival from slim to none.
• Uncertain Doom: Chilton's ultimate fate after vanishing in Jamaica in-between Silence and Hannibal. It's left up to the reader to decide if Lecter got his revenge off-screen, or if something else happened to Chilton.

Barney Matthews

• Almighty Janitor: Barney is a self-educated LPN with a checkered criminal record who worked a series of lowly manual-labor jobs before becoming an orderly at the mental hospital. He is also the only staff member at the hospital who truly understands how to deal with Lecter. Lecter recognizes this, and the two have a mutually respectful relationship.
• Hyper-Awareness: Lecter notes that his improvised key was made from a pen and heavy duty paperclip that he acquired on Barney's days off. It's acknowledged that if Barney had been supervising when Lecter was taken abroad, there's no way he would've escaped.
• Karma Houdini: Margot Verger and he are minor examples, with Margot getting away with killing her brother Mason in the book and Barney knowing about it and gets away with helping bury that knowledge, though since Mason Verger is an Asshole Victim par excellence, it's hard to hate them for this.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: Has feelings towards Margot that he tries to act upon in Hannibal, but he accepts it when she rejects him.

• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The final scene of the book version of Hannibal sees Barney visiting Buenos Aires and seeing Hannibal and Clarice at the opera. He immediately fears for his life and flees.

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