Popular Culture Review Vol. 2, No. 2, July 1991 | Page 48

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with Jack Crawford and Dr. Hannibal Lector epitomize the conflict
between what the world wants of her and what she does not
understand about herself.
Crawford is the restrained, rational demanding father figure
from whom Clarise seeks approval. It is he who assigns her to the
"interesting errand" which introduces her to Lector. She defers to
Crawford, caters to him, and is hurt, but nonetheless loyal to him.
Through him she can complete the role of the loving daughter denied
her by her father’s death when she was only ten years old. She
"reads" him like any good daughter or wife would, so that without a
word from him, she will act to please him. She interprets, assumes
and expresses his emotions for him. Although Crawford will never
openly commend Clarise for her "feminine” powers of empathy and
will, in fact, discourage her from displaying them too flagrantly
(from a telephone exchange regarding the death of Miggs: Clarise, "I
don't know how to feel about this?” Crawford, "You don't have to
feel anything about it."), this will not stop him from using them to
his advantage and savoring their favor. Crawford stresses to Clarise
that she must reveal nothing personal to Dr. Lector ("You don't want
Lector inside your head.") but that is precisely what Crawford
expects to happen. Crawford is as capable of manipulating Clarise as
is Lector.
The sequence which best illustrates Clarise's daughter-like
attention to Crawford takes place in the examining room of a small
town funeral parlor. The camera opens the scene with a close-up of
Crawford shouting to be understood over the telephone, then the
camera pulls back to reveal the hubbub of officers passing out coffee
cups, talking distractedly around the corpse on the table. Clarise had
been preparing ink for fingerprints when Crawford's shouting captures
her attention. Clarise (positioned at the lower right-hand portion of
the frame) turns her back to the camera to face the officers and
Crawford and then asks the officers to leave the FBI personnel to
their work by thanking them for their "sensitivity". As they leave,
Clarise steals a glance toward Crawford, now speaking freely as the
initial shot is reversed to close-in on Crawford's satisfaction.
His place over her is reinforced through the shot-countershot
exchanges between them. He dominates the left-hand portion of the
frame while Clarise is relegated to the right. In our left-to-right
reading culture the left is the area of visual control, the area to