The Persistence of Animal Imagery in "The Silence of the Lambs" Timothy Sexton College

Animal imagery dominates the history of film. Sometimes the imagery is subtle while in many cases it is awkward and overdone. Sometimes, the imagery is so essential to the film that it would be impossible to imagine it otherwise. Ironically, perhaps, one of the greatest examples of this particular success is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho although, admittedly, the imagery is successful enough in The Birds. Still, one expects it from a film called The Birds. Less so, probably, from something like Psycho. However, when it comes to a relentless persistence of animal imagery, there may very well be no better example than Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-winning adaptation of the Thomas Harris crime thriller, The Silence of the Lambs.

That much—most—of the credit for introducing the imagery belongs firmly in the hands of Harris is beyond argument. Still, there was certainly nothing keeping Demme from jettisoning a dependence upon all these various references, allusions and symbols related to a veritable zoo of different animal species. At the heart of all this animal matter seems to be one thematic question: is man something more, something less or simply no different than an animal?

The imagery begins in earnest with the title obviously. The...