Dr Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter
His comical rhyming nickname was the polar opposite of the depths of his depravity; Dr Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist with a passion for murder was known for eating his victims after he killed them. He tells of how he ate one of his victims "with some fava beans and a nice chianti". Lecter is pure evil, and his genius and intelligence sharpen this evil so that he is able to out-strategize and outwit everyone sent to challenge him. He considers it an arrogance when anyone tries to profile him as if he will not notice; he becomes angry with Clarice at their first meeting when he believes she is dissecting him.
Lecter rather likes Clarice. He likes the fact that she keeps her side of the bargain and tells him insights about herself. He likes the fact that she is intelligent, a quality he finds sorely lacking in most of the law enforcement personnel he has met thus far. He intends to lead her to Buffalo Bill, but instead of being direct, he constructs a game for her to play in order to get the information that she wants.
Moreover, Lecter is a chancer, an opportunist. He is helping Clarice but in doing so is helping himself too. He accepts Chilton's deal because he knows it will enable him to escape. He has no doubt that he can outwit Chilton because he does not think much of Chilton's wits in the first place.
Lecter is an evil character, a horror-movie "baddie" whose crimes are almost unimaginable, yet he is also an entertaining character who is presented with a certain degree of humor, which makes him manage to endear himself to the audience, rather than nauseating them entirely with his crimes.
Clarice Starling
Starling is a student at the F.B.I. Academy in Quantico. She is training to be an agent and a profiler under Jack Crawford, one of the leading lights in the field of criminal profiling. She seems bright, keen and insightful; Crawford chooses her to take the lead in talking to Dr Lecter and trying to solicit his help in finding Buffalo Bill, or deducing who he is. Starling is young, and inexperienced, but she is confident and capable; her skills are greater than the sum of her qualifications and she builds an immediate rapport with Dr Lecter. She seems to find Frederick Chilton more threatening the the man she has come to meet.
Starling is naive and somewhat out of her depth when it comes to game playing with Dr Lecter. She is able to unravel complex clues and hints from Lecter, and able to review reports in such a way that she extrapolates information from them that nobody else has seen, but she is also naive, and no true foil for the psychopath. However, she manages to interpret his notes in the criminal report so well that they lead her right to the door of Buffalo Bill.
Jack Crawford
Crawford is a behavioral scientist at Quanitco. He is a successful F.B.I. agent and also one of the leading profilers in his field. He is confident that Starling will be able to get information from Lecter and he is proved correct. He is a good leader and mentor, perfectly happy to allow Starling the credit for the leads that she follows and the fact that she has found Buffalo Bill. He is a man of honor who is an effective mentor to new, young agents.
Frederick Chilton
Chilton is the bane of Lecter's existence; he cannot stand the man and the primary reason for his requesting a transfer to another facility is to get away from the prison director. Chilton is a deeply untrustworthy man who uses his position for his own personal gain. He is not a team player, and is happy to betray any confidence that he is given. Chilton listens to Starling's conversations with Crawford and overhears them planning to offer Lecter a fake deal; he promptly tells Lecter of their plan so that he can offer a plan of his own creation and get the credit for Lecter's information about the identity of Buffalo Bill. He is unfortunately not a smart or insightful man and he cannot read nuance in a person's words or behavior; it never occurs to him that Lecter will see through him, and he is arrogant enough to believe that he can outwit the genius serial killer.
Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill is a serial killer engaged in a killing spree. He is particularly obscene in his treatment of his victim's bodies; he skins them, removing shaped pieces of their flesh and taking them with him. His identity is largely a mystery. The only clue to his identity is a sphinx moth that is left in the throat of each of his victims.
It is discovered subsequently that Buffalo Bill is a transexual who is making himself a woman suit from the flesh of the women he has killed. He is sewing the costume himself. Buffalo Bill is psychopathic and also enjoys the hunt; when Clarice enters his home he turns off the power and the lights go out; he stalks Clarice through the house wearing night vision goggles.
Catherine Martin
Catherine is Buffalo Bill's current victim. She has been kidnapped and he is keeping her in the basement of his home whilst he waits to kill her. She is terrified. Catherine is the daughter of a senator which is why her case has a higher profile than the others. She is found alive at the end of the film.
