Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Silence of the Lambs, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sexism and Law Enforcement
The Nature of Evil
Class and Shame
Manipulation
Summary
Analysis
A brief flashback shows Pembry and Boyle—the two officers overseeing Lecter—preparing the cell he will stay in. They are experienced men who do not fear Lecter and feel prepared to handle him. When Lecter arrives, Pembry and Boyle perform a thorough search. They promise Lecter they will be easy on him as long as he is easy on them in return. After searching Lecter by hand, they send him through the metal detector. The detector goes off, but since the officers cannot find anything, they assume it is because of the fillings in Lecter’s mouth. In reality, Lecter is hiding a small piece of metal in his mouth, which he hopes to use to pick the lock on a pair of handcuffs.
Pembry and Boyle are exactly who Lecter hoped would look after him. They are kind, overconfident, and easy to manipulate. Clearly, they have never dealt with someone like Lecter before and do not know what he is capable of. Harris never explains how Lecter got his hands on the small piece of metal other than saying it came from Chilton’s hospital. It could be something he acquired recently or that he has been hanging on to for a long time and waiting for the appropriate moment to use.
Themes
After Chilton takes Starling away from Lecter, he is left once again with only Pembry and Boyle. Not long after, Chilton returns with Lecter’s lunch. Chilton exercises extreme caution when bringing Lecter his food to ensure he does not escape. However, Pembry and Boyle think Chilton’s method is overkill, so when dinner comes around, they employ their own method. They lock Lecter’s hands behind his back, leaving the rest of him free to move as he pleases. Then, they deliver his food to the cell. Once the cell is locked again, they unlock the handcuffs. Lecter thanks the men for their compassion and praises their method.
To Chilton’s credit, he continues to utilize his standard safety protocols, which are quite rigorous. Admittedly, half of his reason for doing so is that he likes to see Lecter suffer. Meanwhile, Pembry and Boyle continue to act in a predictably foolish manner. Of course, Lecter only treats them kindly and thanks as a way to manipulate them. Pembry and Boyle’s method leaves them open to an attack from Lecter if he manages to remove the handcuffs.
Themes
In the middle of dinner, Lecter retrieves the piece of metal from his gums and hides it in the folds of his hand. Then, he tells Pembry that he is done eating. Pembry locks Lecter’s hands behind his back just like before, completely oblivious to what Lecter holds in his hand. Quickly, Lecter picks the lock on the handcuffs and when Boyle comes in the cell, he uses the handcuffs to trap him.
Here, Lecter’s plan falls neatly into place, just as Starling and Crawford feared. He is 10 steps ahead of Boyle and Pembry the entire time, meaning they never have a chance to counteract his plan.
Themes
While Boyle is trapped, Lecter turns his attention to Pembry. He bites Pembry in the face like a rabid animal, incapacitating him. Then, he returns to Boyle, sprays him with mace that he stole from Pembry, and then beats him to death with a nightstick. After, he uses the same nightstick to cave in Pembry’s skull. When he is done, Lecter searches through the officers’ possessions. He finds their guns and an item that excites him even more: a pocketknife.
Biting people in the face is apparently Lecter’s signature move. As Chilton mentioned earlier in the novel, Lecter did the same thing to a nurse at the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Additionally, Lecter’s reaction to the pocketknife suggests that he has a plan for it that does not involve killing people. After all, if he wanted a more lethal weapon, he would have been excited about the gun.
Themes
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