Hannibal Lecter, Evil as a Formative Element: A Means of Development of (the)

Good

Portrayal of evil in Hannibal displays a contrast between appearances and hidden

suggestions in addition to turning Evil into a constructive element of the crime story
- due to it does Good eventually strengthen and learns to defeat Evil. The AXN TV
series created by Bryan Fuller Hannibal (2013-2014) is based on the book trilogy by
Thomas Harris, later turned into silver-screen thrillers. Small screen, however,
reduces the thriller character of the original story due to carefully maintained
balance between what is shown and what is suggested, i.e. between visuals and
story. TV never shows how crime is committed only the outcome the deed is
suggested by means of editing of the film. Based on contrast the imagery parades
cannibalistic, beast-like deeds of a sophisticated and extremely human being.
Hannibals portrayal suggests utter self-control and respectability by means of
carefully constructed mise-en-scne which presents an impeccable, educated, and
highly sophisticated gentleman, cool and detached in all he does, suggesting his
superiority to others. As opposed to a classical whodunit, Hannibal reveals the
solution to the mystery at the beginning already; hence, the story focuses on the
game between the good and the evil, in which the latter is not a tragic, shattering
experience, but it becomes a means of development for the good. Therefore, the
paper proposes to discuss the role Evil plays in the present TV series in addition to
analysing the cinematic rhetoric used to suggest this role.