You memtioned once that you thought Bedelia was in love with Hannibal. Could you elaborate? I love your analysis.
No amount of professional curiosity would realistically compel someone to abandon their entire life, risk their safety, and willingly entangle themselves in criminal acts…all to remain close to a notorious killer. Just as Will’s decision to seek out Hannibal defies logic without acknowledging the pull of passion, Bedelia’s actions can’t be explained solely through rational motivations.
She herself gestures toward this deeper undercurrent when she asks Chiyoh, “How does he inspire such devotion?” It’s not a rhetorical question, it’s personal. And when she speaks to Will about Hannibal being in love with him, her voice trembles with emotion. She doesn’t emphasize you in “do you ache for him?”, she emphasizes ache, her eyes glistening, as if to suggest that she knows that ache intimately.
The implication is subtle but powerful: perhaps she does ache for Hannibal. Perhaps that ache defines her just as much as it defines Will. And within that moment lies an unspoken comparison: is Will truly more worthy of Hannibal’s love than she is?
Interestingly, Bedelia also carries much of Clarice Starling’s original narrative arc, which further supports the idea that she shares a complex, possibly romantic, attachment to Hannibal. Yet, unlike Will, Bedelia seems less inclined to name it love, perhaps because love, for her, is too human a word for what she feels.
Agreed. Why would her eyes be glistening with tears talking about Hannibal’s love for Will? That makes no sense. She was tearing up because she was, in some way, hurt. And the bitterness in her voice when she says, “If I am to be Bluebeard’s wife, I would have preferred to be the last.”
Not only does she know Hannibal has chosen Will over her, but she knows that makes her a dead woman.
The thing I realized about Bedelia as a character over time is that she’s actually a very sad character. She isolates herself from others by choice, yet seems lonely all the same. She has a need to be seen as someone or something special and it is a very specific kind of special. Even though she wasn’t the chosen one in Hannibal’s life, she keeps that lie alive not only to absolve herself of any wrongdoing and consequences, but because if she stops, she will stop being relevant and fade into obscurity. To the public and what more, Hannibal’s life narrative. And she just can’t have that.
You see her jealousy towards others who know a part of Hannibal she doesn’t know. She asks Chiyoh “Were you there?” very intently when she asks about his younger days before he became a beast. She even goes as far as to call her his “biggest mistake” as if she herself isn’t. She doesn’t want Hannibal to have anyone in his life except her, but she’s also smart enough to know she’s already lost. The next best thing she can do is hurt others, because she feels hurt. Crush them so she can feel just a little bit better and superior.
Especially Agree with that last bit. She said it herself, she’s inclined to crush the bird like she wished she could crush her own perceived weakness.
Same for Will and pretty much 99% of humans haha. We try to control the inner self by exerting control outside, especially in others who freely express what we repress or feel ashamed of.
Will says his instinct is to help the wounded animal, because by saving others he might believe himself capable of being saved