The Silence Of The Lambs

Harris reveals the narrative’s major plot twist in Chapter 56: Clarice, rather than the SWAT team, finds Gumb and Catherine in Belvedere. Harris builds suspense for this reveal by first aligning the reader with Gumb’s perspective. The reader follows Gumb as he creeps upstairs; Harris leads the reader to believe the SWAT men are ringing the bell, when really it is Clarice thinking she is interviewing Mrs. Lipmann’s family. In the final moment of dramatic irony, the reader knows that Clarice is walking into a horrific confrontation, but she doesn’t realize the true stakes until she is well inside the house sans backup. Clarice follows protocol by not shooting Gumb when he doesn’t threaten her, but this decision forces her to follow him into his basement.

The narrative underscores Clarice’s vulnerability as a single woman in Gumb’s basement by switching to her perspective as she descends. Harris previously described the maze-like design of the basement, but now the reader truly understands the danger of the layout: “she couldn’t go through one door without turning her back to another” (343). Harris builds and releases tension every time Clarice blindly turns a corner or passes an opening without a view of Gumb. The stakes of the task heighten when Clarice also considers Catherine’s safety in the stationary oubliette. Gumb’s studio is an especially dreadful setting; Clarice must make sure Gumb isn’t hiding in plain sight as one of the dozens of mannequins. The layout of the basement ushers Clarice toward this horrific space as “the studio [blazes] with light at the end of the corridor” (345), appearing like an unavoidable destination at the end of a tunnel.

Gumb tries to use his night vision goggles to gain even more power over Clarice. Compared to Clarice’s disorientation in the “[d]izzy dark” that makes “her heart [knock] hard enough to shake her chest and arms” (346), Gumb coolly watches her and considers the amount of fun he would have chasing her. The darkness adds another layer of suspense and urgency to Clarice’s task, making the undertaking of securing the basement even more confusing. The gunfire mimics Clarice’s disorientation. We are aligned with Clarice’s perspective: Without Gumb’s night vision, Clarice and the reader are both unsure if, beyond “the great muzzle flashes of the guns” (347), she or Gumb were hit by the flurry of bullets. Clarice was vulnerable like Gumb’s other victims, but he underestimated the extent of her training and sharp senses.

We learn that Gumb romanticized his mother, fleshing out her image through recordings. Harris employs a structure of omission to hint at Gumb’s crimes and the corpses in his basement. The news describes the crime as “creating amusing tableaux in remote rooms and sealing them up, opening the doors again only to throw a little lime” (360). By keeping the details broad, Harris leaves the particulars of the horror up to the reader’s imagination.

By the end of the book, Clarice begins to heal, not just from the traumatic experience in Gumb’s basement, but from the pain of her childhood. She says she feels “kind of numb” after subduing Gumb, but she continues with her daily life (355). Crawford and Ardelia affectionately congratulate Clarice but also refocus her on the minutiae of Academy life, which helps ease Clarice back into her routine. Clarice starts to carry a picture of Hannah the horse in her wallet as a reminder of the strength she can find in the past, and the narrative definitively states, “She was healing” (361). The lamb symbol returns in the final chapter to conclude Clarice’s story and symbolize her recovery. Rather than screaming, the lambs are silent and Clarice “sleeps deeply, sweetly” at Pilcher’s side (367). As Lecter guessed, Clarice finally finds peace after saving Buffalo Bill’s victims.