Analyzing Feminism in Silence of the Lambs from the Perspective of Power

Abstract

The Silence of the Lambs, released in 1991 in the United States, is one of the first Hollywood films to feature women as subjects. The film has a certain historical background that makes it a good material for studying the development of the women’s movement and the response of traditional patriarchal society to the improvement of women’s status. This paper analyzes the feminist content in the film from the perspective of power, combining the history of the development of the women’s movement with the growth of the characters, and refines problems faced by feminism from the past to today. The most problematic of which is the question of the authenticity of power and the establishment of subjectivity raised in the film by the contrast between the protagonist Starling and the villain Bill. Starling, with the help of Hannibal, acquires effective power through legal means, but fails to establish her own subjectivity outside of the male power discourse; Bill, while violently resisting power, also aspires to become powerful, but his power only stems from his own delusions and consequently kills many people, but he establishes an authentic subjectivity and a new rule independent of traditional patriarchal society.