How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Silence of the Lambs.
Quote #1
CHILTON: Crawford's very clever, isn't he? Using you. […] A pretty young woman to turn him on.
Jack Crawford is doing the best he can to manipulate Lecter into talking, even if he has to use Clarice to do it. We'll see later on that he has manipulated her too, in a way.
Quote #2
CLARICE: If Lecter feels that you're his enemy, then, um, well maybe we'll have more luck if I go in by myself.
Clarice can play the manipulation game too. She puts up with Dr. Chilton just long enough to get access to Lecter, then she sends him away.
Quote #3
LECTER: Closer, please. Closer.
Here, Lecter manipulates Clarice into moving closer to his cell, which she isn't supposed to do. But the director also manipulates us, by using close-ups of the actors almost exclusively. These camera angles make us feel a lot closer than we'd ever want to be.
Quote #4
LECTER: You think you can dissect me with this blunt little tool?
Clarice is doing a good job at convincing Lecter to talk to her, but she blows it when she hands him the FBI questionnaire. Lecter requires skill and subtlety. The FBI questionnaire is too blatant a move.
Quote #5
CRAWFORD: The orderly heard Lecter whispering to him all afternoon and Miggs crying. They found him at bed check. He'd swallowed his own tongue.
Lecter is so good at manipulating people, he convinces Miggs to kill himself, without even touching the man. That's so crazy, we want to know what he said to him. Or maybe we don't…
Quote #6
[Dr. Chilton takes away Lecter's drawings, turns off the lights, and puts a televangelist show on the TV.]
Dr. Chilton uses psychiatry as punishment. In this way, he and Lecter are kindred spirits. If they weren't on different sides of the bars, and if they played nice with others, they might make a diabolical team. The filmmakers are geniuses at manipulating us to the extent that we're almost happy at the end to see Chilton being Lecter's next victim.
Quote #7
CRAWFORD: If I had sent you in there with an actual agenda, Lecter would have known it instantly. He would have toyed with you, and then turned to stone.
This quote references the first one in this section, and what we said about Crawford manipulating Starling too. He keeps her in the dark, and says it's for her own good. Is he right to do this, or is he not giving her enough credit?
Quote #8
LECTER: Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. […] Quid pro quo. Yes or no?
Here we have Lecter's ultimate manipulation. Clarice is told not to let Lecter inside her head, but now she must, or else he won't help her. It's a power play. Lecter removes any power Clarice might have, and he finds out things that he could use against her. But by this point, he likes her, and it's a good thing too. Or else he could use these facts to destroy her.