In the movie "The Silence of the Lambs," various motifs have been used in coming up with the plot of the film. There is a combination of both free and bound motifs that the script writer came up with. Bound motifs are those themes that are integrated in a film and make up the primary part of the film to give it the intended meaning. The change of these motifs means a change in the whole plot of the film. Free motifs are those themes in a film that are of little significance but still they cannot be assumed. The free motifs can be adjusted without having any significance change in the setting or plot of a film.
One of the most significant bound motifs in the "silence of the lambs" is crime. In the entire film, there are various cases of murder and fake deals that are quite evident from one setting of the play to another. Lecter for example is deemed to have killed one of the characters. However, he is not willing to confess the crime but instead denies having anything to do with the murder. The motif of crime gives rise to another bound motif of interrogation. Starling is in pursuit to find Buffalo Bill as well as to rescue the abductees. Interrogation is a bound motif since it entails a well planned and chronological process. In this case, Starling has to interrogate the whereabouts of Buffalo Bills.
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The process had to be through Bill's friends. Therefore, the bound motif of interrogation had to follow a chronological method. This planned method means that the interrogation would not be successful if one of the laid out plans was skipped or not undertaken fully. As a result, for Starling to make sure that the bound motif is utilized in the film and works out effectively, he has to follow all the plans. More so, not only should the plans be followed but they should be adhered to in a chronological order.
In the movie "The Silence of the Lambs," there are also free motifs that are evident. One of the most evident motifs is gender discrimination. Clarice for example is one of the main characters in the movie but still that his ability to perform is role is limited. The limitation of his ability to perform his character in the film is due to the fact that she is surrounded by men who look down upon her as being incapable due to the fact that she is a woman (Demme 4). Clarice is met by much discrimination from the men but still manages to fight back so that he may fulfill his role in the film.
This motif is a free theme since the role that is given to Clarice is not determined by her gender but rather by her mission. Therefore, there will be little or no significance at all if a man wasused to take the character of Clarice. This is due to the fact that the men had little influence on the character given to Clarice. Moreover, they acted as motivators whereby Clarice was not willing to give up his role but to prove the men wrong by fulfilling his mission. In the end Clarice is able to carry out the role given to her despite her gender.