recently i was listening to man’s search for meaning by viktor frankl, psychiatrist and auschwitz survivor, and you would not believe my surprise when all of the sudden i hear: “Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features of the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.” if ur sick enough in the head, you would know these words from anywhere ie nbc hannibal 2013-2015. i knew obviously that the show pulled from a lot of sources, but the context of this one was just so crazy. not just that it’s from a holocaust survivor, bc frankl makes very clear that his tactics for survival in horrible situations can be used far beyond his own experiences, but the whole concept of his theory: that man can survive anything as long as he can find meaning in it.
will’s major disputes with the violence inundating his mind is that so much of it seems pointless. its all so tasteless, so meaningless. a waste. when he realizes hannibal has done these horrible things to him, his main concern is WHY. he wants a meaning. and the meaning ultimately is that hannibal loves him. “don’t you want to know why the ripper chose you?” hannibal asks will with a gun to his head and will puts the gun down. he has this dream in which hannibal quotes the paraphrased section of man’s search for meaning. in the script, he ends the statement with, “i love you, will.”
love is first thing that that frankl lists as a place to find meaning when life seems meaningless. i always took hannibal’s words here to be about him seeing will’s potential alone and that if will loved him back, he would understand and see the reflection in hannibal too. but if you take in the context of the quote, hannibal is also saying that if will allowed himself to love hannibal, he would find the meaning of his entire life.
when will finally does accept that hannibal loves him, he’s really accepting that he loves hannibal. and that’s where the show ends because will has finally found the meaning to that question he had. why? why me? why did the ripper choose me over any other mad fuck he could get his hands on? well, because hannibal loves him and that changes everything. will stops denying his true nature and embraces hannibal at the cliff top, finally at peace.
