Cryptid Trail

In the books, the Dragon repeats the vicious phrases Dolarhyde's grandmother used. The Dragon threatens to cut off Dolarhyde's genitalia, much like his grandmother did when he was a child. Far into adulthood (the book places him at 40), Dolarhyde still sits down to urinate, as his grandmother once instructed him. The dentures that Francis wears to bite his victims are a mold of his grandmother's teeth.

I would also argue that in the same novel, the descriptions of young Francis' pyjamas as nightdress are intentionally invoking the idea of a gown, feminine.

Also, Dolarhyde wears pantyhose as a mask. In one of the scenes where Will Graham is investigating the murders and going through the Leeds house, Harris draws our attention to the habits of Valerie Leeds regarding her own nylon pantyhose - Will Graham notices that she cuts the leg off a pair with a run so that she can save it and wear it with another matching singlet.

Since Red Dragon (1981) was published before Silence of the Lambs (1988), it's interesting to see a precursor to the gender inversion of Jame Gumb. Harris' killers all seem to share that. Even Mason Verger was subtly implied to have a homosexual connection with the amyl poppers he mentions in the third novel, Hannibal (1999). This is not to make an argument about Harris' personal views, just an observation on his writing.

The Dragon seems to represent many things to Francis Dolarhyde. His grandmother, castration anxiety, his aggression and urges. It's also interesting to me that it represents both castration and aggression, since often the philosophy behind gelding a male animal is to curb both its reproductive capacity and its aggression... Though to curb the reproductive urge is possibly part of why the Dragon threatens to take away Reba.

At some point or another, Dolarhyde decided firmly that he would reject the Dragon. Not half ass it. Truly reject the Dragon. Physically and/or symbolically rid himself of all the memorabilia and trophies and altar that he had created out of worship. Maybe then he could have Reba and this love that he craved. But deep down, there’s something much more primal that he’s always wanted. To be in control.

When Reba rejected and feared him, he hesitated at the thought of killing her, even believing that throwing them all into the flames was the best option instead of following through with his carefully built escape plan. But instead, he showed her exactly what he was and what he was capable of separate from the Dragon. He was finally able to make a choice of who to kill, who to spare, and who would see him and how much. In the end, the woman he loved ended up becoming a test subject for a massive experiment. And it worked.

Imagine how liberating and exhilarating it must have felt to finally achieve this transformation. To finally have control.

Unsurprisingly, this is pretty much the same order that Will achieved his becoming. He had an affair with Hannibal, rejected him out of fear, tried to go back to a status quo life, came back to him, bullshitted some more, rejected him again, before killing the Dragon and then attempting a double suicide.

The last two steps are what matters, because whether it was Dolarhyde or Will, if the order was even remotely different then things would have turned out very differently. Reba could have died, Hannibal could have died, and Will and Dolarhyde may have become something entirely different.

If we follow what happened to Dolarhyde, what comes next is Will gets a passionate death or he’s on his way to becoming more decisive and knowing what he wants to do. We all know the answer to this one.