The Theme Of Transformation In The Silence Of The Lambs And Lamia

The idea of transformation has long been a well-used theme in Western literature. Popular examples include Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography. The following essay hypothesizes and analyzes the multiple award-winning movie The Silence of the Lambs produced in 1991 and the poem Lamia by the famous Romantic poet, John Keats based on the research question: Transformation of physicality in The Silence of the Lambs and Lamia.
Previous researchers have presented and described content-based moments of physical transformation in both texts, “This will be the nearest Gumb will come to metamorphosing into a woman: by making, and wearing, a suit of female skin.” (Ullyatt, pg 21), “Gumb’s attempted transformation from male to female is obvious and visual.” (Dubois,pg302) , “Lamia’s transformation gives her new condition of womanhood. Having adopted a woman’s form, she is now “a maid / More beautiful” than any human maiden.” (Yang,pg 54) However, there is not a sufficient amount of researches that show how the common theme of transfiguration in both works can be fortified through different evaluation angles to show femininity. In the below analysis, interesting similarities and symbolic differences through physical metamorphosis in both works are drawn to tell how the idea of femininity is exalted.
Firstly, the research question can be justified by the feminine physical transfiguration in the characters in the movie and the poem. Buffalo Bill is presented