OMG I can't believe I didn't make that connection between the lambs and the father's death. Yes children always assume the guilt, far preferable than facing a chaotic unpredictable universe.

Remember how Clarice picks up one lamb and runs away. Clearly in a symbolic psychological way she is trying to 'save' her father, who was an innocent 'lamb' slaughtered by the two robbers. "But he was too heavy," she says to Lecter. Referring to the weight of her guilt. TSOTL really is the perfect movie in terms of the psychological and symbolic stuff going on.

"perfect movie in terms of the psychological and symbolic stuff going on" I must have gotten all this just below consciousness, the other Lecter movies just don't have it and I found them to be boring.

If salvation is heaven, then guilt is hell. If salvation i.e. loving God is the true heaven, rather than the path to Heaven, then guilt rather than the path to Hell, is Hell itself. I think some characters torture themselves, sustain their guilt as a means of penance. Oprah has practically made her fortune on people trying to forgive themselves for what they've done. Absolving their guilt is absolving themselves of the sin they committed. Because let's face it, who really 'wants' to go on a hero's journey? Wouldn't everybody much rather stay home? The hero's journey is the ultimate penance. And it is a way of getting rid of the guilt. Of doing your time, basically.

[...] Part 6: Guilt Technically speaking from a theological perspective, guilt is being responsible for wrongdoing. It e... [...]