Will and Hidden Toxic Masculinity
The thing about rewatching Hannibal is that you never stop finding something new every single time. It could be your second rewatch or your 5th, but you always catch something new. In my case, it was the realization of hidden toxic masculinity in Will’s character.
When you think of Will Graham, you don’t immediately think “toxic masculinity”. Most people would think “no way” or if you go to the extreme, “Will? Never!”. I certainly didn’t catch it the first few times around. That is until I broke it down and realized it was hidden underneath all the social awkwardness and isolation. And probably all the gothic mumbo jumbo, yes.
In season one, we’re introduced to a highly intelligent and gifted, yet socially awkward and isolated Will Graham. He seems grumpy and rude, but overall harmless, but is he really? We already see some of Will’s manipulative side straight from the get go when Jack offers him a dream opportunity, but can’t pass the psychiatric evaluation to carry a firearm. Through Alana, he finds a way to try to wiggle his way out of it until he’s placed under Hannibal’s care and basically stomps his feet that he didn’t get what he wanted.
And there it is, the first sign. The sign of entitlement.
The thing about Will’s sense of entitlement is it’s something that evolves with time. In earlier parts of the story, we see it as almost bratty and then it turns into something more of possessive and feral. In most cases, it has to do with relationships, something he’s getting used to and also something he craves. A connection. There is nothing wrong with humans wanting connection with others as it’s natural. But in Will’s case, there’s many signs of crossing and even violating boundaries that makes it inappropriate and toxic. That is that he has a tendency to believe he is entitled to relationships he’s not necessarily entitled to have.
Whether it be with Alana, Abigail, or even Hannibal to a certain degree, you see Will getting offended or defensive when they set clear boundaries and/or have a life outside of him.
With Alana, he persistently pursued a romantic relationship with her and despite their mutual attraction to each other, she did set boundaries. Yet you see him continue to attempt to dismantle them and insist they can work out. Even after the first rejection, he drives miles in the snow to announce to Hannibal that he kissed her and that he’s always wanted to kiss her like she’s a sexual conquest. When she came to visit him later in Quantico, he keeps at it, hoping that she’ll come around and accept his advances and gets disappointed in her once again setting boundaries. When he got arrested and escaped, he practically barged into her home expecting her to automatically defend and believe him. And then again in jail, instead of considering her feelings, he said “Dodged a bullet romantically huh?”when Alana is feeling hurt about his supposed actions. After that, she hard rejected him and made it clear that they absolutely weren’t compatible. Yet when he was released after trying to kill Hannibal, he showed her he had no remorse for his actions and practically expected Alana to thank him for his perceived heroic act. No matter how you see it, these aren’t normal things for someone to do. It’s akin to a dog who kills a squirrel and brings it to his owner’s feet, expecting praise. It is disturbing.
With Abigail, regardless of Hannibal’s influence of nurturing paternal feelings towards Abigail, from the get go, Will sought out a special kind of relationship with her. Despite Abigail insisting him killing her father doesn’t make him her dad, Will continues to pursue her. He kept an idealized image of Abigail inside of his mind and became extremely possessive of that ideal. He claims he had bonded with Abigail, but reality says otherwise. Abigail was terrified of Will and believed he would sell her out even in the end. The only Will that Abigail knew is the version Hannibal had told her about. And he says he would be a good father.
When it comes to Hannibal, the first inclination of this entitlement more or less comes when Will comes to his house unannounced during a dinner party expecting them to be alone. Another time, you see him looking subtly offended that Hannibal would have company other than him and before their scheduled appointment. Although their relationship is slowly growing to one of codependency that Hannibal is nurturing, you still see Will expecting Hannibal to be available to him on his time and expectations. And this is season one people…
When it comes to relationships, you see a growing tendency of Will more or less using people to fulfill a need. This is something Hannibal told him directly when it came to him “choosing” his new family. Whether that be normalcy, acceptance, or filling his mind with palatable fantasies, it isn’t a normal or acceptable type of behavior. A relationship of any kind is a two way conversation and more often than not, you see Will disregarding the conversation and turning it into a monologue. He expects others to cater to adjust to him and his wants. It isn’t fair. But inequity is a large part of Will’s character even till the end.
It isn’t until Mizumono and Primavera that he gets a massive wake up call that he realizes, yes, he is toxic and that his toxicity has heavily harmed others including Hannibal.
Usually this is where someone would realize “Wow, I’m such an asshole” and do some self reflection and maybe try to do better…but this is gothic romance. We all know how these stories work when it comes to that. It’s a winding rollercoaster ride.
