Mason Verger
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| Hannibal Tetralogy character | |
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| Mason Verger | |
| Occupation | Meat packer |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Caucasian |
| Relationships | Molson Verger (father) Margot Verger (sister) |
| M.O. | Child Molestation |
| Weapon of Choice: | Relies heavily on hired help. |
| Portrayed by: | Gary Oldman |
Mason Verger is the main antagonist in the 1999 novel Hannibal by Thomas Harris, and its 2001 film adaptation, in which he was played by Gary Oldman.
[edit] Character biography
Mason Verger is the son of Molson Verger, a wealthy meat packer. A cruel and sadistic child molestor, Mason was the main villain in the 1999 novel "Hannibal".
From an early age, Mason's cruelty and sadism was encouraged by his father Molson. Molson was a cruel and corrupt businessman who took Mason with him to livestock shows that his company sponsored, allowing Mason to watch as his father ruthlessly murder winning entries of the contests he sponsored, in front of their owners just because he could.
This sadism would also turn sexual, as Mason would systematically abuse, both physically and sexually, his younger sister Margot whilst growing up. The cruelty involved, among other thing, repeated acts of sexual assault (including forced sodomy with a candy bar), biting chunks out of her buttocks, and dislocating her shoulder.
In a move that would foreshadow Mason's ultimate fate, Margot would be sent to a therapist by her father, with her therapist being none other than Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Lecter felt bad for Margot and helped her avoid succumbing to self-loathing over the incestuous abuse. More controversially, he suggested that as a form of catharsis, Margot should murder her brother but only when she knew she could get away with it.
As an adult, Mason turned his attention towards running his father's meat packing business as well as continuing to indulge in pedophile activities, using a Christian summer camp his father owned to find victims to molest.
During this time, Verger also claims to have travelled across the globe, ultimately befriending the murderous African dictator Idi Amin. At one point, he was a participant at Easter of a re-enactment of the crucifixion; the re-enactment involved a manual laborer playing Jesus to literally be crucified, killing him in the process.
During the middle of the 1970s, several of Mason Verger's child abuse victims came forward to the authorities, putting Mason on trial. Through his powers and influence, Mason was able to avoid jail time but was forced to complete community service (working at an animal shelter) and undergo mandatory, court-ordered psychotherapy. The therapist was none other than Hannibal Lecter, who by this point was engaged in his own crimes of murder.
Mason's brush with the law had not humbled him, as he began plotting to find some way to entrap Lecter in a compromising scenario in order to be prematurely end his mandatory therapy sessions. Verger invites Lecter to his pied a terre in Owings Mills, Maryland. After Verger shows him the noose he uses to perform auto-erotic asphyxiation, Lecter asks him to demonstrate the procedure. While Verger is dangling from the noose and masturbating, Lecter offers him amyl nitrite and several other mind-altering drugs, and convinces Verger to tear his face off with a shard of mirror and feed it to his pet dogs (acquired from the animal shelter he was working at). Verger does so, and also gouges out one of his eyes and eats his own nose. Lecter finishes him off by manipulating the noose to break his neck. Amazingly, Verger survives this, but is left a hideously scarred and disfigured quadriplegic dependent on a life support machine.
In the wake of his near death, Mason claimed to have become a born again-Christian and accepted Jesus into his life, though he continues to engage in evil deeds. He takes on a new associate, Cordell, a Swiss physician who, like Mason, is a pedophile. During this time Margot also reluctantly returns to her brother's side as his bodyguard. She does so in order to try to get into his good graces and convince him to donate his sperm to her lesbian partner, in order to take advantage of a stipulation in their father's will that denies her any inheritance but provides that his estate and business will go to any children that Verger might have.
According to the police, Verger is one of only two of Lecter's victims to survive (the other going unnamed) run-ins with Lecter. Because of his condition, Verger is unable to identify Lecter as his attacker until Will Graham ultimately captures Lecter in 1975. Verger never issues a statement in Lecter's trial, though by the time of Lecter's escape from custody in 1988, he has begun offering a multi-million dollar reward for information pertaining to the arrest of Lecter.
In secret, however, Verger begins planning to capture and execute Lecter himself as revenge. Mason concocts an elaborate plan to have Lecter eaten alive by boars, specially bred over several generations for viciousness and a taste for human flesh.
When Lecter resurfaces in 1999 via a letter sent to Clarice Starling, Mason begins searching for his target in order to get ahead of the FBI. A tipoff from Detective Rinaldo Pazzi locates Lecter in Florence, Italy, where he is living under the alias "Dr. Fell." Pazzi tries to kidnap Lecter in order to collect the bounty Mason is offering, but ends up brutally murdered along with a Sardinian and a pickpocket. Lecter then returns to the United States, contacting Mason via letter and swearing that he will take his own revenge (as well as mocking Mason's denunciation in a recent interview of the notion that he ate his own nose).
With Detective Pazzi dead, Mason finds a new ally in Justice Department agent turned Senate hopeful Paul Krendler. Together, they frame Clarrice Starling for aiding Lecter in his flight from the police and use her as bait to draw Lecter to her. Lecter is eventually kidnapped by Verger's men and is about to be eaten by the man-eating boars when Starling rescues him. She is wounded and Lecter takes her to safety.
Mason Verger is murdered by his sister Margot, who visits Lecter prior to his escape. As Lecter reminds her of their therapy sessions and her hatred towards her brother, Margot confesses that Mason has officially told her that he will never allow his sperm to be harvested for the purpose of allowing Margot's lover to have a child. This, combined with the news that Mason has tried to convince a young child he was molesting to murder his beloved kitten, only to have the child poison himself rather than kill his pet, causes Margot to accept an offer made by Lecter: if she kills Mason for Lecter, he'll allow Margot to frame him for the crime.
Margot, electric cattle prod in hand, forces her brother's beloved carnivorous pet moray eel down his throat and then immeadiately sodomizes his corpse in order to force the body to ejaculate one last time. She then plants evidence, per her deal with Lecter, framing him for the crime and takes the sperm home to be frozen.
[edit] Movie Death
The film adaptation of "Hannibal" features numerous changes to the novel, most notably the omission of the character of Margot Verger. In the film, Mason is murdered via Dr. Cordell, recast in the film as a put-upon and much abused servant of Mason's. Keeping with the details of the book, as far as Lecter's willingness to take the fall for Mason's death, Lecter convinces Dr. Cordell to shove his employer out of his wheelchair and into the wild boar pen, where he is eaten alive.
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| Novels Red Dragon • The Silence of the Lambs |
Main Characters |
Films Manhunter • The Silence of the Lambs • Hannibal |
| Secondary Characters List of minor characters in the Hannibal series |
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