Week 2 : Vampire: Love and Pain

For week two I read Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire. Someone during the in-class discussion said, “ Vampires stories, are never real about vampires.” The complex relationships in Anne Rice’s novel are only giving the masks of vampire to draw one into the story.

            The triangle relationship between Claudia, Lestat and Louis is tragic. First we are Louis, mourning the lost off his bother only wishes for death and when Lestat grants him immortal life it’s not what he was expecting. Louis is conflicted up the unmoral means to which he must feed on his once fellow humans. He feels isolated and disjoined from his companion and creator Lestat. To Louis, Lestat is the reason for his problems.

            And then the introduction of little Claudia, an innocent little girl tainted against her will or knowing. Louis conflicted with his emotions both lusts for her life and pitys her as he glazes at her. He tries to give reason to his desire for her, as he is putting her out of her misery. Lestet afraid to loose his only attachment you would say to humanity, Louis changes Claudia into a vampire. Lestat gives Claudia to Louis, to appease his nurturing femine nature. Which is a basicly the formation of a gay couple with a child. The author Anne Rice having lived San Francisco(1970), a city with a huge gay and lesbian community we can begin to see the influences of the gay community in her story. More so when Louis meets Armand. Anne’s personal life has a deep connection to the characters in a way, Claudia representing her 6 year old daughter that passed away.

Having been changed so young Claudia had little to none experiences of the world. Her perceptions of right and wrong are tainted by Lestat. Claudia’s mind grows and not her body, a women trapped in a child’s body forever. When Lestat and Louis secret is revealed to her, she feels betrayed and enraged. And she shows no pity or remorse as she butchers Lestat.

But I think my favorite relationship is the one between to interviewer and Louis. At the end, after Louis had told his story of loss, pain, and sadness ; the interviewer wanted to become a vampire? It makes me as the reader question my own thoughts to if I would do the same if I was in his position.