Interview with the Vampire Insights
"What a picture he made of her, the infant death, he called her. Sister death,
and sweet death; and for me, mockingly, he had the term with a sweeping bow, Merciful Death! which he said like a
woman clapping her hands and shouting out a word of exciting gossip: oh, merciful heavens! so that I wanted to
strangle him."
This quote struck me because it is an interesting dynamic considering Louis's relationship with Lestat. When another character that is dependant upon them is brought into the mix, the relationship grows in an unexpected direction.
Firstly, Louis's disposition towards life at the beginning of the story is already very low. He lost his family, now he has nothing to live for. Enter Lestat, now he has to live forever. Thus, Louis is pissed. Not only does he have eternal life, but eternal life with someone who provokes him and has an alternate set of morals that does not mirror Louis's own. The drinking of blood is something Louis does not ever want to do but it becomes his nature. So, this is also extremely troubling that he goes against his own nature and Lestat strongly encourages it.
Secondly, Louis's one slip up creates Claudia. He kills the mother which leads to Claudia later convincing Louis to give her a replacement mother. Otherwise, Claudia is a child so she ends up giving into her vampire thirst and takes to killing naturally. Lestat revels in his time with Claudia while hunting and he glorifies her unmerciful behavior towards mortals. Whilst Louis keeps to his rat diet. There is this relationship between Claudia that is stronger and more personal than that of Claudia's relationship towards Lestat, she may partake in hunting with Lestat and receive his gifts and dotting but ultimately at the end of the day she sleeps with Louis in his coffin. Therefore, Louis becomes this unexpected fatherly figure that is respectable. Even though he has to deal with Lestats constant destructive nature and behavior.
Thirdly, I would just like to mention the duality between Lestat's character in the second book and the first. He starts off in the first book to being this destructive flamboyant character where life is a game. Then in the second book, his nature becomes a little bit more like Louis, the constant brooding and the confrontation he has with Jesse, she is obsessed with studying the dark realm and he shames her for wanting to become like him. Whereas in the first book he has no qualms about turning someone. However, the spirit of him disrespecting mortals but ultimately wanting to be apart of their world lives on. Although, he begins to respect mortality and looks at it as a beautiful fragile thing. I would like to find that he ultimately learned something from Louis. But you can definitely read these works as entirely separate books.
This quote struck me because it is an interesting dynamic considering Louis's relationship with Lestat. When another character that is dependant upon them is brought into the mix, the relationship grows in an unexpected direction.
Firstly, Louis's disposition towards life at the beginning of the story is already very low. He lost his family, now he has nothing to live for. Enter Lestat, now he has to live forever. Thus, Louis is pissed. Not only does he have eternal life, but eternal life with someone who provokes him and has an alternate set of morals that does not mirror Louis's own. The drinking of blood is something Louis does not ever want to do but it becomes his nature. So, this is also extremely troubling that he goes against his own nature and Lestat strongly encourages it.
Secondly, Louis's one slip up creates Claudia. He kills the mother which leads to Claudia later convincing Louis to give her a replacement mother. Otherwise, Claudia is a child so she ends up giving into her vampire thirst and takes to killing naturally. Lestat revels in his time with Claudia while hunting and he glorifies her unmerciful behavior towards mortals. Whilst Louis keeps to his rat diet. There is this relationship between Claudia that is stronger and more personal than that of Claudia's relationship towards Lestat, she may partake in hunting with Lestat and receive his gifts and dotting but ultimately at the end of the day she sleeps with Louis in his coffin. Therefore, Louis becomes this unexpected fatherly figure that is respectable. Even though he has to deal with Lestats constant destructive nature and behavior.
Thirdly, I would just like to mention the duality between Lestat's character in the second book and the first. He starts off in the first book to being this destructive flamboyant character where life is a game. Then in the second book, his nature becomes a little bit more like Louis, the constant brooding and the confrontation he has with Jesse, she is obsessed with studying the dark realm and he shames her for wanting to become like him. Whereas in the first book he has no qualms about turning someone. However, the spirit of him disrespecting mortals but ultimately wanting to be apart of their world lives on. Although, he begins to respect mortality and looks at it as a beautiful fragile thing. I would like to find that he ultimately learned something from Louis. But you can definitely read these works as entirely separate books.
Skylar. I agree with your point in the first paragraph. I really enjoyed your analysis on the relationship between all three of these characters. It seems like the unconventionality of their relationship creates a lot of tension within the story which adds to the horror aspect of this genre.
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