Vampires

In Interview with a Vampire Rice often places life and death, humanity and vampires, good and evil, and love and apathy in opposition to one another in order to explore the various characters in the story. For much of the novel Louis struggles with his desire to still be human while also having vampiric urges to kill for blood. This leads him to further question his morality and what it means to be good or evil. Faith and love really come into play, especially for Louis. He never liked Lestat, but he could not leave him. Then Claudia comes into their lives, and though Lestat turned her in order to keep Louis around Louis loves her in a complex way. This love, however, does not change the fact that her life has been irrevocably altered for the worst, since she becomes an adult individual who is trapped inside a child’s body. It is interesting that the vampires in the story all seem to seek the fulfilment that comes from human emotion, and when they can’t obtain it any longer they begin a slow descent into despair and, finally, death. Most of the vampires see themselves as superior to the human race as a whole, yet they all, in someway or another, chase the humanity that they have lost. Claudia doesn’t remember being human, but she seeks the social standing and respect of an adult, as well as the love of Louis and Madeline. Over time, as Louis forgets his human life he begins to be unemotional and unaffected by Armand and the things around him. We finally see that this opposition of vampiric nature versus human nature is very necessary for vampires to remain functioning. It is the balance of life and death essentially. These oppositions allow for Louis, Claudia, and Lestat in particular to be really interesting and complex characters. This novel could also be a statement about what it means to be human and why it is important to hold onto what makes you human. The balancing of emotions and morality, or perceived morality, make you who you are. This must be embraced fully. One loses that human spark when apathy takes over, just as it had begun to by the end of Louis’s recounting of his life to the boy interviewer. The novel ends with the interviewer chasing after Louis back to Louisiana, which could indicate that the cycle of opposition and chasing what you don’t have is beginning again.