Summary Of Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire

Since the beginning of time vampires have been categorized into different "types” and are portrayed in different ways throughout several books. This paper will focus on three vampires from the following books: Dracula by Bram Stoker, and I am Legend by Richard Matheson. Dracula is considered to be the traditional vampire, where it all started, and the vampires in Matheson’s book, follow somewhat Stoker’s concept, but is more of a modern “type” of vampires. Certain vampire elements have been presented, but others have been completely removed or altered. In addition, elements along with appearances are used to infer if the vampire is a form of “the other”. There are two types of vampires; the traditional or modern vampire which can be distinguished based on the elements present in their storyline.

Humans for centuries have been drawn to vampires. From sitting around the fire in the time before the industrial revolution, to sitting around the table and in modern times watching it on the big screen. The folk tales of the undead that hunt at night, sucking the blood of the innocent has haunted and intrigued the human psyche for as long folklore has been in existence. Being afraid of what is being told to them, yet being unable to pull away. The pull and push affect that these mystical monsters have on the human aura is undeniable. Modern day vampires have a cult like following. When the Twilight series came out, the people where divided between team Jacob and team Edward. Teenage girls would swoon over these monsters, dangerous yet alluring.

Vampires have been around for centuries, they represent the fear of many things such as sexuality, race, gender, etc. and above all, they stand for the fear of diseases. Vampires have once been the symbol of horror due to their terrific depictions and were described as a threat to the humanity. Throughout time, the image of vampire has changed dramatically from a monstrous, inhumanely creature that doesn’t belong to human society to such an attractive and adaptive figure that expresses more of the human side than the evil. They developed human feelings, senses, and live within our society. Modern vampire movies are often more romantic and “sympathetic” comparing to the past. Vampires have abandoned their horror and evolved to a more

“Sometimes the really scary bloodsuckers are entirely human” (Foster 18). In How To Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster argues that vampires in literature are not always actual vampires, but can be figurative as well: “Using other people to get what we want. Placing our desires above the needs of others...as long as people act toward their fellows in exploitative and selfish ways, the vampire will be” (Foster 22). In essence, Foster illustrates that the act of using others to attain one’s personal goal is analogous to a vampire sucking the blood out of it’s victim. Foer’s protagonist in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar, also shows these vampiric tendencies in his goal of learning about his father’s key. “‘Actually, I’m diabetic

Louis would make the nobles do many embarrassing things, such as dress him, and even take out his chamber pot after going to the bathroom. Nobles would also be honored to see the king wake up in the morning, and watch him eat, things that had never been seen done by nobles for any other leader in history. By making the nobles do things like this, it made them feel less highly about themselves, less powerful, and less likely to try to overthrow him.

In addition, his love was so weak that it could not stand strong in the battle of love and hate. Armand’s self-pride and racial separation are more significant than his

Anne Rice writes the chilling novel, Interview with the Vampire, which tells the story of two distinct vampire characters. Throughout the novel Rice makes the reader question their own philosophical views by pairing two characters that are the parallel opposites of each other. Louis has a Conventional Catholic Morality which incorporates traditional views into a belief system and Lestat has a Aesthetic/ Practical Belief System which includes less traditional views and is influenced by the time period. Throughout the novel there are many comparisons between both philosophical view points. Louis believes that some actions are desirable and others are undesirable by means of classifying them in the categories of good or evil.

The generalization for vampires has been displayed in films and literature for hundreds of years. The stereotypical versions of vampires are that they have long fangs, sleep in coffins during the day, and suck the blood out of humans. Both novels contradict those stereotypes in different ways. To understand the diversity of the vampires described in both novels, one must examine the characteristics that the vampires display and the meaning and purpose behind them. David D. Gilmore’s book “Monsters” analyzes monsters and other mythical creatures. Gilmore describes why humanity invented the idea of

Some people think that King Louis XIV did more harm to France than good. They cite his lack of moderation in managing his money. They also point out that Louis denied religious liberties to the Protestants of France and tightened control over his Roman Catholic subjects by revoking the Edict of Nantes. They also claim Louis’ war efforts were very costly and drained the treasury of France. Some say his arrogance, including his emblem of the “Sun King”, turned “his” people away from him. They think that Louis only cared about himself and what he wanted and didn’t think about future France.

In other words, reign and glory does not last forever. “Seas would rise when I gave the word. Now in the morning I sleep alone…” (Coldplay 2-3). While he was king, King Louis XIV felt like he had control over everything, but now he does not. The songwriters used a hyperbole to exaggerate the king's authority over his people. While he couldn’t actually make seas rise it adds to the effect of how he had all he wanted, and now he does not. Some people might not even know who King Louis XIV was or what he did, and that is because it does not last forever. Old kings are replaced and we adapt and change. “Who like Satan, believed himself for an instant to be equal to God…” (Dumas 530). While the Count manipulates his enemies, he believes he is justified in his actions against them and goes so far to think he is doing the works of God. By the end of the novel he realizes that he has done too many wrongs, and is not godly. He thought he had control over world, and more than that he felt like he had the power of God, but in reality he did not. Alexandre Dumas uses a simile to describe how Dantes feels about himself after his reign is over. He realizes that while he did have the domination he did not use it all for good, and it meant nothing in the end. It went all went

Louis’ sense of humanity is present throughout the story. His choice to refrain from killing human and the care he shows for Babette and Claudia are just a few examples. It separates him from the rest of the vampires. Many of the others find it as a weakness, however a few commend him for

As one of the most attractive and enduring figures in the Gothic literature, the vampires have moved from being a peripheral element with the genre to a place near the center and are capable of generating its own massive tradition now. In the recent literary history, they have already been adapted to play a role of a rebel against the moral, social, religious, and even sexual taboos. Put simply, the vampires are now a metaphor of human beings in the modern society and life.

In the novel Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice seems to portray Lestat as a stereotypical vampire, but what most readers do not see is that Lestat is more attached to his human mortality than he appears. Anne Rice shows us this when Louis describes Lestat’s view on life as a vampire. Instead of having a reverence for mortality like Louis does, Lestat has "revenge against life itself" (Rice 46). His vendetta against life seems to show the reader how genuinely detached Lestat is from his own human mortality, making him appear more like the stereotypical vampire. He was "consumed with hatred...envy, [and] nothing pleased him unless he hurt others" (Rice 46). This proves to the reader how Lestat resembles the same thought process of a clichéd vampire because in movies the vampire always has some motive, just like Lestat. He

I have enjoyed many vampire movies over the years, long before they became the popular pop-culture genre they have become due to the success of The Twilight Saga films. One movie I have enjoyed viewing many times since its debut in 1994 is Interview with the Vampire. This film is an adaptation of the book Interview with the Vampire written by Anne Rice in 1973 and published in 1976. The movie was directed by Neil Jordan who also co-wrote the script with Anne Rice.

An important part of the novel is Louis’ refusal to kill human to satiate his blood thirst. Giving in to his blood thirst is the equivalent of becoming like the stereotypical vampire. At one point in the novel the vampires Louis and Claudia journey to Eastern Europe on a quest to find others like themselves. Elegant, intelligent, and beautiful, Louis and Claudia are shocked to find that the fabled vampires of Romania are little more than zombies, rotten half-eaten corpses who suffer the fate of being animated. "I had met the European vampire, the creature of the Old World," Louis pronounces as he kills the last of these. "He was dead." (Pg. 322). The previous passage is literally a comparison of monsters.