Week Two: Interview with a Vampire

Interview with a Vampire, by Anne Rice, was a very interesting read, tackling interesting takes on morality and values in society.

In the beginning of the work we are introduced to this nameless vampire (who we later discover is named Louis) who is being interviewed by this boy who is very much interested in the life of vampires and how he came to be one. Louis, however, is quite an interesting character, and his own set of values and morals get more and more prominent as he continues to tell his story, as well as his own set of doubts as well.

Louis is a ball of conflict, full os questions and doubts about his current physical state — much like a human — and frequently going against the idea of being cut off from his mortality and humanity — a point in which is very much present in many works that tell the stories about vampires.

Interesting enough, I had never noticed until now how vampires might be an element created to explore moral and social values of our lives. Before, just like many others including the interviewer, I always thought of vampires as beautiful, immortal beings with incredible power, capable of seducing and winning anything and everything they ever wished for. I also romanticized the sense of immortality, and thought that perhaps life would be wonderful if one could live forever with their loved ones...However, Louis proves it wrong, and instead, show us how much deeper and sadder vampires actually are by showing us a whole new side of them.

Although immortal and powerful, Louis does not feel happy. He frequently fights the idea of his true "form", battling against the evil both inside him and casted upon him by others. His values for what is right and wrong are strong, so much so he fights against his vampiric natural urge to kill and suck blood, even though such provides him with pleasure and fulfillment.

Another interesting aspect is how Louis is often questioning his creator and his own purpose, just like humans in their religions and beliefs. Rather than living among vampires, he resorts to try to live peacefully among humans by his own standards, completely letting go of ties with his companions and living a life of solitude, but still holding on tight to his own values. Even by the very end, void of all emotion and hope, he tries one last time to do some good by sharing his story with the said interviewer, in hopes he too will break away from the romanticized aspect of his vampiric life-style, but is met with failure once again.

In this reading, Anne Rice battles this idea of immortality by showcasing various characters that see such in different lights. To some, such like Louis, Immortality is a curse he wish he had never ended up receiving, an eternal hell of memories of past mistakes and wrong doings. Rice, however, still allows the reader to create their own set of values based off of the events in the novel, by allowing us to see such in the eyes of other vampires as well.

Still the work tackles important arguments of values in our society. An example of that is the idea that grand and excessiveness, on any sense, might be a blessing at first but can soon turn out to be a curse, and that although being warned about it, people often will disregard the notes that go against their own beliefs and still pursue such desires, even if that might make them lose more than they could gain.