Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rise

Interview with the Vampire is a fast-paced gothic story and uses interesting language that pulls in the reader. Gothic novels often start off with a tragedy, which this novel stays true to, beginning with the death of Luis’ brother. His death greatly affected Luis and made him depressed and feel guilty. After Luis becomes a vampire, a lot of death occurs at his, Claudia’s and Lestat’s hands.

Much of the language is very sexual, though it has nothing to do with sex. At one point, Luis says “the kill is better than sex” and whenever Luis kills someone and drinks their blood, he describes it very sensually and romantically, blurring the line between sex and killing. Dinking blood also makes him trip out and causes his mind to dull and sometimes hallucinate, like a drug.

Claudia is a very interesting character; she is a woman trapped in a child’s body. She is young and frozen in time, and as the years progress and her mind grows older, she begins to loathe her childish form. The fascinating thing about this is, though, the fact that because her body is a child’s body, the way she thinks is not quite as a woman. She does not have sexual impulses; she has a certain innocence.  Some background information: before Anne Rise wrote this book, her young daughter died, so she put that emotion into Claudia’s character. Her daughter died and was never able to grow old; Claudia “died” and turned into a vampire at a young age and was also never to grow into an adult body, which she hates Luis and Lestat for. She is able to forgive Luis when he turns Madeleine. Madeleine is able to craft and acquire small versions of women’s objects like low-cut dresses, gloves, and girl-sized furniture to make her feel more comfortable. This is short lived though because- spoilers!