Interview With the Vampire

Though routine by this point, Louis continues to torment himself with his existential questions. However, when he meets Armand, he is hopeful that he will have insights that Claudia and Lestat lack. Armand does not agree with Louis’s assessments of his guilt and evil nature. He proceeds to unravel Louis’s propositions with a series of logical maneuvers that may help him let go of his guilt. Louis views these arguments as a way for him to avoid taking responsibility. If Armand can prove that there is no god, then Louis does not have to live his life in obligation to—or defiance of—a greater being than himself. The collapse of Louis’s theology is useful, but painful.

Claudia’s troubles also continue as before but with new refinements. She now mourns the impossibility of a sexual life. When she commissions the doll with the woman’s figure, it is a reminder that she will always have a child’s body and will always look like a child to others. She will always love Louis, but this does not change the fact that he is responsible for her situation. Her attempts to furnish the hotel to her liking are poignant. She can buy anything she wants, but there is no level of affluence that will give her what she needs. This affects Louis because his happiness—or whatever passes for his happiness—is always worsened by the misery he inflicts on others. He is literally incapable of peace while Claudia is in a state of turmoil. Louis’s afterlife has been characterized by a lack of intent and purpose. Seeking joy for Claudia is now his primary goal.

To that end, he hopes their experience at the Theatre des Vampires will provide them with some optimism. Instead, it subverts the reader’s expectations. For once, the vampires are not the focus of evil. Instead, Rice portrays the audience as the bloodthirsty ones. They believe that the actress’s murder is staged, but this does not diminish the erotic thrill they experience. They want to see a murder that feels real enough to arouse them without ever having to confront the fact that they are returning to view real murders.

Though Louis has struggled with accepting his vampiric state and has resisted through his constant questioning of his moral, physical, and emotional place in the world, he makes his final transition into a vampire in these pages. When he changes Madeleine into a vampire, he cosigns on every death, murder, and loss she will cause over the course of her immortal life. Armand has destroyed his theological viewpoint. In the absence of belief, Louis is now free to override his former morals to be with Armand without abandoning Claudia to loneliness. However, it is worth noting that, even in this extreme act of agency, Louis is still passing his responsibility to someone else. He wants to replace himself with Madeleine, so she can fulfill her role as Claudia’s companion and student. Armand is powerful enough that Louis can consider him to be a god and consign his agency to him and his clan of vampires with its rules and philosophies: Louis can remain a follower without agency. Only this time, the vampire he follows is well-suited to him, unlike Lestat.

The incident with the artist provides an insight into Louis’s frantic search for a concrete identity. When the sketch is finished, Louis sees himself as observers see him. There is no denying the fact that he appears unnatural in the artist’s eyes. He finally embraces his identity as the monster Babette saw in him. When he turns Madeleine, he says goodbye to his past identity.

Though Madeleine will play only a small part in the story, she is a surrogate vessel of grief for the author. Just as Rice suffered with the death of her young daughter, a large part of Madeleine’s misery and desire to leave the mortal realm arises from her lost daughter. If she cannot be a mother, then she does not know what her identity is. Rice works this dynamic out through the characters of Madeleine and Claudia, and their eventual demise can be seen as either Rice admitting that there is no solution to her grief or her attempt at catharsis through Madeleine’s death alongside Claudia’s.

However, Madeleine also sees herself as a sexual being, and she equates sexuality with power and temptation. This is a potentially stinging reminder to Claudia that even her new companion has powers that will forever be denied to her. Claudia will never be a mother, and she will never be able to use her sexuality to influence others. This tension foreshadows the fleeting nature of her time with Madeleine.