45 pages 1 hour read

Anne Rice

Interview With the Vampire

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1976

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Themes

The Value of Life and Humanity

While he is a mortal, Louis does not value his own life. He says that he moved through life as if he wanted to die but lacked the courage to take his life. He did not believe his life was worth living, which he proves when he submits to Lestat. When Louis says, “I never laugh at death” (16), he speaks with reverence for life itself. The prospect of eternity allows him to cherish the precious nature of each moment of finite lives.

At times, Louis believes becoming a vampire automatically made him evil. However, his vampire instincts are not so different than that of any other predator. This raises the moral question of whether instincts are evil or does evil have to be the result of a choice. In either case, Louis’s self-loathing lends the novel to several styles of critical reading.

The vampires appreciate aesthetics, and while they may look down on humans as their inferiors, they still cling to pieces of human culture and beauty. Vampires did not create the art forms that adorn the catacombs or that appear on the stage in the Theatre des Vampires. Vampires are not responsible for the music blurred text
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