Finding meaning behind immortality of Anne Rice’s vampires.

Abstract

The investigation of the myth – or more appropriately, mistaken notion – that mmortality brings happiness and peace that one seeks for, through the exploration of the first three novels in Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, namely Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned. Immortality plays a central role in the continuous inquiry into the vampires’ nature and existence throughout the span of many centuries. These novels follow the psychological and emotional experiences of vampiric immortality, firstly, via two first-person accounts of two separate vampires, Louis and Lestat, and later trace Rice’s interpretation of vampiric urban legend through the stories of various vampires of different walks of life. The persistent question of immortality highlights humanity’s unwavering spirit to survive despite the ambiguous relationships between self and question of morality; the physical and psychological tensions between guilt and redemption; and the tug-of-war between desires for isolation and self-destruction. This paper investigates the alluring appeal of immortality through the exploration of humans’ instinctive anxieties against death; it shows how experience in life shapes an individual’s personality and character which in turn is fossilized and magnified during his or her immortal existence; and finally illustrates how the very nature of being trapped in a state of arrested development renders the disenchanted vampire’s perspective of immortality as one that is more limiting rather than liberating.