Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice

Interview with a Vampire, by Anne Rice, was an interesting read when comparing it to more modern day vampire stories such as Twilight, Buffy or True Blood. During Part one, it’s explained how a vampire is created and how a vampire lives its life. Before reading this book, I was expecting all the same vampire tropes, such as, vampires can’t go in sunlight, they cannot touch crosses or how a stake through a vampire’s heart will kill them. In this story vampires are fine in light; they can touch crosses and a stake through the heart will not kill them.

            This is a very interesting story and has a lot to do with death and how one another depend on each other. In part one Louis’s brother dies driving Louis to turn into an alcoholic and something that encourages him to leave and isolate himself. Louis is then turned into a vampire, which obviously means he is now immortal. Louis now has to live forever with the blame of his brother’s death. Later on, in the story Louis and Lestat turn a child, Claudia into a vampire. Louis for some reason still feels human feelings and realizes that he has to take care of Claudia now that her mother died. Typically, vampires are created to be with their partner who is a vampire or is turned into a vampire against their own will. Either way the new vampire needs to learn to live with their new lives in a human world. Therefore, they are always depending on each other. Which, is seen many times in modern day vampire stories, in Twilight, Bella is turned to be with her partner, in True Blood, Bill is forced to change Jessica leaving Jessica to learn from Bill who almost turns into a father figure for her, similar to Louis and Claudia.

Frankenstein Response

I have studied this story many times, in High School, in my first College and now here. However, every time I read/study Frankenstein, my favorite section of this story never changes. The most memorable section of this story for me begins on chapter 10 and ends in the middle of chapter 16. This section is basically showing how society works and also shows the difficulties in life that the monster has to deal with. When it comes to the story of, Frankenstein, there is always a debate on if the monster is actually bad or is it Victors fault for how the monster is; nature vs. nurture. In my opinion I feel sympathy for the monster. He was created, he had never asked to be created and the exact moment he comes alive, his maker runs from him. His maker never taught him anything and Victor was so horrified of the monster, yet he was the one who collected corpse parts to make him. From Chapter 10 to 16, the monster is watching a family and learning from them. He wants to be normal, he wants to speak, he wants to be able to live in society. So, when the monster finally confronts the blind man, De Lacey, he’s able to have a meaningful discussion with him until the rest of his family comes home. Of course, they chase the monster out and are horrified, including De Lacey.

            The monster could have killed all of them, but he loved them too much, even referred to them as his protectors. The old man had no idea what the monster looked like and I do agree that yes, being confronted by what sounds like a stalker is frightening. But at the same time before it was announced that he had been watching them, the monster confided in De Lacey in which De Lacey tells him, “if these friends are good and amiable, do not despair” (Shelley, 247). Yet, De Lacey and his family chase him away when the truth is revealed.

            This section is memorable to me and one of my favorite parts because, even though this story is fiction it kind of relates to society today. Racism still exists and during the time this story was written, racism was in its prime. This section I think upsets a lot of readers, the monster isn’t what everyone assumes he is when they first see him. He learned from these people and wanted to be “normal” to live within society. But because he didn’t look like a normal human being, people banned him. De Lacey was blind; he didn’t hate the monster when he opened his front door and didn’t hate the monster when he was speaking. This section is also the turning point of this story; this section is what changes the characters.  

            There’s a reason why Frankenstein is so famous after all these years, because anyone who reads this story can take something away from it. I think I related to this story more when I was a teenager and now I just appreciate the story and Mary Shelley more.     

First Post

First post of the semester!