The Vampire Chronicles Article: Lestat and Louis: A Relationship

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posted by Myf_1992

Lestat and Louis: A Relationship

Reasons for writing this article;
1) I'm bored.
2) I'm really bored.
3) I have nothing else to write.
4) I miss my English lessons.

So I'm gonna try and analyse this relationship. Find out what they feel for each other, and more importantly I feel, why they feel it. This is mostly based on the book Interview with the Vampire.

Now most people describe this relationship as a love-hate relationship, and it certainly is. But first lets look at why they love each other. Their love is a friendship, like flat-mates or partners in business.

Lestat loves Louis because he's kind and loving and gentle, but mostly because he's beautiful, and Lestat loves beautiful people, he is a vain son of a bitch. Louis amuses Lestat with his condemns "you are a perfect devil". And he's company, Lestat needed company, he hates to be alone, and thinking about it, Lestat is never alone for very long. And as Louis says, Lestat loves luxurious things, and so I think Lestat may have used Louis for his money as well.

Louis loves Lestat, he is drawn to him for authority. Louis is not a decisive person, and would (and does) if he could just lay around his house in his own despair . Lestat gives him instructions and tells him where to go, and Louis needs this. Think about, he goes from Lestat to Claudia to Armand, and all of these have a strong will, and gave Louis instruction and a purpose. And after that when he was on his own, all he did was wallow in his own sorrow.
Quite obviously, Lestat is charismatic and this also drew Louis to him. And he pulled Louis out of his morning for his brother, and his guilt. Lestat was always good to Louis, although they argued and he mocked Louis, he never left Louis, he never abandoned him, and Lestat always held a special place for Louis in his heart.

Now the hate, and there is a lot of hate, especially from Louis side.

Lestat hates Louis as he kept threatening to leave, and he held the money away from Lestat. And that was one thing that Lestat desired power over. Louis thinks Lestat is evil, and fins his cruel, and I think this hurts Lestat.

Louis hates Lestat because he with holds information from him, which ties Louis to Lestat. And as we all know knowledge is power, and Louis thought Lestat was purposefully not telling him about what he is because he wanted to have power of Louis and to hold Louis to him. But in truth Lestat had made a promise to Marius, not to tell all. Louis also hates that Lestat is cruel and frank on one occasion Lestat played with his food, and all Louis could feel was compassion to these woman, he felt bad and begged Lestat to leave them go or finish it quickly, what Louis didn't know, and didn't ask I might add, was that these woman were evil doers, not just any innocent women. Lestat often has a go at Louis for not embracing what they are, vampires, and I believe that Louis condemning Lestat and refusing to drink human blood irritated Lestat. Lestat even says at one point, that evil-doers taste better.

And then there's the final but key part to their relationship, the making of Claudia. Louis speculates that Lestat did it to keep Louis around, as before hand Louis was threatening to leave, and was seriously considering it. And I believe this theory makes sense, Louis needed company other than Lestat, he needed a focus, a daughter and that is what Claudia was for him.
Lestat claims that he did it " to see what would happen", and he is an impulsive and curious creature and so this also is plausible. Most importantly I believe the making of Claudia made them into a family, and a third party distracted them from each other and the obvious tension that was there when it was just the two of them.

We must also understand that Armand played his part in this relationship, he manipulated them for his own purposes. Armand tells Louis everything he wants to know, and Louis calls him the mentor he never had. When Armand does say that he knew Lestat, he also tells Louis that he doesn't think he is a person that should be morned, i.e. he's a horrible person. He also makes it look to Louis that Lestat ordered the death of Claudia. When in actual fact Armand made it happen, he believed to be able to have Louis to himself he must get rid of Claudia, but in killing Claudia he killed the spark of light in Louis which he fell in love with.
Louis went to Paris in search for his beloved Louis (I think I really can't remember why he went to Paris, he may have gone to Paris to ask Armand for blood to help him recover) and was tricked by Armand into accusing Claudia and there for sentencing her to her death.

So yer that is how I see the relationship, as a friendship based on both love and hate, and misunderstanding and trickery. But they are undeniable close, and later on in the relationship you see their love for each other. Louis even cleans and dresses in fresh clothes to visit Lestat (which is a big deal for him).

chameron4eva and bendaimmortal like this

DarkCountess I agree with the main points, but I believe the main reason Lestat turns Louis is because Louis reminded of him Nicki and Lestat never stops blaming himself for what happened to Nicki. Also, Lestat is very lonely. He is someone who grew up alone. He didn't get along with his brothers and his father because they abused him, he felt like he didn't belong, and his mother, while she did care about him, could not really express it (remember that Lestat states that she rarely hugged him and had never even thought to teach him to read and write, even though she was very literate). He did not have any friends before he met Nicki. So here is someone who grew up feeling all alone. So I believe that later, he developed that feeling of loneliness, and wanted Louis to be his friend both because he was lonely and because Louis reminded him of Nicki, therefore Lestat was trying to re-create part of what he'd had with Nicki. Of course, like most things, this doesn't work. It's also the same with Lestat's liking of luxury. Lestat grew up quite poor. His family had squandered all their wealth. He lived with the bare necessities. He even remarked that what few clothes he did have were the kind of clothes that people wore in the Middle Ages, and later after he went to Paris, he was very excited when Nicki let him borrow some of his fancy clothes. So Lestat's love of luxurious things definitely comes from being deprived of those sort of things growing up, and always wishing for what he didn't have. It makes sense that he wanted to lavish and pamper himself after he obtained so much money. Sorry for the digression, but I just felt that had to be explained. Anyway, he is obviously hurt by Louis, like you said. I think he expected Louis to understand him, and of course Louis didn't, because he did not want to. It certainly pained Lestat very much that Louis thought of him as an uncaring and evil. Lestat is someone who not only cares and feels, he's always felt and cared too much. So Louis' complete misunderstanding of him hurt Lestat very much. This brings up a point that no one seems to notice. Remember the young musician whom Lestat turns into a vampire? I believe after all those years of Lestat living with Louis and having Louis just hate him more and more, Lestat went looking for someone else to be his companion. So he turns this young musician, and notice this young man he turns is not just anyone, but someone who is a good musician. Again, Lestat is trying to find someone that reminds him of Nicki. So Lestat does not just pick a companion because they are beautiful, it goes much deeper than that. And of course, this doesn't work again, which is the main theme here, that Lestat cannot go back, and therefore can never have what he had with Nicki. As for Claudia and why Lestat never left Louis. It is obvious he never would, because he loved Louis and he kept hoping Louis would return those feelings. Even though Louis hurt his feelings, Lestat was lonely and could not just find anyone to be his companion. He goes to Paris to look for Louis and bring him back to him. This of course, only causes an even wider rift between him and Louis, because of what happens to Claudia, but Lestat is pleading with Louis to come back to him, and Louis will hear none of it. Louis even makes a remark about how he saw in front him someone that "this creature" appeared different from the "uncaring" villain he'd seen before. Once again, Louis is given another big clue about Lestat's deeper character, but refuses to care or want to know more. He quickly dismisses it as being a trivial change in the actions of the villain he'd always "known". Yet another example of Louis not wanting to see past Lestat's facade, that even when he is peering behind Lestat's facade, as Lestat has bared his soul and is crying and pleading with him to return he still dismisses it. And of course the treacherous Arman has something to do with this as well, as he reinforces in Louis' mind that Lestat is a terrible person (something that deep down, Louis knows isn't true, but does not want to consider). And by making it look like Lestat is responsible for Claudia's death, it's the final straw for Louis. So yes, Armand's deceit has to do with it as well. He did indeed manipulate both of them for his own gain, and therefore further divided them, and this of course ends up devastating Lestat, as he would remain apart from Louis for many years.

Myf_1992 Holy Cow! I don't even remember writing this lol. Shows how good my memory is. Thanks for your input again :)

DarkCountess In thinking about Lestat's story, it is very important to realize that Nicki is the basis for so much. It is his relationship with Lestat that shapes so much of how Lestat behaves later and so much of how he approaches things and why what happened with went down the way it did. Lestat trying to re-create a piece of what he had with Nicolas. That's a recurring theme with Lestat, him trying to re-create pieces of things he will never have again. Louis of course, did not know Lestat's backstory at the time, so he did not and could not read deeper into Lestat's character. All those years of misunderstanding culminated in them finally drifting apart, and opened the door for Armand to work his deception on a vulnerable and resentful Louis, so that he could claim him for a companion himself and give himself a relief from his loneliness. This is why I love these stories! There is so much intricacy, so much complexity to great literature, both to the characters and the issues/struggles they face and to the storyline itself and how it fits so wonderfully together.

Jaredstone See I read The Vampire Lestat and Lestat explains that Louis was a better companion then anyone he ever had and that he loved Louis not because of his money but because he fell madly in love with Louis. Yes Niki was his first love but he killed himself and he left Lestat and he certainly didn't need that Louis was filling a void and he loved Louis and Claudia very very much that's what I have to say about it.