Louis de Pointe du Lac
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Louis de Pointe du Lac | |
---|---|
Claudia (adoptive daughter) | |
Religion | Catholic (as a human) |
Nationality | American (Louisiana Creole) French (born in France and emigrated to America) |
Louis de Pointe du Lac is a fictional character in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. He begins his life as a mortal man and later becomes a vampire. He is the protagonist who tells his story in Interview with the Vampire (1976, the first book of The Vampire Chronicles). He also features in The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, The Vampire Armand, Merrick, Prince Lestat, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis and Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat
Mortal
Louis de Pointe du Lac is born in
Vampire
During an incident in a tavern, Louis catches the eye of the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. Lestat appears to Louis as an angel and offers him an alternative to his desperate, meaningless life. Lestat, upon seeing for the first time Louis's "fine black hair" and deep green eyes, and sensing his passion, is seduced not only by Louis's beauty, but also by his tragedy and human heart; "He seduced the tenderness in me." Lestat makes Louis into a vampire at the age of 25, his immortal companion in 1791, and lives with Louis for nearly 70 years.
However, Lestat is damaged from his experiences in France and the Old World. He is not as gentle a tutor or as much of a friend as Louis would like, one of the central themes in Interview with the Vampire. An example of this is an anguished comment recalled by Louis in his memoir, where he muses: "I was thinking how sublime friendship between Lestat and me might have been; how few impediments to it there would have been, and how much to be shared."
While Louis and Lestat are often at odds with one another, they eventually form an uneasy truce, with Lestat coming to regard Louis as a kind of soulmate, albeit one who resists his "teachings" on killing and living life as a vampire.
Interview with the Vampire details an ersatz familial relationship between Louis, Lestat and a third vampire,
Louis accepts his "family", taking the "maternal" role with Claudia and finding contentment in their townhouse at Rue Royale. Claudia, however, matures psychologically but remains in her child form. After decades of being trapped in the form of a small child, she comes to hate both of her "parents" for giving her immortality. She rebels against Lestat, poisoning him and setting their home ablaze with Lestat inside in 1860. She escapes with Louis to eastern Europe to look for other vampires. After years of searching and becoming disillusioned, they travel to Paris.
In Paris, they find fifteen vampires who have disguised themselves as human actors pretending to be vampires at the
Louis burns down the Théâtre, killing the vampires there as revenge for Claudia's death and drifts through the world with the Theatre's former leader, Armand, whom he had fallen in love with. They separate in the late 1980s in New Orleans.
In the early 1920s, Louis claims to have discovered Lestat in New Orleans, lost in a
Louis and Lestat are reunited at the end of the novel
Louis is one of the only vampires to refuse the powerful blood offered by Maharet and Lestat, preferring to gain strength with age. However at the end of
In
Fledglings
- Madeleine
- Merrick Marie Louise Mayfair
Appearances in other media
In Neil Jordan's 1994 film adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, Louis is portrayed by Brad Pitt.
Louis appeared as the character in the short-lived
Jacob Anderson portrays Louis in the 2022 television series by AMC.[2]
References
- ^ "Jim Stanek to Play Louis in Broadway-Bound Lestat Musical " Cara Jo, June 28, 2005
- ^ Petski, Denise (August 25, 2021). "'Interview With The Vampire': Jacob Anderson To Play Louis In AMC Series Based On Ann Rice's Book". Deadline Hollywood.
External links
- Rice, Anne. Interview with the Vampire. Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. ISBN 0-394-49821-6
- Lestat: The Musical at the Internet Broadway Database
- Official website of Anne Rice