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Study Guide
Interview with the Vampire Lust
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Lust
"As we beat the body, bruising the face and the shoulders, I became more and more aroused." (1.85)
This line is one of the first glimpses at the strange relationship between sex and violence that will develop throughout the book. The weird thing about this one is that this comes before Louis is turned into a vampire. Maybe being a vampire is a good fit for him, after all.
"[Lestat] lay down beside me now on the steps, his movement so forceful and so personal that at once it made me think of a lover." (1.90)
The relationship between a new vampire and his maker is very intimate, you know, with the exchanging of bodily fluids and all. You don't need us to analyze that for you.
"The movement of his lips raised the hair all over my body, sent a shock of sensation through my body that was not unlike the pleasure of passion." (1.94)
Turn down the heat, Anne! We just can't take any more. The way Louis talks about it, it seems as though Lestat is kissing Louis's neck before he bites him. There's a tiny amount of tenderness taking place right before what is ultimately murder.
"The sucking mesmerized me." (1.148)
Ah, here we go, talking about sucking again. Making a vampire requires sucking by both parties. The vampire sucks the blood from his victim, and then the victim, well, reciprocates. But the victim is also forced into it. If the victim does not suck, he will die. Is vampire-making consensual? Sort of? Not really?
"A young man around your age would have appealed to [Lestat] in particular. [...] They represented the greatest loss to Lestat, because they stood on the threshold of the maximum possibility of life." (1.175, 1.177)
Lestat lusts after young men not just for their looks, but also for the joy of extinguishing their promising lives. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.
"I remembered the powerful beating of [Claudia's] heart against mine and I hungered for it, hungered for it so badly." (1.390)
Louis caves into his vampire nature and experiences an almost sexual passion for blood. The fact that it's the blood of a five-year-old girl makes it extra creepy.
"'I kill humans every night. I seduce them, draw them close to me, with an insatiable hunger, a constant never-ending search for something...something, I don't know what it is.'" (1.534)
Just because she's trapped in a child's body doesn't mean that Claudia is exempt from the sexual urges a vampire feels for killing humans. Her body might be young, but her brain and her desires are those of an adult. The trouble is that because of her body, she's mostly unable to act on them.
"I moved to get away from [Armand], and yet I was drawn to him. [...] All I saw was his radiant face, as I had never seen Lestat's face." (3.115)
Louis doesn't just have a lust for sex and blood, he also lusts for knowledge, for answers, and for beauty. Jeopardy! would be a huge turn on for him.
"He was offering [himself] to me. He was pressing the length of his body against me now, and I felt the hard strength of his sex beneath his clothes pressing against my leg." (3.119)
Well, well: now we know where Charlaine Harris got the idea for a group of people who enjoy having sex with vampires while being bitten. She calls them "fangbangers."
"'Beware.' Yet I let him slip his bold, drunken arm around my waist." (3.294)
This encounter between Louis and a drunk man on the street almost reads like an illicit hook-up... until Louis drinks the dude's blood, killing him. That's a little too kinky.