Lestat de Lioncourt (The Vampire Chronicles)
Lestat de Lioncourt is the protagonist of The Vampire Chronicles, but this was not always the case.
When Interview with the Vampire (1976) was published, he was the antagonist, but his character, so charismatic and mysterious, convinced Anne Rice to write his version of the story as well, The Vampire Lestat (1985), and from that moment on he became the undisputed protagonist and symbol of the entire saga.
Talking about Lestat is no easy task. His story is a kaleidoscope of colours, emotions and events. Lestat has many adventures and suffers many tragedies, but despite everything, these never bring him down. On the one hand, he seems never to learn anything, right up to the end, he has to face the consequences of his ill-considered and self-centred actions, yet one could still say that he always lands on his feet.
Failure is not an option, even when one thinks it is.
His life doesn't begin so well: the youngest child, a black sheep, so much like his mother, but with the chance to try little escapes that are short-lived.
A human love full of affection, ruined by the world of darkness.
Death at the hands of a daughter.
But despite everything, Lestat has always looked at the world through the eyes of a child and behaves like one. He is curious, thirsty for knowledge, he knows that, as a vampire, he truly has the world at his feet, not as a predator, but as someone who really does have all the time in the world to discover everything there is to discover.
His greatest weakness is his fear of being abandoned, because he has learnt that sooner or later everyone leaves: Nicolas turned his back on him and chose death, Gabrielle went her own way, and Marius was forced to send him away.
But this realisation, unfortunately, does not help him with Louis and Claudia, on the contrary, it is the main reason why they turn against him, having been deeply hurt by his evasive behaviour and the many secrets he has kept hidden.
His actions do not go unpunished. There’s always a downside, which affects him but impacts those around him even more, and each time he doesn’t seem to have learnt his lesson. Something new comes along and he starts all over again: new discoveries, new adventures, new consequences, and someone ends up paying the price. And so it goes on until the end, when Armand finally tries to give him a wake-up call, fed up with how Lestat’s choices end up affecting them all.
Lestat, however, is hard to ignore, nobody can do it, either in the books or in real life.
Perhaps it is precisely this trait of his, being like a cockroach, which, the more you try to smash it, the more it just carries on hopping about cheerfully, that makes you shrug, shake your head and say: ‘Oh well, he makes me laugh.’
At a certain point, you become desensitised and just go with the flow, without even being surprised anymore. Does he want to become a saint? What’s the big deal? The day before, he was claiming to be the devil incarnate. Who knows what he’ll say the next day?
Lestat is the exact opposite of Louis, who had been portrayed in Interview with the Vampire as a ‘tragic hero’, a human voice disguised as a vampire, much more in line with the archetype of the romantic hero.
Lestat is the ideal hero: he grows stronger and stronger, he is loved by everyone even when he is hated, he embraces his nature and always bounces back after moments of discouragement. He always finds the bright side. Despite the minor tragedies he experiences, Lestat is neither tragic nor romantic, he is an positivist.
Yes this is much shorter than Armand, beacause if I used the same structure I think I was still writing. Fortunately Lestat does always the same stuff in his own way and it's easy to summery lol
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