Читать книгу Morality and the Construction of Religion in Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" - Christina Beyer - Страница 6

Rice creates own rules for her vampires. Ignoring moral obligations of a human society, it becomes more relevant for their (after-)life to follow the rules of their own community. Still, these “vampire rules“ have moral value, too. In this chapter, the focus will lie on Lestat, as Louis is not familiar with these rules and does therefore not get a chance to draw any conclusions.

In order to be able to analyze these rules, first of all, the basic ideas with which Lestat is confronted when meeting the vampire coven in Paris will be outlined. There are five rules which all vampires must obey. 1) Only the leader of a coven is allowed to make decisions upon the recreation of other vampires. 2) It is forbidden to make vampires out of disabled people or children. 3) Old vampires shall not create new ones because they are too strong. Therefore, the new fledgling might become a dangerous threat, due to the gain of powers he cannot yet handle. 4) Murder among vampires is forbidden. Only the coven master may decide upon executions. These decisions are relevant for old and mad ones and “vampires who are not properly made“. Furthermore, breaking the law will also be punished with death. 5) It is forbidden to tell mortals about the vampire’s existence. That is also valid for written works. (The Vampire Chronicles Collection 739-740)

It does not come as a surprise that Lestat breaks every single one of these rules before he even gets to know them. He says about his crimes: “Well, it gave me a wondrous satisfaction to do it. And after all, I had never been very good at obeying rules.“ (Lestat 762) Lestat’s unwillingness to live according to rules can be explained by two reasons. First, he, having been made by an old vampire, knows things about past times which nobody else has even an idea of. Therefore, without ever having lived in another century, Lestat knows that moral values change over time and are nothing fixed that can count for either true or false: “You must know that the forms of goodness change with the ages, that there are saints for all times under heaven.“ (The Vampire Chronicles Collection 650)

Secondly, the time in which he is born is full of changes in society, as will be arguea later on by giving an outlook on the French Enlightenment, a period in which philosophy gained importance and morality was regarded as a matter separated from Christianity. Lestat even explains his point of view by saying:

“And so it is with evil, obviously. It changes its form. How many men in this age believe in the crosses that frighten your followers? Do you think mortals above are speaking to each other of heaven and hell? Philosophy is what they talk about, and science! What does it matter to them if white-faced haunts prowl a churchyard after dark? A few more murders in a wilderness of murders? How can this be of interest to God or the devil or to man?“ (The Vampire Chronicles Collection 650)

These two factors of inheriting Magnus’ knowledge as a legacy and being a child of the 18th century serve as an explanation for Lestat’s extraordinary ideology concerning rules and his inability to adjust to them. Additionally to that, his rebellious character sets him apart from the law-abiding rest of the coven. Noll points out that Lestat serves as a vehicle to reveal the nonsensical nature of some moral values that are taken for granted by most.

“Rice’s vampires – and in particular Lestat, who demonstrates the falsehood of the rigid social and moral codes of the Parisian coven of vampires in The Vampire Lestat – are a law unto themselves and, like so many today, twist and bend their boundaries of sanity and morality to adapt to raw life. To Anne Rice’s readers – that is, to us – Lestat offers the amoral, polymorphously perverse, bond-breaking path of pure genius as the way of eternal life.“ (Anne Rice Reader, Noll 149)

Therefore, limitations of his vampire strengths for the sake of rules cannot be accepted by him and he asks: “Why in the name of hell, (...) did the devil give you beauty, agility, eyes to see visions, minds to cast spells?“ (The Vampire Chronicles Collection 643) It is unacceptable for Lestat to restrict himself to something so evanescent as morality appears to be in his eyes. Moreover, he cannot accept having to hide. He expresses his thoughts to Armand:

““Think of it, Armand, (...) Why should Death lurk in the shadows? Why should Death wait at the gate? There is no bedchamber, no ballroom that I cannot enter. Death in the glow of the hearth, Death on tiptoe in the corridor, that is what I am. Speak to me of the Dark gifts – I use them. I’m Gentleman Death in silk and lace, come to put out the candles. The canker in the heart of the rose.“ (The Vampire Chronicles Collection 652)

This pragmatic way of thinking may come across as cold-blooded or emotionless, but the absence of a guilty conscience allows Lestat to restrict his thoughts to performing an action without thinking about consequences. In fact, due to his strength and superiority, there is not much to fear.

Therefore, Lestat’s behavior can be explained. Still, the rules uphold the safety for the rest of the group. Not being able to respect these rules will be punished with a death penalty. This is what they have in common with Christian ethics. Taking a closer look on the above mentioned five rules of the coven, it becomes clear that abiding them prevents one from any greater danger. That is especially true for the third rule which forbids older vampires to create new fledglings. The justification for that is that they can become too strong and therefore present a threat. Lestat is the perfect example for that, since he is a fledgling of Magnus. By revealing vampire secrets through his book and performing with his band, he puts everyone else at risk of being discovered. Of course, Louis does the exact same thing. However, being a fledgling of Lestat, his very existence goes back to him, too.

Christian ethics, however, function in a very similar way. Behind every rule lies the ever present threat of damnation. This is what makes the vampire existence so depressing for Rice’s characters. Most of them still have Christian concepts in mind and constantly fear damnation, yet at the same time they cannot fight their nature and also have to find a way to live inside their coven. Therefore, the vampire represents a metaphorical being which is often envied by an outside observer for its freedom, but ironically enough, the very opposite is true in the Vampire Chronicles. Keeping this in mind, it becomes more understandable why Louis suffers so much.