Anne Rice pairs a number of different ideas in Interview with the Vampire. One of the most obvious is immortality, which is a common theme in vampire novels. The pros and cons of immortality are all touched upon in Rice’s novel, and immortality is interestingly paired with the fear of destruction. Despite not having to fear death in a traditional sense, the vampires are still in constant fear of destruction. Claudia has to endure remaining a child forever, showing another negative to immortality and a trade off for power. Rice uses this pairing to show how death is a necessity, and that mortality and humanity is a relief over being an immortal all powerful being.
Rice also compares human nature with a more supernatural nature of the vampires. Creating this pairing allows her to emphasize parts of humanity that we would otherwise take for granted. Louis worries that being a vampire makes him inherently evil despite his actions. He refuses to feed on human blood for a while, and instead survives on small animals. Pairing this supernatural set of morals with our idea of humanity allows Rice to emphasize certain elements of humanity.
Rice shows the difficulty of living up to a human moral code when you exist as something that isn’t quite human. Louis doesn’t view himself as a human with flaws any more, but instead believes he cannot commit any bad deeds. Armand explains to him how if all good deeds are not equivalent, than all bad deeds can’t be equivalent either. Rice manages to use the contrast between vampirism and humanity to explain more aspects of human life.
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