Benefiel’s Blood Relations: The Gothic Perversion of The Nuclear Family in Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire

Benefiel’s Blood Relations: The Gothic Perversion of The Nuclear Family in Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire explains the vampire’s transformation from a hunted monster to drive the plot forward from shadowy castles to deeper characters capable of eliciting sympathy. The vampire has been a vehicle for social commentary for as long as it has existed, with the foreigner, and the homosexual in the past and now more contemporary topics like drug addiction, AIDS, and the selfishness and narcissism of the baby boomer generation.
On page three, Benefiel writes, “In the bulk of vampire fiction, a master vampire serves as father, mother, and husband, while other younger vampires serve as children/lovers”. The conventions of the nuclear family are queered by vampirism, with the typical relationships blurred. The older vampire acts as the father, mother, and husband, but also as a teacher to the younger vampires. The incestuous familial relationships between vampire families creates a feeling of the uncanny. In addition to the vampire acting as mother and father, the vampire is bisexual or pan gendered, feeding off of men and women whenever they see fit.
On page four of the paper Benefiel states that, “Within the family, after its creation, there is no sexual contact-normal or otherwise-between the members”. I thought that when Lestat took Claudia out hunting it was more or less a sexual act. The act of sex is described as a pale shadow to killing, so to share in the kill would be very intimate and passionate. Louis is the prude of the family, refusing Claudia’s requests to come kill with her, instead Louis kills in solitude, out of necessity and not pleasure. In addition to the homoerotic overtones when Louis is turned, Lestat seems drawn to Louis consistently after they part ways. To me, Lestat seemed to be following Claudia and Louis to England to get his revenge on Claudia but also to reclaim Louis. Lestat shouts his name in the theatre of the vampires and tells him he has something to tell him. At the end of the book Lestat is a tottering old senile, begging Louis to stay and help him, a request that Louis refuses. Without having sex, the two main male vampires seem to treat each other like jilted lovers from time to time. The time and proximity they share makes us wonder how close they really are.
On page 9 of the readings Benefiel describes Claudia as a rebellious teen. The closeness to the typical nuclear family and its roles and tropes causes Rice’s family to be a kind of parody. Claudia wishes for her own coffin to sleep in and she removes herself more from the family, evading Lestat for weeks despite them living together. The way the vampire family follows the conventional family ideas and aspects while mixing them to ultimately queer the traditional values ascribed to them is how the novel makes commentary on today’s social structure.