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Louis de Pointe du Lac is a vampire created by author Anne Rice who first appears in Interview with the Vampire. He is described as having white skin, the color of bleached bone, black hair curling at the collar, and brilliant green eyes.
His mortal life[]
Louis de Pointe du Lac was born the 4th of October of 1766 to a Roman Catholic family that emigrated to America when he was very young.
As a mortal, Louis was a handsome young man who ran indigo plantations very near New Orleans in 1791. His father was dead, and he cared for his younger brother, sister and mother. He was dedicated to all of his family, especially his brother Paul, who was deeply religious. Louis's life was good; his brother spent most of his time praying in the oratory Louis had built for him, and the plantations were running well.
His brother Paul started seeing visions of the Virgin Mary and St. Dominic, telling him to sell the indigo plantations and move to France to work as a missionary. However, Louis didn't believe him and dismissed the thought. Louis allowed his brother to worship and had encouraged him but refused to believe that he had real visions sent by God.
One day his brother and he discussed because of Paul's 'mission'. After the discussion, Paul left Louis and fell off the entrance's stairs. The slaves who saw him fall "said that he had looked up as if he had just seen something in the air. Then his entire body moved forward as if being swept by a wind", one of them said that he looked as if he was about to say something before he fell.
Louis' mother and sister started believing that his brother had fallen because of the argument, then other people started to believe the same since Louis refused to talk about Paul's visions to anyone, not even the police. Louis started to blame himself too and could not forgive himself or get over his brother's death: " ...they all stared at me as if I'd killed him. And I felt that I'd killed him." To escape from the constant reminder of his brother he moved to New Orleans, leaving the plantations in the hands of an overseer, but he was still haunted by Paul's death; "I could think of nothing, but his body rotting in the ground."
Louis became a drunkard to try to escape reality. He put himself in constant danger by going to taverns, getting into fights and walking dangerous alleys alone, he wanted to die. One night he was attacked by Lestat de Lioncourt outside his house. Lestat (who Louis described as looking like a very beautiful blond haired angel) sucked Louis's blood, almost draining him. He was found hours later and taken inside. Louis presumed that he'd had a stroke because of the alcohol and refused to eat, drink or talk to the doctor. Louis' mother called for a priest and Louis confessed for the first time his brother's visions and what he had done.
‘I know I didn’t kill him,’ I said to the priest finally. ‘It’s that I cannot live now that he’s dead. Not after the way I treated him.’ -Louis. Interview with the Vampire (1976), page 25.
The priest later informed Louis that what his brother had seen were visions sent from the devil, and that Paul had been possessed. Louis felt incredibly infuriated by this and attacked the priest, almost killing him.
That night Lestat returned for Louis, he wanted Pointe du Lac, Louis's plantation. Lestat talked Louis through what he might become as a vampire, what he would become. Lestat wanted Louis as an eternal companion and as an eternal lover, having a powerful love for his beauty, his tenderness and his tragic heart. That morning Louis saw his last sunrise.
The process of Louis' transformation went trough various steps. First, he was to watch the overseer of his plantation die by Lestat's hand and approve. Even though Louis didn't hold his life in high regard, he cared dearly for other people's lives and was deeply sickened by the overseer's death.
Life as a vampire []
Lestat came to live at Louis's plantation with his father. Louis had trouble with coming to terms with taking human lives, and this seemed to follow him for most of his life. Louis took a hand in helping the eldest sister of a man Lestat killed, and encouraged her to keep her plantation running. Lestat's father was dying soon and Lestat convinced Louis to kill him. Louis did so in the most humane way, but only after he forced Lestat to speak to his dying father. The servants had been becoming very suspicious of Lestat and Louis. In the end, Lestat and Louis were forced to leave the plantation. They found shelter at the home of the woman who Louis helped before and she took them in and when she saw them the next night, she was convinced they were from the devil. This distressed Louis very much and he tried to convince her otherwise, but she ignored him and in the end, he had to leave with Lestat.
They went to New Orleans where Lestat resumed his merciless killing and Louis tried to avoid killing humans until one night when he attacked a little girl and left her for dead. Lestat told him that she wasn't dead yet and Lestat soon made the child into a vampire whom Lestat named Claudia. Claudia was there to keep the peace between Lestat and Louis for a long time and she learned from them both. That was until one day when she decided she wanted to leave Lestat and look for other vampires like Louis and herself. Louis agreed that he would like to leave but deemed it impossible as Lestat would never let them go freely.
The night came when Claudia decided to kill Lestat. After Claudia was convinced Lestat was dead, she forced Louis to help her dispose of the body. They started arranging their departure for Europe. One night, however, Louis saw Lestat's musician friend outside the window. Louis also noticed he was now a vampire and it was long until Lestat himself appeared. In fear for his own life and Claudia's, Louis managed to set the house on fire and escaped with Claudia to the ship to leave for Europe.
Louis and Claudia travelled wherever there were rumours of vampiric behaviour, but they only found mindless vampires who seem to have no purpose or reason for living. Despite this, they continue their search and eventually they go to Paris. There Louis encounters the first "real" vampire of his kind, Santiago and soon after, Armand. He is invited (with Claudia) to the Theatre des Vampires.
Louis and Claudia at Théâtre des Vampires.
Claudia and Louis visited the Théâtre des Vampires where they were introduced properly to Armand who was the oldest (and only) vampire they met. Louis learned what he could from Armand and (under his influence) made a dollmaker human, Madeleine into a vampire as a mother for Claudia so he can leave her for Armand. Louis, Claudia and Madeleine were taken by the other vampires of the theater where they found Lestat who told them it was Claudia who tried to kill him. They then kill Claudia and Madeleine by leaving them in the sun while locking Louis away. When Louis found out what was done to Claudia, he became enraged and then after he warned Armand, they burned the theater down with every vampire in it.
Louis left Paris with Armand, but Armand after a while left him in New Orleans after realising Louis isn't going to change. Louis also sees Lestat in New Orleans, but refuses to stay with him and only says that he forgives him.
In 1973, Louis tells a reporter, Daniel Molloy, all of this story and then after learning that Daniel didn't learn anything from his story gets angry and leaves the reporter stunned and bleeding a little bit.
The next time Louis is seen, he has gone to see Lestat, soon before Lestat's 1985 concert. They spend a short time together before the concert where they basically forgive each other and say they still care about each other. Louis pleads with Lestat not to go on stage, but when he sees this is futile, he agrees to go with Lestat to the concert. After the concert, Louis and Lestat are rescued by Lestat's mother, Gabrielle, who arrives in a car to save them from the mob and the vampires who are chasing after Lestat.
The car ended up crashing and bursting into flames with Louis inside, but he managed to escape the car and was promptly put out by Lestat and Gabrielle while the vampires who chased them spontaneously combusted. Both say they felt that it was something primitive and wild killing all the other vampires. Soon Louis and Gabrielle seek shelter from the sun and when they rise find Lestat gone and go to join all the other vampires who are gathering to hear Maharet's story of Akasha and how all vampires came into being. After the story is done Akasha arrives and Louis watches as first they all try to reason with her until finally, Akasha refuses to listen to them all so Maharet and Mekare kill her.
After Akasha was killed, Louis hears a story from Jesse of how she saw Claudia's ghost in the old flat Lestat, Louis and Claudia used to share. Louis then goes back to the old flat and soon after Lestat arrives and takes him to the Talamasca where he meets David Talbot for the first time.
Lestat visited Louis at his home, telling Louis that he had been approached by a man who said it was possible for Lestat to switch bodies with him. Louis warned Lestat against switching bodies with this man because it could be very dangerous for someone to have control over Lestat's body and if anything were to go wrong Lestat would be helpless. Lestat left Louis and ignored this advice.
Soon after Lestat returned (now in a mortal man's body) and begged Louis to change him into a vampire so he could recover his own stolen body. Louis refused to do this on the grounds that Lestat had been given another chance at mortal life, something which Louis seemed to envy slightly.
Louis was visited by David Talbot after Lestat's body was restored. David was now a vampire and was in the same body Lestat was. David told Louis the story of what happened to Lestat until Lestat himself arrived and the three of them quite happily agree to travel together. They eventually separate and Louis was seen briefly with Armand in Paris. It was over a year since their separation until Louis was reunited with Lestat.
This event took place after Lestat's ordeal with the devil and Louis went to see him. Louis asked Lestat to return back to their home with him in the Rue Royale. They are soon joined by Maharet and David. Maharet asked Louis and David to help chain Lestat up, as he is becoming quite hysterical. Louis reluctantly does so and afterwards pleaded with Maharet to let him go. Louis visited Lestat in his holding place to let him know he recovered the books Lestat had left behind in the chapel.
Later Lestat went into a deep sleep on a chapel floor whilst Armand had attempted suicide. It is assumed Louis grieved for Armand whilst he waited in the chapel with all the other vampires. Louis was greatly relieved when Armand entered the chapel and was extremely pleased he survived. Armand told Louis that he would try to drink Lestat's blood which Louis warns him against doing as he sees it as too dangerous for Armand. When Armand is thrown away from Lestat after drinking from him, Louis, as well as most of the older vampires, go to see if Armand is okay.
Lestat awoke and all the vampires leave except for Louis and David. David and Louis continue to live in New Orleans in the flat together while Lestat remained in a sleep, for the most part, only visiting once in a while to sleep in his own bedroom. Louis encountered a witch in the streets of New Orleans who he mistook to be someone "looking for death" and whom he later found out to be a member of the Talamasca that David once knew. The witch's name was Merrick Mayfair and Louis asked David if she could bring back the ghost of Claudia. David does this and returns to Louis to explain to him the story of Merrick and who she is and what she is capable of.
Louis decided to go ahead with the spell and upon meeting Merrick he fell in love with her instantly. Louis handed over a picture of Claudia he had kept all these years as well as Claudia's diary which the Talamasca found in the old flat Louis shared with Lestat and Claudia. Merrick starts the spell warning Louis of the dangers and the fact that the spirit that they contact may not even be Claudia but something else. Merrick calls upon the spirit of Claudia who soon becomes visible to Louis and David. The ghost of what might or might not have been Claudia made fun of Louis and said that she never really cared about him, but of the two he was easier to manipulate than Lestat. The ghost also tried to attack them, but Merrick got rid of it.
Louis was convinced that the ghost was Claudia and soon after insisted on being alone with Merrick, much to the annoyance of David. Louis made Merrick into a vampire despite promising David that he wouldn't. He then tried to kill himself by letting the sun burn him. Merrick got to David who was shocked by what had happened and then Lestat joined them. Lestat asked them to help in bringing Louis back which they did. Lestat, David and Merrick all used their own blood to wake Louis who was very severely burned. Louis awakened and David and Merrick left him with Lestat. Louis drank Lestat's blood again to make him stronger. An angry letter was received from the Talamasca demanding that Merrick and David be returned to them. This angry letter enrages Lestat and he states that they should wage a war with the Talamasca, but Louis and David sway him into not doing it. They all agree that this wasn't going to happen and Louis and the others began making arrangements to leave New Orleans.
When Lestat becomes the prince of all the vampires, Louis is mentioned sitting on a couch with Lestat.
Trivia[]
- Louis is pronounced similarly to 'Louie' as his French heritage dictates that the name is pronounced with the last letter silent.
Image Gallery[]
Lestat (musical)[]
