Claudia (The Vampire Chronicles)
Encyclopedia
Claudia is a fictional character
in Anne Rice
's The Vampire Chronicles
series. She is one of the main characters in Interview with the Vampire
, the first novel in the series. She also features in The Vampire Lestat
, The Queen of the Damned
, The Tale of the Body Thief
, The Vampire Armand
and Merrick
.
, the protagonist of Interview with the Vampire, and begs him to “wake” her mother. Louis instead feeds on her, much to his self-disgust, and her life is temporarily saved by Lestat de Lioncourt
, Louis' maker.
Claudia is taken to the vampires' townhouse in the heart of New Orleans, and there she is turned into a vampire
by Lestat. Lestat tells her that she is his and Louis' “daughter” and that now that she is in their family, Louis can not leave them. Though Louis is at first horrified at the thought of a vampire child (and indeed he accuses Lestat of condemning Claudia to hell), he and Claudia become very attached, and the three form a vampiric “family” for decades.
As the years pass, Claudia becomes increasingly dissatisfied with being constantly “dressed as a doll” by her two fathers, and her frustration leads her to kill a mother and daughter and leave them to rot in the kitchens of the townhouse. When her deed is discovered by Lestat, she flies into a rage and informs the two that she has been damned to a body never able to grow old, that she wants to be a grown woman and will never have that chance, and that she hates them both more than she ever thought possible.
After driving a wedge between them all, Claudia remains attached to Louis and increasingly cold toward Lestat. Obsessed with finding out the origins of vampires and finding “her own kind,” Claudia questions Lestat on his maker and on creating other vampires, of the creation of the first vampire and any other subject, though Lestat refuses to say a word. Finally through with her “dark father,” Claudia poisons Lestat with the blood of a poisoned young boy and gashes his throat, having Louis leave Lestat's dessicated and seemingly lifeless body in the swamps.
Claudia and Louis escape New Orleans and head to Europe, where Claudia's research has indicated vampiric activity. They are embittered and disillusioned when the only vampires they come across are mindless beasts who've been left for dead in their coffins, and eventually head to Paris
to embrace civilization. The wedge between Louis and Claudia grows larger than ever as Claudia spirals even further into maddened fury at the thought of being trapped within the body of a little girl forever.
Everything changes when the two find the Théâtre des Vampires
, a group of vampire mummers disguising themselves as humans playing vampires onstage. Claudia is repulsed by these vampires and what she considers to be their cheap theatrics. Santiago, a prominent figure among the vampire coven, suspects Claudia and Louis of killing their maker. One rule among the vampires is death to any vampire who kills their own kind, and later she and Louis meet Armand. Armand and Louis fall in love, and Claudia hears Armand telling her telepathically to leave Louis as a companion. Feeling threatened, Claudia sinks into a sort of paranoid madness, finally forcing Louis to create his first vampire, a woman named Madeleine, to care for Claudia when he is gone in love with Armand, severing the ties between them, seemingly forever.
Shortly after this, however, the Parisian vampires abduct the three of them and take them to the Théâtre des Vampires, where it is revealed that Lestat is alive and has sought punishment for Claudia's crimes. Though Louis' life is spared, Claudia and Madeleine are left to die in a room where they cannot escape exposure from the sun. Claudia is burned to death, and her death spurs Louis into a rage that inspires him to take vengeance on the vampires, torching the Théâtre des Vampires and killing all inside before escaping with Armand. It is Claudia's death that finally turns Louis cold and away from his “mortal passion,” a death that Armand forever mourns.
, at the time an investigator of paranormal activities for the Talamasca
, received the assignment to purchase and uncover the townhouse of Lestat's coven in New Orleans, she finds Claudia's room as well as a diary kept in secret by Claudia, revealing more of her inner thoughts about her love/hate relationship with Lestat in particular, as well as hints of her growing rage and confusion at being an adult woman trapped forever within a child's body.
It soon becomes clear to Jesse that Claudia's ghost
, or at least a psychic imprint left behind after her violent death, is haunting the townhouse. Claudia's ghost realizes that Jesse can see her, and haunts her all the way back to the Motherhouse when Jesse is taken off of the assignment. Jesse sees her as a little girl playing with a woman-shaped doll, sitting outside of her window and watching her, and describes a feeling of menace and anger radiating from Claudia. When Jesse is turned into a vampire by the end of the novel, she loses the ability to see and communicate with spirits, as is usually the case with vampires, and thus loses the ability to see Claudia.
– a powerful witch and one of the descendants of the opulant witchcraft family described in Rice's The Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy – is contacted by Louis to seek out the ghost of Claudia. When Merrick summons her, Claudia returns with a vengeance and takes her rage out on Louis. Claudia attempts to drive a stake through Louis' heart and kill him. When Louis survives, Claudia disappears, apparently put to rest by taking revenge upon both of her vampire “fathers.”
Merrick goes on to theorize that Claudia had already forgiven Louis, and that some of Claudia's rage during her reappearance was projected onto her by Louis' overwhelming guilt at her fate.
Claudia is never seen nor heard from again throughout the rest of The Vampire Chronicles, and it seems that she has been put to rest.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in Anne Rice
Anne Rice
Anne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...
's The Vampire Chronicles
The Vampire Chronicles
The Vampire Chronicles is a series of novels by Anne Rice that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman turned into a vampire in the 18th century....
series. She is one of the main characters in Interview with the Vampire
Interview with the Vampire
Interview with the Vampire is a vampire novel by Anne Rice written in 1973 and published in 1976. It was the first novel to feature the enigmatic vampire Lestat, and was followed by several sequels, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles...
, the first novel in the series. She also features in The Vampire Lestat
The Vampire Lestat
The Vampire Lestat is a novel by Anne Rice, and the second in her Vampire Chronicles, following Interview with the Vampire. Many events in the two books appear to contradict each other...
, The Queen of the Damned
The Queen of the Damned
The Queen of the Damned is the third novel of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. It follows Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat...
, The Tale of the Body Thief
The Tale of the Body Thief
The Tale of the Body Thief is the fourth novel in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series, following The Queen of the Damned. Published in 1992, it continues the adventures of Lestat, specifically his efforts to regain his lost humanity....
, The Vampire Armand
The Vampire Armand
The Vampire Armand is the sixth novel in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series.-Plot summary:With Lestat still in slumber after his adventures in Memnoch the Devil, the vampire coven is united around the "brat prince" , and the vampire David Talbot takes the opportunity to request that Armand...
and Merrick
Merrick (novel)
Merrick is the seventh book in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. This book brings together Rice's vampires and the Mayfair Witches.-Plot summary:...
.
Mortal life
Claudia (her last name is never given) was a young girl who lived in the poor, plague-ravaged quarters of 18th century New Orleans. She lost both of her parents to the plague, and is first introduced as a crying child of five or six years old in her house, next to her mother's dead body. She is small and delicately shaped, with golden ringlets for hair and pale skin. She is found by Louis de Pointe du LacLouis de Pointe du Lac
Louis de Pointe du Lac is a fictional character in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. He began his life as a mortal man, and later became a vampire. He is the protagonist and antihero of Interview with the Vampire, the first book of The Vampire Chronicles...
, the protagonist of Interview with the Vampire, and begs him to “wake” her mother. Louis instead feeds on her, much to his self-disgust, and her life is temporarily saved by Lestat de Lioncourt
Lestat de Lioncourt
Lestat de Lioncourt is a fictional character appearing in several novels by Anne Rice, including The Vampire Lestat. He is a vampire and the main character in the majority of The Vampire Chronicles, narrated in first person.-Publication history:...
, Louis' maker.
Claudia is taken to the vampires' townhouse in the heart of New Orleans, and there she is turned into a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
by Lestat. Lestat tells her that she is his and Louis' “daughter” and that now that she is in their family, Louis can not leave them. Though Louis is at first horrified at the thought of a vampire child (and indeed he accuses Lestat of condemning Claudia to hell), he and Claudia become very attached, and the three form a vampiric “family” for decades.
Interview with the Vampire
Although the three vampires spend many years in happiness, Claudia begins to grow more and more detached, insisting on self-sufficiency and even gaining her own coffin so that she does not have to sleep with either Lestat or Louis during the daylight hours. Claudia becomes self-educated and philosophical under Louis' tutelage and also an indiscriminate murderer under Lestat's guidance. She would “appear to her victims as a little angel” and lure them to their deaths.As the years pass, Claudia becomes increasingly dissatisfied with being constantly “dressed as a doll” by her two fathers, and her frustration leads her to kill a mother and daughter and leave them to rot in the kitchens of the townhouse. When her deed is discovered by Lestat, she flies into a rage and informs the two that she has been damned to a body never able to grow old, that she wants to be a grown woman and will never have that chance, and that she hates them both more than she ever thought possible.
After driving a wedge between them all, Claudia remains attached to Louis and increasingly cold toward Lestat. Obsessed with finding out the origins of vampires and finding “her own kind,” Claudia questions Lestat on his maker and on creating other vampires, of the creation of the first vampire and any other subject, though Lestat refuses to say a word. Finally through with her “dark father,” Claudia poisons Lestat with the blood of a poisoned young boy and gashes his throat, having Louis leave Lestat's dessicated and seemingly lifeless body in the swamps.
Claudia and Louis escape New Orleans and head to Europe, where Claudia's research has indicated vampiric activity. They are embittered and disillusioned when the only vampires they come across are mindless beasts who've been left for dead in their coffins, and eventually head to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to embrace civilization. The wedge between Louis and Claudia grows larger than ever as Claudia spirals even further into maddened fury at the thought of being trapped within the body of a little girl forever.
Everything changes when the two find the Théâtre des Vampires
Théâtre des Vampires
Théâtre des Vampires is the home of a Parisian vampire coven from the earlier books in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series, specifically Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat.-Interview with the Vampire:...
, a group of vampire mummers disguising themselves as humans playing vampires onstage. Claudia is repulsed by these vampires and what she considers to be their cheap theatrics. Santiago, a prominent figure among the vampire coven, suspects Claudia and Louis of killing their maker. One rule among the vampires is death to any vampire who kills their own kind, and later she and Louis meet Armand. Armand and Louis fall in love, and Claudia hears Armand telling her telepathically to leave Louis as a companion. Feeling threatened, Claudia sinks into a sort of paranoid madness, finally forcing Louis to create his first vampire, a woman named Madeleine, to care for Claudia when he is gone in love with Armand, severing the ties between them, seemingly forever.
Shortly after this, however, the Parisian vampires abduct the three of them and take them to the Théâtre des Vampires, where it is revealed that Lestat is alive and has sought punishment for Claudia's crimes. Though Louis' life is spared, Claudia and Madeleine are left to die in a room where they cannot escape exposure from the sun. Claudia is burned to death, and her death spurs Louis into a rage that inspires him to take vengeance on the vampires, torching the Théâtre des Vampires and killing all inside before escaping with Armand. It is Claudia's death that finally turns Louis cold and away from his “mortal passion,” a death that Armand forever mourns.
The Vampire Lestat
More of Claudia's relationship with Lestat is revealed in Lestat's eponymous autobiography, where he describes her fondness for playing with her victims as he did, and his sorrow at the turn their relationship took. Still, he reiterates his statement made at the end of Interview, that Claudia “should never have been one of us.”The Queen of the Damned
When Jessica Miriam ReevesJessica Miriam Reeves
Jessica "Jesse" Miriam Reeves is a fictional character in the Vampire Chronicles universe created by Anne Rice.-Character Background and Biography:Jesse is a descendant of Maharet, and a member of the Great Family...
, at the time an investigator of paranormal activities for the Talamasca
Talamasca
Talamasca can mean:* Talamasca Caste, a fictional secret society from Anne Rice's books* Talamasca , a musical group whose name comes from the above fictional books...
, received the assignment to purchase and uncover the townhouse of Lestat's coven in New Orleans, she finds Claudia's room as well as a diary kept in secret by Claudia, revealing more of her inner thoughts about her love/hate relationship with Lestat in particular, as well as hints of her growing rage and confusion at being an adult woman trapped forever within a child's body.
It soon becomes clear to Jesse that Claudia's ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
, or at least a psychic imprint left behind after her violent death, is haunting the townhouse. Claudia's ghost realizes that Jesse can see her, and haunts her all the way back to the Motherhouse when Jesse is taken off of the assignment. Jesse sees her as a little girl playing with a woman-shaped doll, sitting outside of her window and watching her, and describes a feeling of menace and anger radiating from Claudia. When Jesse is turned into a vampire by the end of the novel, she loses the ability to see and communicate with spirits, as is usually the case with vampires, and thus loses the ability to see Claudia.
The Tale of the Body Thief
Claudia's ghost again makes her presence known to Lestat in The Tale of the Body Thief, where she haunts him mercilessly in an attempt to make him feel the pain she believes he inflicted upon her when he turned her into a vampire as a child. Claudia's ghost and the ensuing guilt that Lestat feels drives him to a half-hearted suicide attempt in the beginning of the novel. Claudia haunts Lestat again when he is nearly dying in his mortal body and when, after recovering his vampire body, he goes to see Gretchen in the French Guiana.The Vampire Armand
In The Vampire Armand, Armand tells his own story of what happened in the Théâtre des Vampires leading up to Claudia's execution: Claudia offered to leave Louis if Armand could give her the body of a woman, no matter how painful or violent this effort would be. Armand agreed to Claudia's demands, and decapitated her, attempting to place her head – and thus her mind – on the body of another vampire woman, believing that the healing powers of vampire blood would allow Claudia to heal herself. The attempt failed, and, with Claudia near death and Armand seeing that he could rid himself of her and have Louis to himself, he simply locked her in the air shaft with Madeleine and left them both to die.Merrick
In Merrick, the eponymous character Merrick MayfairMerrick Mayfair
Merrick Mayfair is a fictional character in The Vampire Chronicles written by Anne Rice. She appears in the sixth book of the series, Merrick. She is a member of The Talamasca and is acquainted with David Talbot....
– a powerful witch and one of the descendants of the opulant witchcraft family described in Rice's The Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy – is contacted by Louis to seek out the ghost of Claudia. When Merrick summons her, Claudia returns with a vengeance and takes her rage out on Louis. Claudia attempts to drive a stake through Louis' heart and kill him. When Louis survives, Claudia disappears, apparently put to rest by taking revenge upon both of her vampire “fathers.”
Merrick goes on to theorize that Claudia had already forgiven Louis, and that some of Claudia's rage during her reappearance was projected onto her by Louis' overwhelming guilt at her fate.
Claudia is never seen nor heard from again throughout the rest of The Vampire Chronicles, and it seems that she has been put to rest.
Appearances in other media
- In Neil JordanNeil JordanNeil Patrick Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.- Early life :...
's 1994 film adaptationInterview with the Vampire: The Vampire ChroniclesInterview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles is a 1994 American drama and horror film directed by Neil Jordan, based on the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. The film focuses on Lestat and Louis, beginning with Louis' transformation into a vampire by Lestat in 1791...
of Interview with the VampireInterview with the VampireInterview with the Vampire is a vampire novel by Anne Rice written in 1973 and published in 1976. It was the first novel to feature the enigmatic vampire Lestat, and was followed by several sequels, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles...
, Claudia is portrayed by Kirsten DunstKirsten DunstKirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
. Dunst was 12 years old at the time of filming, so that the producers could have an actress that could actually play the five-year-old immortal. Makeup and film tricks were used to make Dunst look younger for the role.
- In the short-lived Broadway show LestatLestat (musical)Lestat is a Broadway musical inspired by Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. The score is by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, book by Linda Woolverton and directed by Robert Jess Roth with musical staging by Matt West...
composed by Elton JohnElton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and Bernie TaupinBernie TaupinBernard John "Bernie" Taupin is an English lyricist, poet, and singer, best known for his long-term collaboration with Elton John, writing the lyrics for the majority of the star's songs, making his lyrics some of the best known in pop-rock's history.In 1967, Taupin answered an advertisement in...
, Claudia was portrayed by Allison FischerAllison FischerAllison Fischer is an American singer and actress.- Biography :Originally from northern New Jersey, Allison had her first professional performance in the Off-Broadway musical King Island Christmas in 2000...
. She was given two solos: I Want More and I'll Never Have That Chance.
- Louis, Lestat and Claudia all have non-speaking cameoCameo appearanceA cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
appearances in Innovation Comics' adaptation of Rice's vampire short story The Master of Rampling Gate, illustrated by Colleen DoranColleen DoranColleen Doran is an American writer/artist, film conceptual artist, and cartoonist. She has illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, and dozens of stories and articles, including works written by Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Anne Rice, J...
.
- The Damned's 1982 album StrawberriesStrawberries (album)Strawberries is the fifth album by The Damned, released in October 1982 on Bronze Records.Limited editions included a strawberry scented lyric insert...
contains the track "The Dog", which is written about Claudia.
External links
- Lestat: The Musical at the Internet Broadway DatabaseInternet Broadway DatabaseThe Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....
- Official website of Anne Rice