Louis’ narrative is decorated with literary devices throughout the text; examples of these in this extract are similes such as “neck like a fractured stem”. Another example of such a device in this extract is illustrated in the abstract metaphor of “veil” representing death that “had fallen over [Lestat’s] clear gray eyes”.
Lestat’s dialogue in this extract contains many examples of ellipsis; this helps represent the irregularity of his dialogue to the reader can witness first-hand the breakdown of his speech. In addition to that, words like “gasped” and “whispered” used in describing the manner of Lestat’s speech also lend to the impression of his slow decay. A common characteristic between Louis’ narrative and Lestat’s dialogue is the subtle repetition of certain sentences. In Louis, an example of this would be “He could not move. I saw it … at all.”, whereas an example of this in Lestat’s speech would be “She’s poisoned them… me.” This linguistic feature helps create tension, suspense, and accurately displays the level of shock from both Louis and Lestat.
An interesting role-reversal between Lestat and Claudia also takes place within this extract; prior to this point, Louis, Lestat and Claudia could be regarded as resembling a family, with Louis’ role slightly resembling that of a mother, Lestat’s role resembling that of an abusive father, and Claudia’s resembling that of the child of the household. The role-reversal that takes place is the transition of Lestat to being the abused, and Claudia to being the abuser. However, Louis’ role is still fixed as resembling a mother, and even though he has hateful feelings towards Lestat, he pleads of Claudia to refrain from harming Lestat : “Claudia! Don’t do this thing!”
Lestat also desperately calls out to Louis many times in the extract, and this is an important event in the novel as the relationship between Lestat and Louis was based on one of dominance and submission; Louis consistently found himself in a submissive position without any authority. In calling out to Louis for help, Lestat for the first time in the book is in a completely submissive position; reversing the typical roles of the characters. The same could be said for Claudia, whose desires and questions up until this point in the novel were constantly repressed or ignored, putting her in a submissive position as well. This extract shows Claudia taking authoritative action for the first time in the novel, which could be argued to be symbolic of her mental coming-of-age to maturity; it constitutes for the fact that her physical body will eternally be the age of 6. Thus, this extract describing Lestat’s death signifies Louis’ and Claudia’s freedom from his oppressive authority.
Rice uses Lestat’s dialogue in this extract to link into one of the main themes of the text: Religion. Prior to this point, Lestat was seen as a heretic, a blasphemer and far from God-fearing; however, in this extract, one of Lestat’s last words were a cry out to God: “ ‘God!’ he shouted out. ‘God!’ “. In doing this, Rice accurately represents the intensity of Lestat’s fear, something he scarcely shows during the text.
Louis’ narrative also contains vivid descriptions of the gruesome scene. This is illustrated in the large section of “The blood poured… gash gape.” This description could be argued to be the symbolic death of Lestat and his soul; blood and the nature of transfusions in the novel is thoroughly likened to sexual passion. In describing the blood “pour” out of Lestat so vividly, one could interpret it to be the death of his vampiric livelihood and soul. Another example of detailed imagery is present in “And his entire body … went dim.” These descriptions greatly influence the tone of not only the extract, but the entire text, and it is these vivid descriptions that help create its gothic, vivid, macabre tone.
Finally, Louis’ narrative in this section also helps set himself aside as the “helpless bystander”. This is accomplished by a lack of description of his own actions during Lestat’s death, and sentences such as “I gasped, but I could not take my eyes off it” help create an effect of helplessness that creates the cadence of the extract in “this horror that had been…. helplessly at it.”
