Burning down buildings represents rebirth—or, perhaps more accurately, the false promise of rebirth and a fresh start for the novel’s vampire characters. As Louis moves through his life as a vampire, he and his various companions burn down estates, houses, and shops as a way to create a clean break with the past and tie up loose ends. Burning Pointe du Lac with Lestat represents their attempt to quell the enslaved workers’ rebellion, while Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine burning Madeleine’s doll shop represents Madeleine’s rejection of her human past and her embrace of her new life as a vampire. Similarly, burning their New Orleans house with Lestat inside is how Louis and Claudia believe they’ll be able to leave their past (and their unfulfilling relationships with Lestat) behind and start anew. Yet, every time the vampire characters burn a building, any relief they enjoy proves to be short-lived. Lestat pursues Louis and Claudia in various ways throughout their journey, and Madeleine and Claudia are ultimately killed soon after the doll shop burns. The failure of these attempts to provide relief or a fresh start suggests that the vampires cannot fully escape their past, or indeed, the possibility that they can never find true happiness and companionship as vampires.
Fire Quotes in Interview with the Vampire
“I forgot myself totally. And in the same instant knew totally the meaning of possibility. From then on I experienced only increasing wonder. As he talked to me and told me of what I might become, of what his life had been and stood to be, my past shrank to embers. I saw my life as if I stood apart from it, the vanity, the self-serving, the constant fleeing from one petty annoyance after another, the lip service to God and the Virgin and a host of saints whose names filled my prayer books, none of whom made the slightest difference in a narrow, materialistic, and selfish existence. I saw my real gods…the gods of most men. Food, drink, and security in conformity. Cinders.”