Claudia is definitely one of my favorite characters. Her whole exhistence and death was true tragedy to me. As a human child, she had no chance; her mother had died in New Orleans from a plague and she was obviously not far behind; and as a vampire, she still had no chance.
Claudia was only around the age of 5 when she was made into a vampire by Louis and Lestat. Louis fed from her, and in more than one way she was his salvation. Out of guilt he left her body at the small house not 8 feet from her mother's corpse, where Lestat found them. Lestat saw what Claudia could be to Louis, and knew she didn't die from Louis' feeding, so he later tracked her down at a local hospital and took her from the people there, who assumed that Lestat was the father, and brought her back to Louis where he made her a vampire, and their daughter.
Thought Claudia was known to be one of the fiercest killers in the chronicles, she was also one of the biggest victims. A "child of circumstance", if you will. As I said before, she had no chance in life or life after death. She had all the fire and potential of being one of the longest lasting and fiercest vampires ever, but was cursed in her child body. She matured and grew mentally. You could say she became nothing but woman, w/ the exception of being trapped in her small body.
Forced to always be dependent; never to grow up; to never be able to know real love, physical or mental; she became vengeful and lashed out at Lestat.
To Lestat, she was a work of art. She was as fierce as she needed to be, beautiful, cunning, intellegent, and charming. A petite female version of Lestat, to be precise. W/ one exception. She had an anger that he didn't. She felt no guilt for her victims and obviously wronged for the body in which she was made. She blamed Lestat. And she tried (almost succesfully) to kill him.
After two attempts on Lestat's life, they (louis and claudia) assumed him dead and left for the rest of the world to explore and try to find other vampires. They found mostly rumors w/ the exception of mindless animated corpses who basically went through the motions of being vampires, but had no intellect. They seemed to be zombies. Almost like another species of vampires.
Eventually they went to Paris and there found Armand. Armand fell in love w/ Louis and wanted him, but knew the consequences of Louis' and Claudia's previous actions and the illegality of the making of one such as Claudia because of her vulnerability. He explained the vampire laws his coven lived by, and though he never admitted it until late in the 20th century, allowed his coven to kill Claudia and another vampire Louis had made, his only fledgling, Madeline; apparently made to be Claudia's new "mother".
Claudia and Madeline were trapped in the open to be killed by the morning light, and as predicted, when the sun rose all that was left of the both of them were ashes.
To me, this was one of the truest to life events that have ever occured in the Anne Rice novels. Murders really happen, and they are tragic. The loss of life that had such potential as Claudia's really happens, and it was truly a loss for Claudia to die. She had the mystery, fire, and eloquence that would have made her one of the most beautiful vampires to ever come into exhistence.
Claudia's death was truly a tragedy and I can't blame Louis for mourning the way he did over her. I would have too.
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