“Revenge is the concern of those who are at some point or other beaten. I am not beaten, I told myself. No, not beaten. And victory is far more interesting to contemplate than revenge.”
― The Tale of the Body Thief (Anne Rice)
***250th post, btw 😀
Revenge has been something which managed to create superhit movies out of average flicks. What would have been Kill Bill, Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds, I Spit on Your Grave and The Last House on the Left without the power of revenge? Vengeance has been too sweet in the movies, and the same has been reflected in literature and glorified by fans because there is that feeling of satisfaction that people have when they see the protagonist managing to finish the act of vengeance.
The lesser humane of the two main vampires from Interview with the Vampire, Lestat de Lioncourt says these words in the novel. He always has stories to tell us, and here we see his lack of interest in revenge. It is not something which he learnt from holy books or wise men, but from his experience. He is a man who creates his own interesting quotes, and we can see that from the different books of Vampire Chronicles series that he brings some nice quotes of wisdom for the readers.
Interview with the Vampire – there is more to that talk with quotes of wisdom.
Lestat not seeking revenge doesn’t mean that he is not angry, but he never accepts that he is beaten. In Interview with the Vampire, we can see that he keeps coming back, and his ultimate desire was never vengeance. He wants to be victorious every time, and a case of revenge will mean that he was once beaten and he is trying to turn the tables. He wouldn’t stand the chance of being beaten by anybody as he considers himself to be good enough to thrive in any environment.
Even for the death of his vampire daughter Claudia, he only blames himself, and as he has the results of a revenge which was brought upon her by other vampires in the name of what she did to him, he has only nightmares about it – the one revenge which happened in his name doesn’t give him any feeling of happiness. Once again, if that was a revenge, that would mean that he was beaten by a child vampire who tricked him into being a dumb vampire even with all his experience.
The Embrace of the Vampire –Â Why don’t you choose this one instead of revenge?
Well, if you have read Interview with the Vampire, you will know things from the viewpoint of the more humane vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac. There is more to Lestat than what is written there; even the movie follows that path as the interview of the one vampire who proves to be the man with more conscience than most of the modern humans combined. It might seem that revenge was in his list there, but it never really was, as Lestat had risen above that already.
So, the quote of the day is not an invitation to be like Lestat. He will never be my favourite vampire character, and neither will Louis even though this one is closer. Claudia is actually even further closer. There are Clara and Eleanor from Byzantium if you are looking for movies alone, and in the case of books, there is the need to pay reverence to the legendary characters from Dracula, Carmilla, The Vampyre and a number of others. So, the quote can be taken outside the vampire world.
I have been against taking revenge, even though I cared less about those little ones. There is nothing that interesting in having vengeance, as it is something which has to be left to God, or fate if you want to think that way. If you try to take revenge, it is more of your weakness, and only by rising up from that state and moving towards victory can the replacement to revenge be done. Yes, be the better person, and your achievement is the true vengeance which is not evil, but a good result of an indirect inspiration provided by the evil which has been done against you.
***The images used in this blog post are from the Facebook Page of the movie Interview with the Vampire.
I have been nominated by Kiran, at https://drkiranacharya.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/day-three-quote-challenge, for the three day quote challenge. Thanks for the tag 🙂
Rules for the challenge:
- Post one of your favourite quotes (different quote on each day) on three days. The quote can be from your favourite book, author, or your own.
- Nominate three bloggers to challenge them.
- Thank the blogger, who nominated you.
For my day one, I nominate my blogger friends:
Anoop (http://anooppillaiz.wordpress.com)
Amreen (http://painttheworldwithwords.wordpress.com)
Namrata (http://namratakumari.blogspot.in)
TeNy
The Tea Cerebrations 