The Trickster in Anne Rices Interview with the Vampire...

The Trickster in Anne Rices Interview with the Vampire Vampires today, particularly after Anne Rices five-book series, the Vampire Chronicles, are portrayed in quite a different light than the vampires of ages past. Gone is the garlic and cross that offers protection, gone is the vampires fear of all light and gone is their distant, in-human nature. (Whyte 2) In fact, most vampires are portrayed as both beast and man, struggling to retain their humanity as the lust for blood seems to never diminish and eternal as they are, their inner conflict spans to infinity. This duplicity is highly reminiscent of the paradoxical nature of the trickster archetype. Tricksters embrace creation just as easily as they revel in†¦show more content†¦Traditional scholarship differentiates any tangible entity that fulfills the trickster criteria as clown. Trickster research is confusing at this point because it calls tricksters mythic entities found in folklore and in legends. Therefore, a trickster is more than just an idea; it may als o be a mythic creature. (Kim ix) For the purposes of this essay I will refer to the trickster first as an idea, as a set of elements and then exemplify these characteristics using mythic entities as a form of illustration. Tricksters are usually associated with a host of negative elements such as stubbornness, chicanery, duplicity, cruelty, greed, gluttony, and avarice; (Musinsky) although their unifying elements are selfishness, egoism and self-centeredness. As mentioned before tricksters are amoral, or, to use a Nietzsches phrase: beyond good and evil. According to Radini, a well-known trickster scholar, the trickster possesses no values, moral or social, is at the mercy of his passions and appetites, yet through his actions all values come into being. (xxiii) Almost all tricksters are megalomaniacs, a trait that is not necessarily negative, according to the aforementioned Nietschean view of the world. Every living thing seeks to discharge its strength--life itself is will to power. This innate characteristic of life is of absolute value and acceptance of the will to power in all its sublime manifestations, both beautiful and