Friday, April 20, 2012

The Soul of a Vampire

Happy Friday, everyone! For today's post, I'm going to talk about something that has been nagging me for a very long time. Not just days or months, but years, over a decade. Pretty darn close to two decades, actually. I believe the thought first entered my mind when Mrs. Page, my wonderful high school librarian, introduced me to vampires via Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat. Yes, I read Lestat before reading Interview with a Vampire. I was hooked immediately. Since then, I've read quite a few vampire stories and each one is unique and different. But a question arose and has been debated for a very long time.  

 
Do vampires have souls? 

Blood Moon is almost ready!
It's a tough question, to be sure, and I believe that everyone's answer to that question is influenced by other values they hold. Personally, I believe they do. I don't think any god would punish someone and damn them to an eternity of hell because of a choice someone else made for them. I believe vampires (and werewolves, for that matter) have a choice in where they end up, regardless of their circumstances and it's their actions and their actions alone that determine what happens at the end of their life. Some may choose to revel in the fear and death that is often associated with vampires, but others will choose a life of peace, or as much of one as they can manage. Of course, vampires are interpreted differently by everyone, and that interpretation will also influence where someone believes a vampire will end up.

So that's my very brief take on the matter. What's yours?

1 comment:

  1. The vampires I write tend to be changed by biological means - a virus - so it doesn't impact their soul. It's what they do once they become a vampire which determines their eventual fate. It would be rather like condemning a person to hell for catching a cold or getting chicken pox. Once the virus is in your system you are forever changed, but you can't control it.

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