The Vampire Armand - Sexual Themes

Sexual Themes

Like many of Rice's novels, The Vampire Armand deals with various aspects of human sexuality. Although the vampires themselves can not have intercourse, they do have a sexuality about them and practice their version of homosexuality, bisexuality and sadomasochism. Such seems to be a recurrent theme throughout Anne Rice's books, as well as pederasty, as Armand is just past puberty when Marius first takes him as a lover. Another example, is instances where Armand is visiting brothels, and gives a detailed description of the "pleasure" he obtained at the hands of "beautiful boys". The mortal human characters are also largely portrayed as bisexual, both in the medieval and modern day periods covered in the novel.

Sex is used throughout the novel as both a reward and a punishment, and to a large extent drives some of the conflict between characters. An example of a such a relationship, is that between Marius and Armand. There are also recurrent themes of BDSM within the novel, as well as disambiguous references to "sleeping beauty" awakening from her slumber, perhaps a reference to Anne Rice's earlier work, the Sleeping Beauty Trilogy.