ASHLEY TALK TO US ABOUT THE SYMBOLISM OF LOUIS TAKING ARMAND'S COFFIN TO HIS FAMILY PLOT AND THEN BREAKING IT INTO PIECES I'm in a state lmao
GIRL, I'M FUCKED UP ABOUT IT, I'LL TELL YOU THAT MUCH!!
“Of course, it was several nights later before I realized he was gone. His coffin remained. But he did not return to it. And it was several months before I had that coffin taken to the St. Louis cemetery and put into the crypt beside my own. The grave, long neglected because my family was gone, received the only thing he’d left behind. But then I began to be uncomfortable with that. I thought of it on waking, and again at dawn right before I closed my eyes. And I went downtown one night and took the coffin out, and broke it into pieces and left it in the narrow aisle of the cemetery in the tall grass.” —IWTV
So much of this is just making me go batshit insane.
First of all it’s equally hilarious and heartbreaking in my opinion that it takes Louis several nights before he even realizes Armand has actually Left, and I think that really speaks to how much Louis took his presence for granted while they were together. Like, they spent nearly a century by each other’s sides!! And even without the grief and numbness hanging over him, we know that Louis is a low maintenance kind of lover, so it makes sense that he’s not like hanging onto Armand, but idk just something about those first initial days makes me so SAD!
was he waiting for Armand to come back? When did he realize that Armand wasn’t coming back? And most importantly, why did he keep Armand’s coffin for SEVERAL MONTHS before getting rid of it if he knew Armand wasn’t coming back????
To me, that last question sheds so much light on who Louis is as a person. It reminds me of when his brother died, and he sat staring at his corpse until his eyes went fuzzy. Whether Louis kept Armand’s coffin out of sentiment, out of delusional hope for Armand’s return, the coffin serves as a reminder of that loss, it’s the last thing Louis sees in the morning and the first thing he sees in the evening. I think he kept the coffin for several months as a self-punishment, because at this point he’s so incredibly numb, he needs Armand’s ghost to at least stir some anger or loneliness in him.
But then after several months he does bring it to his family’s crypt in the cemetery and now I just have even more questions like did Louis ever bring Armand there while they were exploring New Orleans together? Did he ever tell Armand about his life as a mortal?
We know from QOTD that Louis’ grave is marked 1766-1794 (which means he “died” 3 years after being turned, after burning down the plantation house and moving into the city). I only have to assume that the crypt was constructed around or shortly after Paul’s death, because we know Paul is buried there too. Anyway basically what I’m saying is that I’m highkey DEVASTATED at the thought of Louis returning to New Orleans after he thought he’d managed to escape with Claudia, and then when he returns to his graves, he doesn’t even have Claudia’s ashes to bury there; instead he’s left with Armand’s coffin, next to his and Paul’s grave, and it’s just this massive reminder of how he’s failed everyone he’s ever loved.
(And then even after he leaves it there, HE CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT!! Again, more time passes and it’s the last thing he thinks about at dawn and the first thing in his head when he wakes up It’s not enough to lock away the memory of Armand to rot alongside his own grave, he has to destroy the coffin, he has to cut off all memory of Armand. And I just wonder if he does it because he can’t stand the thought of a vampire’s coffin in the same resting place as his mortal family, or if it’s because he genuinely wants to exorcise any remnants of Armand in his life).
TL;DR: I think Armand leaving Louis actually hurt him a lot more than he let on :(
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