Rowan's Rage

A number of people are afraid of angry people. Most people, when they are angry, probably do not intend to scare anyone; they simply intend to express that they are angry about something, and they simply want their anger acknowledged and validated. I know this is my position when I am angry.

Some people are capable of giving off the most efficient, effective glares when they are angry, even when they do not intend to glare so intensely. This glare is a scary glare that gives another person pause, and makes them wonder if they are about to be harmed in some way. This is most certainly not the intent of the bearer of the glare, but unfortunately, many people capable of glaring like this have an edge to their voices that match their glare when they are angry. This just reinforces the recipient and/or observer of the glare that danger is imminent.

Most people cannot just scare someone to death merely by glaring at them. However, it seems that most people have a deathly and irrational fear of glaring or rather, being glared at. This fear is intensified along with a distinct indignation if the glarer happens to be female. Like Lestat, I am not really one to discuss gender issues all that much but it's unavoidable on the subject of an angry woman (especially since I am a woman and am well aware that no one wants to see a woman cry or get mad). Again, the irrational fear of doom and danger intensifies if the glarer with the edgy voice is a woman. It's as if, through her glare, she can and will actually kill...

In the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, there is a woman who does in fact have this ability. All people have the power of anger - it is an extremely powerful emotion that affects the angry person and all those in their immediate vicinity. People call it wrong because it can snake out from the person as an intense energy field, affecting the emotions of everyone around. Rowan Mayfair calls it wrong because that energy field, when it comes from her, can literally kill a person. Killing is wrong any way you view anger.

And kill it has.

Rowan's anger at a playmate at school caused the death of the other little girl. Her anger at a would-be rapist killed him before he could rape her. The hurt from the betrayal of Graham Franklin provoked Rowan's anger, killing Graham in the kitchen of their home in Tiburon, CA. But between Graham Franklin and the rapist were two other deaths, at least one of which Rowan was unaware of.

First, there was a girl she got into an argument with in a lab at UC Berkeley. The girl apparently died during the spring break. Then, there was Dr. Karl Lemle, whom Rowan became enraged with when she learned he was harvesting aborted but live fetuses for research purposes. And after Graham Franklin, there was Graham's latest girlfriend, Karen Garfield, who came to Rowan's house wanting something of Graham's while Ellie Mayfair was dying inside the house. Karen Garfield died about two weeks later.

The interesting thing about the deaths of the girl in the lab, Dr. Lemle, and Karen Garfield is that Rowan was not actually present when they died. This could be a metaphor for the power of anger lasting far beyond the actual moment of contact with the angry person, much in the same way a person's hurtful words are branded on one's memory for years to come, influencing their thoughts, feelings and beliefs even long after the speaker has died.

The people who died immediately as a result of being the subject of Rowan's anger probably received a more immediate and far more transfer of rage from Rowan. Being attacked when it's clear that rape is the intent demands a defense. Rowan's struggling would have been ineffective by itself but her anger stopped the attack. For most women, an assertive, self-assured posturing with an alert, non-compliant demeanor tend to discourage would-be rapists because such a person is looking for a victim who will not be too much trouble.

Fortunately for women like Rowan Mayfair, there are idiots who underestimate their potential victims. They assume that a woman who is not very big, does not appear strong and has a countenance that appears to be incompatible with anger will make an easy target. This guy wasn't counting on his victim being able to get mad, much less kill him.

We could say that anger is sometimes a woman's best defense mechanism. It's what motivates her to protect herself and to respond to unjust treatment. In certain situations, her anger itself is a defense. As I said, no one wants to deal with an angry woman, especially one who has perfected the "death glare".

Rowan's ability to kill through her anger seems to be a literal metaphor for how we react to angry women. Angry women are feared because angry women are assumed to have some power behind that anger that is evil, like murder. The very fact that Rowan can kill through what Carlotta Mayfair called her "dangerous anger" could be a metaphor for the effect anger can have on another person unintentionally, even if the anger is well-justified.

Rowan's deadly rage manifests in the person she is focused on as an aneurysm... From Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches on AMC

Rowan's ability to kill through her rage has limits. It is only capable of causing death in humans. It was not capable of killing Lasher, who laughed at her attempts to kill him. It was not capable of killing Lestat, who felt her conscious attempt to kill him as a push against his chest. It was after this push that she begins to tell Lestat - through her mind to his - what that push was and what she almost did to Mona with it.

Even if Rowan's rage could not kill a Taltos or a vampire, its force could be felt by them. Both understood quickly what it was and that it came from her. In both cases, Rowan used her telekinetic power intentionally when her other struggles with them failed. Like any human, failure has a tendency to provoke anger and outrage, and Rowan Mayfair is no different. Her ability to transfer her rage to the person she is enraged with could be considered a literal display of what we fear most about the anger and rage of other people - that it has the power to quite literally destroy us.