The Oil Painting

The oil pointing of Simon's family is perhaps Simon's most treasured possession, and characterises for him his attachment to the human world.

The oil painting itself is a miniature painting, designed as a keep sake common in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for family members to keep with them when travelling (exactly the same as we might have a picture of our loves ones in our wallet or on our mobile phones). It depicts a respectable gentleman (Simon's father), his mother, the toddler Christopher and Simon himself as a baby. Through the course of the narrative we discover that it was painted at a happy time in their lives before the horror of the vampire curse befalls them.

Simon uses it to remind himself of his motivation (the death of his mother) and also acts as a symbol of everything that he has lost since...