Eros, Thanatos and the Underworld - Death symbolism in Leroux
One of the most striking characteristics of Leroux’s Erik is his physical ugliness, which caused him to be rejected and shunned throughout his entire life. But Erik is not „just“ run-of-the-mill ugly, he’s not “just” deformed - he literally looks like Death. And it is this very peculiar brand of ugliness that comes with a deep and rich symbolism attached.
Other characters compare him to a „living corpse“ and a skeleton, and he is described as having a „Death‘s head“ on several occasions. At the masked ball, Erik famously dresses up as the „Red Death“ from Edgar Allan Poe‘s gothic short story - however, it is important to note that in contrast to Poe‘s „Red Death“, Erik is not just an allegory, a personification of Death. He is fundamentally human, and the death symbolism in the story serves not only to evoke horror, but also to expand and enrich the character and the themes connected with him on a deeper level.
Erik is not only strongly associated with death, but also with love and passion. This duality reflects the age-old “Eros and Thanatos” connection, where love/sex and death are perceived as two sides of the same coin. The fascination with themes of love and death obviously predates gothic romanticism, but at the turn of the century, it was very much in vogue in both the arts and sciences, and it has always been present in the world of Opera.
But not only Erik’s physical appearance is laden with death imagery - the death symbolism extends to his entire realm. He sleeps in a coffin, and his room is furnished with funeral-style decor, which forms a stark contrast to the more conventional furniture in the rest of his house. The coffin-bed is also evocative of vampire lore, which many readers associate mainly with another famous gothic classic - Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, which was published in 1897. While Leroux had probably read Stoker, the popularity of vampires in France predates Stoker’s novel. French writer Charles Nodier is credited with introducing gothic romanticism in France. He published a series of novels centering around gothic themes in the 1820s and 1830s - works which influenced Victor Hugo and, in turn, Gaston Leroux. Nodier, through his stage adaptation of Polidori‘s „Le Vampire“, reshaped the traditional concept of vampires being nothing but “living corpses” who fed off the living into the more sophisticated, Byronesque character of Lord Ruthven and thus gave birth to the figure of the Romantic Vampire - a reinterpretation whose repercussions are still alive and well today. “Le Vampire” was wildly popular in France in the first half of the 19th century and sparked a fascination with gothic themes.
Leroux often compares Erik’s abode and the cellars of the Opera to the Underworld, the realm of death in Greek and Roman mythology. “Lake Averne”, the name by which Erik and Christine refer to the lake under the Opera House, is an allusion to the “Lago d’Averno” in Italy, one of the legendary entrances to the Underworld. Christine also compares the lake to the River Styx, and Erik to Charon:
“The souls of the dead couldn’t have felt more anxiety when they came to the River Styx, and Charon couldn’t have been gloomier or more silent than the man who lifted me into the boat.”
The Persian also makes a very similar comparison:
„Except for his golden eyes, he looked like the grim ferryman of the Styx.“
The name of Charon, the ferryman to the Underworld, can be translated as “with glowing/fiery eyes”. Erik’s eyes are also described as “glowing” and are only visible in the dark. Christine’s boat ride resembles the passage into the Hades, leaving behind the world of the living. Charon also moves his boat with a pole - an image that is not used in Leroux (since Erik uses oars), but was frequently used in visual adaptations such as the 1925 movie and the ALW musical.
But Erik is not just the ferryman - he is also the ruler of the underground part of the Opera, as Christine says:
„Everything underground belongs to him!“
She even ascribes almost supernatural powers to him, and suggests that he indeed possesses knowledge of the netherworld:
„He does things that no other man could do, and he knows things that are unknown to the world of the living.“
The famous Underworld myth of Orpheus is also referenced in Leroux. Not only does Christine state that she belonged to “Orpheus’ flock” when she listens to Erik sing, she also breaks the rule of “don’t look” in the unintentionally destructive act of tearing away Erik’s mask, which results in her captivity.
In addition to Orpheus, “The Phantom of the Opera” can also be seen as a variation on the mythological story of Hades and Persephone. Hades, the god of the Underworld, fell in love with the young and beautiful Persephone, the goddess of spring, and wanted to marry her, but she wasn’t willing to abandon the world above and go to live in the Underworld. Therefore Hades abducted her, she finally consented to marry him and became queen of the Underworld, ultimately dividing her time between both worlds. The 1858 satirical opera “Orfée aux enfers” by Jacques Offenbach, in addition to parodying the society of the Third Empire, also constituted a crossover between the two legends by having Pluto/Hades abduct Eurydike after starting an affair with her in disguise, and Jupiter leading Orpheus into the Underworld to retrieve his wife, but then tricking him into looking at her.
Although Christine never becomes queen of Erik’s Underworld, she is clearly torn between finding his world both fascinating and terrifying.
Erik and Christine can also be seen as a literal expression of the artistic topos „death and the maiden“, which especially towards the end of the 19th century associated death very strongly with the erotic (see https://eclecticlight.co/2020/01/05/paintings-for-our-time-death-and-the-maiden/ for a very good overview of the evolution of the motif). Here, Death is usually represented as either a skeleton or corpse, or as an angel - which is very much in line with Leroux’s Erik, who also embodies both. Erik‘s music creates feelings of passion, rapture and ecstasy in Christine, and combined with the fact that Erik’s entire existence is a transgression of everything that is socially accepted, it is not a big stretch to conclude that Erik is associated not only with death, but also with sexuality. The perception of sex as both a life-creating and life-threatening force was especially prevalent at the turn of the century, expressed in works such as Edvard Munch’s 1894 painting “Girl and Death” (https://www.edvard-munch.org/girl-and-death/) or the very similar but more explicit “Life and Death“:
Death is seen as intricately tied to love and the darker feelings of passion and desire. Erik identifying with the character of “Don Juan” further accentuates his “Eros” side, while the fact that he is threatening to blow up the Opera house - and thus constituting a threat to all of society very much like Poe’s Red Death - clearly play up the “Thanatos” aspect of his character. Music in the novel also serves as a metaphor for romantic love and sex, as it is connotated with “passion”, “fire”, “ecstasy” and “rapture” throughout - and no character in it is more strongly connected to music than Erik. Erik’s teaching awakens “an ardent, voracious and sublime life” in Christine, symbolising the burgeoning romantic feelings in the young woman. She is terrified with the changes going on in her, which is also in line with how „Eros“ was originally viewed: as a frightening loss of control.
Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical adaptation of the original Phantom story recognized this strongly erotic undercurrent in the story and aptly translated it into songs such as „Music of the night“ or „Point of no return“. But he did not put it there - the themes were always present, and paradoxically, they have always been strongly connected to the aspect that some modern readers now perceive only as “horror” - Erik’s death-like appearance.
All quotes were taken from the translation by Lowell Bair.
tangentwithtanner
janainaart
titsay
snowghoul
stormborns
kaledo-art
gummygunk
pixelskylines
discoholicmusic
