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[thephantomessoftheopera]

Notes on Gaston Leroux‘s “The Phantom of the Opera“ - The Reading Guide

Thanks everyone who has been following my „Notes“ on the Gaston Leroux novel, and I hope you‘ve enjoyed them!

For those who haven't read them yet - they are really for everyone, no matter if you already love the book as much as I do, or if you‘re confused or struggling with it, or just want a summary of what happens. They give a summary and analysis of each chapter in the novel, and were originally written as a companion for a read-along of Leroux.

The interpretation is of course my own - and yours can be different - but I try to base it on what is there in the text as much as possible. It is based on the translation by Lowell Bair, so those who have read the de Mattos version will come across some passages (some of them pretty crucial) that are not in that version since it has been heavily abbreviated.

Thanks again to everyone who liked and reblogged the notes - it means a lot!!

“The Phantom of the Opera“ by Gaston Leroux - List of chapters

Foreword

Chapter 1 “Was It the Ghost?“

Chapter 2 „The New Marguerite“

Chapter 3 „In which, for the first time, Debienne and Poligny secretly give the new managers of the Opera, Armand Moncharmin and Firmin Richard, the real and mysterious reason for their departure from the National Academy of Music“

Chapter 4 „Box Five“

Chapter 5 „Continuation of ‚Box Five‘“

Chapter 6 „The Enchanted Violin“

Chapter 7 „A Visit to Box Five“

Chapter 8 “In Which Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin Dare to Have “Faust” Performed in a “Cursed” Opera House, and We See the Frightful Consequences”

Chapter 9 „The Mysterious Brougham“

Chapter 10 „At the Masked Ball“

Chapter 11 „You Must Forget the Name of ‚The Man‘s Voice‘“

Chapter 12 „Above the Trapdoors“

Chapter 13 „Apollo‘s Lyre“

Chapter 14 „A Masterstroke by the Lover of Trapdoors“

Chapter 15 „The Singular Behavior of a Safety Pin“

Chapter 16 „Christine! Christine!“

Chapter 17 „Astonishing Revelations by Madame Giry, Concerning Her Personal Relations with the Opera Ghost“

Chapter 18 „Continuation of ‚The Singular Behavior of a Safety Pin‘“

Chapter 19 „The Policeman, the Viscount, and the Persian“

Chapter 20 „The Viscount and the Persian“

Chapter 21 „In the Cellars of the Opera“

Chapter 22 „Interesting and Instructive Tribulations of a Persian in the Cellars of the Opera“

Chapter 23 „In the Torture Chamber“

Chapter 24 „The Tortures Begin“

Chapter 25 „Barrels! Barrels! Any Barrels to Sell?“

Chapter 26 „The Scorpion or the Grasshopper?“

Chapter 27 „End of the Ghost‘s Love Story“

Epilogue

Lost Chapter: The Magic Envelope

[thephantomessoftheopera]

Notes on Gaston Leroux‘s „The Phantom of the Opera“ - Bonus Chapter: „The Magic Envelope“

Inside Box Five at the Opéra Garnier

This „lost“ chapter was originally included in the „Le Gaulois“ serialization, but was cut when „The Phantom of the Opera“ was published as a novel. In the original order of chapters, it came between „At the Masked Ball“ and „You Must Forget the Name of ‚the Man‘s voice‘“, and while it is not essential to the plot, it adds some rather interesting details. It was translated by @fdelopera and is also available in full on her blog.

„The Magic envelope“ picks up after the chandelier accident, when Moncharmin and Richard find themselves forced to surrender to the Ghost‘s wishes. They are also very adamant about making it known that they had absolutely not witnessed anything out of the ordinary that fateful evening while they were sitting in Box 5. They also pay Carlotta a visit, finding her sick in bed and unable to recover, and have a thorough inspection conducted of the chandelier‘s means of suspension, which resulted inconclusive. Therefore, seeing themselves up against such a formidable adversary, they reinstate Madame Giry with an apology and decide to enter into negotiations with the O.G., thinking this the best way to get a hold of him. They no longer regard him as a harmless prankster, but instead a „crook of outrageous audacity“ (which is probably closer to the truth, since Erik is never afraid of making bold moves). On a side note, we also learn that Gabriel is the confidant of Richard, and Mercier is the confidant of Moncharmin.

Madame Giry resumes her duties without demonstrating any resentment towards the managers for the treatment she was given previously. Moncharmin hands her a letter for the Ghost, to be handed over to him that evening. She puts the letter into the basket she carries most of the time. Erik‘s reply is delivered the following day by the post office. Herein, he informs them that he will shortly send them more instructions regarding the payment of his salary, and informs them that Christine Daaé is unwell and in need of rest, and that they need not worry if they do not see her these days. Moncharmin remarks drily that the Phantom „has every appearance of ruining women‘s reputations“, but they chose not to investigate any further into this „mysterious relationship“.

On the morning of the masked ball, approximately 2 weeks later, Moncharmin and Richard both receive a private letter from the O.G., without knowing that the other has also received a letter. Erik instructs the recipient of each letter on how he will meet him at the ball that evening to discuss the payment of his monthly salary „without any risk, either to it or to me“. He also states that he has decided to confer only with him, flattering him as „a shrewd judge of character, and a person of the highest intellect, qualities that are greatly appreciated, and that I would be at pains to find in your unfortunate colleague“. Erik has a rather mischievous way of exploiting people‘s weaknesses - in this case, the vanity of Moncharmin and Richard - and using them against them, which is not charm.

Now, the most ingenious part of Erik’s plan is that he has sent the exact same letter to both managers, essentially pitting them against each other. He tells them that he will come to the ball dressed as a Capuchin friar, and asks both managers to come wearing the exact same costume. They are supposed to meet him shortly after midnight in the box located directly below the so-called „Box of the Blind“.

Christine casually refers to the „Box of the Blind“ in the previous chapter, but it is only explained here what the „Box of the Blind“ is. It‘s a spacious box in the top tier that offers no view at all, and is reserved for the institutions of the blind who come here to enjoy the music. This means that the box which Erik is sending the managers is located in the third tier.

The managers do exactly as they have been told and come to the appointment both dressed as monks with masks. They come face to face with each other, but since they are both in disguise, each believes that he is actually face to face with the Opera Ghost. Then Erik speaks (probably from the box above) and suggests they go to the office instead, and both managers think that they have heard the other speak. In the previous chapter „At the Masked Ball“, we have seen Christine and Raoul, who are also meeting in a third-tier box, observe Erik ascend and then descend the staircase. Without the context of the lost chapter, we are led to believe that Erik is coming after Raoul and Christine, but this chapter suggests that he is actually just going to his appointed meeting with the managers. This would also explain why, even though they can see him, he does not seem to take note of their presence. Considering how adamant Christine was about keeping Raoul from leaving the box, I also wonder if she was perhaps aware of Erik‘s plan and didn‘t want Raoul to interfere (Raoul feels that she wants to give the „Red Death“ time to escape, and Christine probably doesn‘t want him to endanger himself either).

Richard leaves the box first, thinking he is leading the way for the Ghost, while Moncharmin, who is following him, reflects on how familiar the Ghost is with the way to their office. Once they arrive in their office, they wait for the Ghost to speak, but they don’t hear any more from him. Richard loses his patience and speaks. Moncharmin immediately realizes how they have been played, and is convinced that Richard is pranking him. But as Richard is genuinely angry at being suspected, Moncharmin shows him the letter, and they both realize that they have received the same instructions from the Ghost. But Moncharmin still remains distrustful of Richard, which we also see in the later chapters.

End of Section 1

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Suddenly, they hear three ghostly knocks, seemingly coming from inside the desk, and notice an envelope addressed to them in red ink lying there. Richard finally dares to open it, and the content shows that Erik has staged this little charade as a warning not to involve the police in the future, demonstrating that in case they had decided to call them, the police would have arrested the managers instead of the Ghost, which - according to Erik - would have been „quite entertaining“. Furthermore, he now gives them more precise instructions for the payment of his salary: the managers are to put 20 1,000 franc notes into the envelope (addressed to „Monsieur Fantôme de l‘Opéra“) that he has enclosed, seal it and then give it to Madame Giry half an hour before the next performance.

The next evening, Madame Giry is summoned to Richard‘s office. On her way to the backstage area, she comes across Meg playing a prank on a fireman, and slaps her face. This is the only scene where we see Meg Giry apart from the very beginning of the novel. Madame Giry is handed the rather thick envelope and puts it into the basket she carries around with her. Moncharmin asks her how she usually delivers the envelope, and she tells him that she just puts it in the Ghost‘s box. An important bit of information here is the time that Madame Giry has been in the service of the Ghost. The first letter she delivered was only a few days before the departure of Debienne and Poligny, the former managers. According to her, it was much thinner than this one, which is logical considering that they only paid the Ghost for the first 10 days of January, so only a third of the „regular“ salary. Therefore, far from having amassed riches during his time as the Opera Ghost, Erik had only collected one meagre payment of a little less than 7,000 francs until now (still a lot, but nowhere near a substantial fortune). It also shows that his reign as the „Opera Ghost“ was indeed very short-lived and most likely linked to his plans of marrying Christine and needing money for that.

Madame Giry leaves the managers‘ office, and Mercier is right on her heels. When she gets to Box 5, she takes the letter out of the basket and places it on the shelf. While she is inside Box 5, Mercier opens the basket to see what it contains. The contents are indeed interesting, at least for us readers. The translator, Caitlin Freeman aka @fdelopera, suggests that the items in the basket really belong to Erik and not to Madame Giry, and looking at the contents, it seems like this is indeed the Erik edition of „What‘s in your bag?“. Let‘s see what is in there:

A lace handkerchief embroidered with the interwoven initials „F. O.“

Since the monogram contains neither a „G“ or a „J“, it is not likely that it belongs to Madame Giry. The only character we know that would fit „F. O.“ is indeed le „F. de l’O.“, so it probably belongs to Erik. In the next chapter, we see Christine making lace at home in her free time, so it is apparently something that she likes to do. It is therefore possible that this handkerchief was made and given to Erik by Christine during the preceding two weeks that she stayed with him. She probably thought even Opera Ghosts need decent handkerchiefs.

A bunch of keys

A bunch of keys can really belong to anyone, so this is not very conclusive. Possibly Madame Giry‘s, since Erik can open „anything he pleases“ anyway.

A box of matches

A box of matches might also seem random, but in Chapter 3, it is mentioned that Erik‘s handwriting looks as if he had used matchsticks: „except that at the end a paragraph had been added in red ink, in strange, jagged handwriting that looked as if it might have been made with inked matchsticks.“

It is not really explained why he would use matchsticks instead of a regular pen, but there is definitely a connection.

Twelve sous

A bit of small change, also inconclusive.

An „old edition of the Petit Journal, folded to the section of the serialized novel: The Vampire‘s Daughter“

Along with the handkerchief, probably the most suggestive item in the basket. The translator has researched the serialized novels in the Petit Journal during that period, and has found no serialized novel with that title. This means that Leroux invented this novel, and its title can easily be linked to Erik, who clearly has some vampiric references himself, what with sleeping in a coffin and generally looking a little dead. The mention of the Vampire’s daughter could also be an indication that Erik’s dream of a wife and a normal life also included the possibility of having children and becoming a real family. And it also means that Erik’s taste in literature might potentially lean more towards trashy vampire romances than Shakespeare - which somehow really fits Leroux Erik….

During the entire performance, Moncharmin and Richard avidly watch the envelope from the upper tier, and confirm that it has not moved an inch. After the performance they meet Mercier in Box 5, where they open the envelope and find the 20,000 francs still inside. But the bank notes they had placed in it weren‘t real - Moncharmin and Richard had put 20,000 francs in play money into the envelope and thus incurred Erik’s wrath. Therefore, when Moncharmin and Richard return to their office, they find a short note from him there. We are treated to hearing Erik curse here in a very special fashion - Freeman has aptly translated the original curse “Lustre et balustre!” as “candles and chandeliers!” The reference to the chandelier („lustre“) is an unveiled threat and reminder of the previous accident. He also lets them know that the “Bank of Saint Farce is not legal tender in my Empire”, making it the only time that Erik actually refers to his domain in the Opera as his “Empire”.

Richard is furious, and more so because he feels that Moncharmin still suspects him. He sends for Gabriel, his friend. In a private conversation, Richard recounts the whole affair to Gabriel and Mercier. Gabriel advises them to put the real 20,000 francs into the envelope, and not to involve the police.

End of Section 2

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Moncharmin wants to know why Gabriel doesn’t want to involve the police, and Gabriel insists that if the Ghost is real, they can’t outsmart him, and if he is not, they will be ridiculed - so they can’t really win. Mercier suggests that a real Ghost would have no use for 20,000 francs, so if they use 20,000 francs as bait and the Ghost steals them, they will have proof that he is not a real Ghost. The four of them agree to keep watch over the envelope during the next performance two days later.

When Richard arrives in the managers’ office again half an hour before the performance, an envelope addressed to the “F. de l’O. - private” is awaiting him on the desk. Richard is fuming because he cannot figure out how the Ghost could get into the office despite the new security locks that they had put on the doors. After the other men have arrived, Richard puts 20,000 real francs into the Ghost‘s envelope, and hands it to Moncharmin, who brings it to Madame Giry. Madame Giry once again enters the box and leaves the envelope on the shelf. All four men avidly watch the envelope lying there innocently throughout the whole performance. When they retrieve the seemingly unopened envelope up again afterwards and open it, they think at first that they have outsmarted the Ghost, until Moncharmin turns pale and realizes that he is holding the play money instead of the real notes!

For the resolution of the magic trick, see Chapter 17.

End of Section 3

[thephantomessoftheopera]

Notes on Gaston Leroux‘s „The Phantom of the Opera“ - Epilogue

<< Previous chapter “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known”

-Charles Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities”

As we are coming to the end of the story, Leroux ties up a few more loose ends in the epilogue.

As for Raoul and Christine, their possible happy ending is only implied by what Erik told the Persian - that they had “taken a northbound train” and were planning to get married in secret. They have disappeared from the world, and Christine never appeared again on stage anywhere. According to Leroux, they might have finally settled in Norway together with Mama Valerius. At first, I thought Leroux might have been confusing Sweden and Norway, but when I did a little research on the name „Daae“, it turns out that the name is actually most prevalent in Norway, with almost no occurrences in Sweden. It is also implied that even if they took that “northbound” train before, Christine took a train back to Paris a few weeks later to return to Erik, because she had the wedding ring on her when she left, and it was finally found on Erik‘s finger.

As Philippe‘s death was deemed to be the consequence of the fight between the two brothers over Raoul’s supposed engagement to Christine, Raoul was a murder suspect - but as his previous testimony had already made him appear a lunatic in the eyes of the Commissary, Philippe‘s death was ultimately pronounced accidental. However, as Parisian society had taken less than kindly to the news of the engagement, I think that the couple would have had a very difficult standing if they had officially married and assumed the now vacant titles of the Count and Countess de Chagny. It is therefore likely that Raoul, having officially disappeared, never claimed his titles and inheritance, and chose the more simple lifestyle that Christine was accustomed to. Leroux concludes the story of Raoul and Christine with the statement that one day, he too might „hear the solitary echoes of the Northland repeat the singing of the woman who knew the Angel of Music''. In the epilogue, the boundaries between the „false“ and the „real“ Angel of Music become blurred, as Leroux repeatedly speaks of Erik as the “Angel of Music” - indicating that maybe, just maybe, Erik truly was the Angel of Music.

After following up on Raoul and Christine, Leroux relates how he obtained proof of Erik‘s existence from the Persian, mostly through the letters written by Christine that Erik had sent to him, but also through the testimonies of Meg Giry and La Sorelli. He supposedly placed all the proof he had gathered in the archives of the Paris Opera.

He also obtained the testimony of M. Poligny, the previous manager of the Opera. The „Opera Ghost“ affair was the final straw that made him resign his post, which again indicates that Erik‘s reign as „O.G.“ was rather short and caused by Erik falling in love (since he had been living in the Opera House presumably since the early 1870s). He also quotes from the fictional „Memoirs of a Manager“ by Armand Moncharmin, where Moncharmin relates that a few days after Christine‘s abduction, Erik returned all of the forty thousand francs he had extracted to the managers, no longer having any need for the money as he had given up his plan to marry Christine. The mystery of the safety-pin is also finally resolved, as Leroux was supposedly able to locate a small trapdoor in the floor of the managers’ office, through which a dexterous magician like Erik could easily have reached up and retrieved the envelope from Richard‘s coattail pocket as it was hanging down from his chair.

Leroux also notes that the marble pillar next to Box 5 sounds hollow and would offer ample space for Erik to hide inside it. According to Gérard Fontaine’s research, the pillars being hollow applies to all the pillars in the auditorium of the Palais Garnier. Whether that proves or disproves anything is up to you... Leroux’s plan of having the lake drained in order to obtain the ultimate proof of Erik‘s existence - finding the entrance to the house by the lake - did not go through, but Leroux still sustains his hope of one day finding the score of „Don Juan Triumphant“ there (that is, if Christine had not taken it with her when she came to bury him).

Leroux then gives a summary of Erik’s life according to the Persian. Erik was born near Rouen in France and ran away from his parents as a young boy, as they were afraid and horrified by how he looked. After being exhibited as a “living corpse” at fairs, he became a singing sensation and garnered a reputation that reached as far as Persia. The daroga of Mazenderan was sent to bring Erik to Persia as entertainment for the “little sultana”. Erik, who also worked there as an assassin, is described here as amoral, “not knowing the difference between right and wrong”. Even though he does not have an evil heart, his life up until this point has left him completely without a moral compass of any kind.

After building an ingenious palace for the shah, Erik’s execution was ordered so that he could not divulge its secrets to anyone. The daroga was supposed to carry it out, but as he owed Erik favours (and was the one who brough Erik to Persia in the first place), he helped him escape instead. He was punished for this and went into exile to Paris. Erik took a detour to Asia Minor and Constantinople before he ended up in Paris as well. It is also mentioned that Erik could make lifelike automata, which is reflected in the musical in the form of the monkey music box and also the “mirror bride”, a physical representation of Erik’s dream of a loving wife.

Once in Paris, Erik decided that he finally wanted to live a normal life, and placed a successful bid to work as a contractor on the Opera House. Wishing to hide his face from the world forever, he built his comfortable home into the foundations of the Opera. Erik’s plan to live out the rest of his life in peaceful tranquillity went well - until he crossed paths with Christine Daae and lost his heart to her completely. And the rest is history…

Leroux here gives his own view of Erik: “He had a heart great enough to hold the empire of the world, and in the end he had to be content with a cellar.” With a normal face, Erik, with his brilliant mind and extraordinary talents, could have had the world at his feet. And even though no one had ever loved him, he still had a heart capable of feeling deep, pure love, which is pretty remarkable. His beautiful voice is a reflection of the beauty he carries inside his soul - which was sadly eclipsed by his ugliness, which did not allow him to live “like everyone else”. The great tragedy of his life was his face, which kept others from treating him as a human being and recognizing his full potential. He is therefore clearly worthy of pity, instead of being cursed and condemned as evil.

Leroux had already mentioned in the Prologue that he believed the skeleton found in the cellars of the Opera was Erik’s. Now he finally reveals why he was so certain of that: because Erik’s skeleton wore the gold wedding ring on his finger, which Leroux believes Christine had placed there. Even though Erik had set her free and given her the ring, she later came back to him, and this time it was certainly not out of terror. With Erik dead, none of his threats would hold any more sway over her - and yet, she still returned to him to keep her promise. She not only buried him with the wedding ring, but she slipped it onto his finger, ultimately fulfilling her promise to accept him as her husband. In a sense, she buried him with her love, and that is truly a bittersweet and beautiful ending. After everything he had to endure, Erik’s life ends with a kiss and a ring on his finger, put there by the woman he loved more than his own life, and with Leroux praying for his salvation. That may not be a traditional happy ending, but it‘s very powerful. And it’s definitely not a villain’s ending.

As „Faust“ is the most strongly referenced work in „Phantom“, it is also worth comparing how the endings are different. In the final act of Gounod‘s opera, Faust and Marguerite first swear their love to each other, but when Marguerite sees Mephistopheles and realizes who Faust really is, she turns away from him and chooses death instead, while Faust is dragged into the fires of hell. Her famous last words to him are „You horrify me!“ In „Phantom“, the progression is almost the other way round - Christine is horrified at first, but then accepts Erik and chooses life instead of death.

It should also be noted that the ending in the novel is so vague that it also allows a lot of room for the reader’s imagination. Was Erik really dead when Christine returned? He himself was announcing his death, so it would not even be so very unlikely. But as this is Leroux’s story, the official reading would of course be how he himself imagined the ending: Erik dying and Christine coming back to bury him. This might be my favourite line from the novel:

“The skeleton lay near the little fountain, where the Angel of Music first held the unconscious Christine Daae in his trembling arms after taking her into the cellars of the Opera.”

As if the return of the ring was not enough poetic closure, he also asked to be buried in the very spot where he held the love of his life for the first time...

Symbolism and Metaphors

Now that we have concluded the epilogue, I would like to add a few more notes on the general themes which are present throughout the novel and still influence how we feel about it today.

To understand the extent of symbolism employed in  „The Phantom of the Opera“, it is necessary to understand the cultural mindset and environment in which it was written. At the turn of the century, the arts (and sciences, as evidenced by the slowly emerging works of Sigmund Freud) were rather obsessed with the fateful connection between Eros and Thanatos - love as the life-bringing force, and death as the destructive force. Both were often seen as intertwined and mirrored in the other.

Erik is the personification of Eros and Thanatos. He unites both forces in him to a degree unparalleled by any other character in the story. The death symbolism that is also clearly reflected in how he is described, would be both perceived as horrifying - and yet not without a strangely seductive fascination inherent in it. Death is intricately tied to darker feelings of passion and desire.The “Eros” and the “Thanatos” part of his character are intertwined, but his character also oscillates between the two sides in the course of the story.

Music in „Phantom“ also serves as a metaphor for romantic love, not only in the spiritual but also in the physical sense, as it is connotated with “passion”, “fire”, “ecstasy” and “rapture” throughout the story. Erik’s teaching awakens “an ardent, voracious and sublime life” in Christine, symbolizing 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. Erik says in “Apollo’s Lyre” that “some music is so formidable that it consumes everyone who approaches it”, and Christine states that “Music has the power to abolish everything in the outside world except its sounds, which go straight to the heart”. In both sentences, the word “music” can easily be replaced with “love” - especially in Christine’s example, it would be the musical equivalent of “love is blind”.

Like in other (gothic) romances - “Wuthering Heights” being perhaps the prime example - the two rivals in the principal love triangle represent two very different types of love: one is intense and passionate, but also consuming, terrifying and potentially destructive, and the other is safer, but also somewhat chaste and lifeless. Erik and Raoul each represent one of the two extremes. This contrast is exemplified in the scene at the Masked Ball: Raoul wears white, the colour of innocence, while Erik wears red, the colour of passion, but also of danger and blood.

It is suggested in the novel that Erik and Christine were chained together by fate (“La destinée m’enchaîne à toi sans retour”), and I believe they were destined to save each other. Erik saved Christine from her grief in the wake of her father’s death and brought her back to life, and Christine saved his soul by being the first person in his life to accept him and grant him true happiness. „Phantom“ may be a tragic love story, but it is also a hopeful one, as love proves stronger than death. Christine’s choice, Erik‘s sacrifice and the skeleton’s wedding ring are all symbols of love triumphing over death.

[thephantomessoftheopera]

Notes on Gaston Leroux’s “The Phantom of the Opera” - Chapter 10: “At the Masked Ball”

“Masked Ball at the Opera” by Henri Gervex

<< Previous chapter

After having received Christine‘s letter, Raoul is torn between “pitying and cursing” Christine (the „pity or curse“ phrase will also be applied to Erik in the epilogue). He recalls Christine appearing to be a „soulless singing automaton“ during her time at the Conservatoire, and how she had suddenly come to life again during her performance at the gala night, wondering who could have caused that incredible transformation.

The mud-stained letter itself was probably secretly dropped by Christine when she went out with Erik, as it was found on the Place de l’Opéra. She has asked him to come and meet her at the masked ball, wearing a white domino, while she herself wears a black one. If you are wondering what exactly a “domino” looks like, it’s a combination of a type of cape and a mask as worn by the lady in the picture below: 

Image from “Le Fantôme de l’Opera” by Gérard Fontaine

The masked ball, which is an annual event to honour a famous artist, is given „some time before Shrovetide“, which is carnival. Considering that Christine stayed with Erik for two weeks, it must now be mid-February. Poor Raoul feels (and probably looks) somewhat ridiculous in his lace-trimmed mask and white costume. According to him, a gentleman like him would not normally wear a costume like that, which indicates that Christine had him dress up like a woman. Christine, who came to the masked ball with Erik, passes by to meet him as agreed and beckons him to follow her.

Erik in his famous “Red Death” costume is also present, creating quite the sensation at the ball and has loads of people gathering around who admire his costume and his “extremely realistic” death’s head. Again, it is not clear whether he is actually wearing a mask in this scene or not. When Raoul sees him, he recognizes the same death’s head that he saw at Perros-Guirec, but Christine drags him onward towards one of the private boxes on the upper floors, away from the crowd.

The „Red Death“ costume refers to Edgar Allan Poe‘s classic short story of gothic horror „The Masque of the Red Death“. The events in the story are allegorical, but in fact very similar to the whole Masquerade scene, and the Red Death is described as follows:

„The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat.“  

Notably, in the story the Red Death (an allegory for a mortal disease) ends up killing every single person at the masked ball and first of all, the Prince who was so intent on shutting him out of his realm in the first place.

The colour symbolism is also quite notable in this chapter. Despite the ball, which takes place shortly before Carnival, being described as exceedingly colourful, Leroux assigns the colours black (Christine), red (Erik) and white (Raoul) to his three principal characters. In gothic literature, the meanings associated with those colours are usually:

Black (Christine): mystery, grief, fear, death

Red (Erik): passion, love, danger, wrath

White (Raoul): innocence, purity, youth

The combination of black and red is the most prevalent in gothic symbolism. White, red and black are also the colours most commonly associated with the ALW adaptation of “Phantom”.

The grand staircase of the Palais Garnier (from operadeparis.fr) Like in Perros, Raoul doesn‘t really get to talk to Christine in a sensible way here either because his overwhelming, childish self-pity and jealousy of Erik drive him to be rather vicious to her in his accusations. She desperately tries to keep him from leaving the box where they are hiding, both seemingly to keep Erik (who is on the staircase outside the box) from getting to Raoul, but also to keep Raoul from getting to Erik. She is apparently able to stand up to Raoul not only verbally, but also physically when she shoves him aside as he tries to get past her. She asks him “in the name of their love” not to go outside, but Raoul is convinced that she is lying about loving him and only wants to give Erik time to escape.

In this scene, it seems that Erik is coming after Raoul and Christine as a threat, but the "Lost Chapter" gives a somewhat different context. Erik here is in fact going to a meeting he had previously arranged with the managers to trick them. This also explains why he seems not to acknowledge Christine's and Raoul's presence, although he is very close to them.

When Christine becomes convinced that Raoul has lost her trust in her, she despairs. She also tells him that she will never sing again - which is not quite true, as she will still perform on stage later in the story. When Raoul continues to demand explanations from her, she tells him that it’s a “tragedy” and finally takes off her mask, revealing a pale, sorrowful and anguished face. And with that, she turns away to leave him, forbidding him to follow her.

Raoul doesn’t leave but hides in her dressing-room instead. After the ball she comes back, sits down at her desk and laments “poor Erik”, before she starts writing - probably a letter to Raoul telling him what she could not tell him in person. Raoul cannot understand why she would pity anyone but him, for he thinks that he is the only one who deserves her pity. This childish, selfish jealousy is unfortunately rather typical for Raoul.

When Erik comes through the secret passages to meet Christine in her dressing-room at 2 a.m., Raoul hears his enchantingly and sublimely beautiful singing voice for the first time and is completely enthralled by it. Christine has regained her composure by now, and her face lights up with happiness when she hears Erik’s singing. She seems quite at ease with him when she teasingly scolds him for being late. She actually does not appear terrified at all here. As far as the timeline is concerned, she has just come back from her first two-week stay with Erik before the ball and is now about to go through the mirror for the second time, returning with Erik to his house.

This scene is one of my favourite scenes in the novel - primarily because I love the music Leroux chose for it. Erik is singing “Wedding night” (Nuit d’hyménée) from the opera “Roméo et Juliette” by Charles Gounod here. If you haven’t seen it before, go watch it here: 

https://youtu.be/_X8LsHwJXfA

This is, in my view, the most beautiful song from the whole book and definitely my personal favourite ❤️. Just like „Point of no return“, „Nuit d’hyménée“ is also a very passionate love song that is sung during Romeo and Juliet’s wedding night. Here are the lyrics:

O wedding night!

O sweet night of love!

Destiny binds me to you forever.

O sheer delight in living,

O all-powerful charms!

Your sweet gaze fills me with rapture,

your voice ravishes my senses!

Beneath your burning kisses

Heaven radiates within me.

I have given you my soul;

To you, always to you.

O sheer delight in living,

O all-powerful charms,

O wedding night!

(Repeat)

Leroux quotes Erik singing the line “La destinée m'enchaîne à toi sans retour” (literally “destiny chains me to you without return”) three times. It is often wrongly translated as “you to me” when it is in fact “me to you”, which holds a slightly different connotation. The quote also reinforces the notion that fate has somehow thrown Erik and Christine in each other’s way and that their destinies are bound together.

The line „Je t‘ai donné mon âme“ (I have given you my soul“) is also sung here by Erik and mirrors Christine‘s „Tonight, I have given you my soul“ which she says to him after the gala night.

The mirror in this scene is important as a symbol as well. Erik and Christine are presented as pairs of opposites throughout the novel in various forms - heaven and hell, aboveground and underground, black and white, beauty and ugliness, man and woman, angel and demon. A typical feature of “Phantom” is that things are rarely black and white, though. Erik’s character is mostly shrouded in darkness, but he carries a spark of the divine through his music and also his love, which ultimately redeems him. Christine is a character of light, but carried grief in her heart for a long time and also finds it hard to resist the pull of passion that she feels in the music.

In the mirror scene, Erik literally becomes Christine’s mirror image. Whereas the opposites theme emphasizes the differences in their characters, the mirror is a symbol of how they complement each other. Their passion for music is mirrored in the other, and it extends to a realm where nothing else has significance. Through the symbolism of being both opposites and mirror images, their relationship symbolizes the unification of opposites and takes on an almost transcendental, „yin and yang“-like quality.  

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[thephantomessoftheopera]

Notes on Gaston Leroux‘s „The Phantom of the Opera“ - Chapter 27: „End of the Ghost‘s Love Story“

Artwork by @flaviamarquesart

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“End of the Ghost’s Love Story” is the most powerful chapter in the novel, because it reveals the full extent of Erik’s love for Christine. It is also the one that makes the story truly extraordinary, because it redeems his character and lifts him above the level of a gothic villain, who is usually defeated and punished in the end. This is why he is generally considered a “Byronic Hero” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byronic_hero). The Byronic hero is a complex, often tragic form of romantic anti-hero who is generally more villain than traditional hero, but who has at least one redeeming quality (usually connected to love) which makes him a sympathetic figure despite his flaws and/or crimes. The character type was created by the English poet Lord Byron in his works such as “The Corsair” and “Don Juan”, and became extremely popular in the 19th century. Except for his looks, Erik fits that classic character type in almost all other aspects (highly intelligent, tortured, violent, ruthless, manipulative and driven by an all-consuming passion).

The chapter’s title also makes it clear that the whole thing is a love story at its core - everything in the novel happened because Erik fell in love with Christine. It is, and has always been, the story of Erik’s love - he is the one character we follow up until the end.

The final chapter is narrated by Leroux again, but it draws on what the Persian supposedly told him when he went to visit him in his flat in the rue de Rivoli. When the Persian wakes up after losing consciousness in the water, he and Raoul are resting in the Louis-Philippe room, and Erik and Christine are taking care of them. Raoul has already woken up before the Persian, and is now asleep again.

The room itself astounds the Persian in how ordinary and old-fashioned it looks, and how much it contrasts with Erik’s general appearance (remember that the Persian had never been in Erik’s house before). Erik explains to him that the furniture once belonged to his mother, which explains why the style is so different from his bedroom, which is decidedly more „Erik“. The Persian also wonders why Christine, who is moving silently through the room and then sitting down beside the fireplace, ignores both Raoul and himself when tries to call her. The Persian believes that Christine is reading “The Imitation of Christ”, which is significant and which I will come back to a little later. The “opposites” theme is also present in this scene again, describing Erik’s figure as black and a demon, and Christine’s as white and an angel. The Persian finally falls asleep again.

When he wakes for the second time, Erik has already delivered him back to his flat according to the promise he made to “his wife”. The Persian immediately sends to find out what happened to Raoul, and learns that Raoul has disappeared and that Philippe’s body has been found on the shore of the lake under the opera house. The Persian has no doubt that Philippe was drowned by Erik (or “the siren”), and decides to denounce him to the police. However, his testimony is ridiculed, and he - like Raoul - is taken for a lunatic. The Persian then decides to write everything down and later hands his manuscript to Leroux (which is what we’ve been reading in these last chapters).

When he has finished writing his account down, Erik comes to visit him. He is clearly unwell and described as weak, leaning against the wall and “pale as a sheet”. The Persian accuses him of murdering Philippe and wants to know what happened to Raoul and Christine, whether they are dead or alive. Erik denies murdering Philippe, but the Persian doesn’t believe him. We don’t really know the truth though, so the “murder mystery” has no definite resolution and turns into more of a side note.

Erik tells the Persian that he is about to “die of love” for Christine. As I’ve mentioned before, I believe that the most likely physical cause of his death would really be the gunshot that Raoul fired at him, and a possible infection following that injury which would lead to his precarious state of health as seen in this chapter. This could metaphorically also be described as “dying of love” (because he wouldn’t have caught that bullet if he hadn’t been in love).

After turning the scorpion, Christine begged him to save Raoul, and she had already offered before to accept his proposal if he gave her the key to the torture chamber, but Erik did not care then, because he did not believe her. But when she swears to him that she will become his “living wife”, it‘s different as he finally sees in her eyes what he has been hoping to see - Christine’s genuine commitment. She means to go through with her promise and is accepting him as her husband at that moment - and this is why her commitment is powerful enough to break through to him.

According to their agreement, Erik takes the Persian aboveground, but since Raoul probably wouldn’t agree to leave, Erik drugs him and locks him up in the dungeon beneath the fifth cellar. Then he returns to Christine, who stands calmly waiting for him. Erik suddenly feels “shyer than a little child” as he approaches Christine, but she does not back away from him. He tenderly kisses her forehead and is overwhelmed with how good it feels to kiss her, as no woman has ever allowed him to, not even his mother. Christine even leans into his touch a little, and remains close to him after the kiss, „as if it were perfectly natural“.

Fear and disgust are very powerful, primal emotions, but Christine‘s feelings for Erik are strong enough to overcome both. Considering that no one, not even the Persian, was able to even look at Erik’s face without horror, I feel that Christine must have cared very deeply for him, as she allows his kiss without fear and without recoiling from him at all, even after everything he has put her through.

He falls at her feet and starts crying of happiness, and seeing his tears, Christine starts to cry as well. Erik tears off his mask so that he won’t lose any of her tears on his skin, and still Christine shows no sign of horror or disgust. And she doesn’t only allow him to touch her, but she also touches him of her own free will and takes his hand, saying “poor, unhappy Erik”. I feel that this is the moment when the full expanse of his life’s tragedy truly hits her. She is not only the first woman, but the first person in his entire life to treat him with tenderness and acceptance.

Gratitude and love for her overwhelm him and make him realize that he has forced her choice. He puts the gold wedding ring into her hand, setting her free and telling her that he knows she loves Raoul and that she is free to go and marry him whenever she pleases. He „calmly cuts his heart to pieces“ and puts her happiness before his own in this final expression of true love and sacrifice. For as damaged as he was, the ending proves that Erik truly loved Christine because his love is ultimately selfless. There is also no bitterness in his feelings towards Christine after she leaves - he has always loved her, and still continues to love her. He still feels protective of her: “I’d better not hear that anyone has touched a single hair on her head!” Christine gave him “all the happiness in the world”, and he is grateful to her for this gift. His love for her redeems him as a character and proves to be his moral compass - before, he considered himself “outside the human race” and therefore not bound by common moral values.

In the previous chapter, Christine is shown reading what the Persian believes to be “The Imitation of Christ”. I don’t think that is a coincidence, and I also believe that the name “Christine” was perhaps even chosen for her on purpose (she was originally named Pauline, according to Leroux’s manuscript). Christine becomes a “Christ figure” here in two ways: through her sacrifice, she saves the lives of Raoul, the Persian and everyone in the Opera. But she also offers acceptance and love to a sinner, an outcast who has been shunned by society - and this is an extremely powerful gesture. She possessed the strength necessary to see Erik as a human being, and that is what sets her apart from everyone else. Her love here transcends the realm of romantic love and becomes almost divine - all-encompassing, forgiving, healing.

Christine may superficially fit the traditional image of a “damsel in distress”, but the would-be hero who was coming to rescue her didn’t get very far, nor could he do anything to save her. The only hero who saved Christine was Christine herself - and she also saved everyone else: Raoul, the Persian, everyone in the Opera, and Erik. Both Christine and Erik show incredible bravery in this chapter: Christine‘s bravery shows in her truly accepting Erik as a man and in saving Raoul, and Erik‘s bravery consists in letting her go, relinquishing his one chance in his life of having everything he has ever dreamed of.

Erik then goes to free Raoul and brings him to Christine, where Raoul and Christine kiss. Christine swears to Erik that she will come back to bury him with the ring, and then she finally kisses him before they leave.

Seeing Erik weeping and overcome with emotion, the Persian no longer doubts him. Erik tells the Persian that when he feels he is close to dying, he will send the letters that Christine had left with him and a few of her personal objects to him, and that this would be the cue for the Persian to put an obituary notice in the newspaper so that Christine and Raoul would know. Interestingly, that entire arrangement hinged on Erik himself announcing his death without anyone confirming it, because he could only mail things to the Persian if he was still alive. This leaves a lot of blank space for the reader’s imagination, because who knows if he really died…? The Persian, at least, never saw him again, but announced three weeks later that “Erik is dead”.

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[thephantomessoftheopera]

Notes on Gaston Leroux’s “The Phantom of the Opera” - Chapter 13: “Apollo’s Lyre”

Image of the Apollo statue on the rooftop of the Palais Garnier from Wikimedia Commons

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The chapter “Apollo’s Lyre” constitutes the basis for the “rooftop scene” between Raoul and Christine in the ALW version, but in the book, it is really all about Erik. It’s quite possibly the most important chapter in the novel because we meet our title hero face-to-face for the first time, and because Erik overhearing Christine‘s plan to escape provides a turning-point for the plot.

The symbol of Apollo's Lyre is not only present in the Apollo statue on the highest point of the rooftop (that Erik is supposedly clinging to here), but also adorns the chandelier both in the Palais Garnier and in the original production of the musical.

At the end of the preceding chapter, Raoul had vowed to take Christine away, but she is still at war with herself about the idea. She wants to leave because she is afraid, but at the same time, warns Raoul that he will probably need to force her to leave since she isn’t emotionally ready to let go:

““But if I refuse to go with you when the time comes for you to take me away, you must make me go!” [...] she spoke these words with a forcefulness that seemed to be directed against herself.”

Every time Raoul offers to take her away right then and there, Christine refuses with an excuse of why it’s not possible to leave just now. Yet she is afraid that the next time she goes to Erik, she may never leave again. Erik seems to make her feel very deeply - but too much feeling can be very terrifying, especially if it’s a wild ride on that emotional rollercoaster of ecstasy, horror, pity, despair and passion that he sends her on. It’s no wonder she rationally wants to get out before it consumes her, and yet is afraid of losing it.

While she begins telling Raoul the whole story from her perspective, they repeatedly think they hear sighs, but still remain in the same place. This is a bit odd, considering how they kept running around before, but now, Christine insists that they stay, which is a bit curious. It is possible that she thought they were safe - but considering her general unwillingness to leave, I think it is even possible that she might be subconsciously sabotaging her own escape plan.

When Christine speaks about how she first met Erik, it becomes clear that masquerading as the Angel of Music was not initially Erik‘s idea. When Christine heard Erik in her dressing-room for the first time three months ago, he sang and spoke to her like a real man, except that he had this beautiful angelic voice and was hiding in the passage behind her room, so that he could not be seen. The first person to suggest that he might indeed be the Angel of Music is Mama Valerius, who prompts Christine to ask Erik if he is the Angel her father had sent for her. Erik jumps at the opportunity presented to him and confirms that her assumption is correct, and asks if she will let him teach her. She consents, and together they make amazing progress, developing both Christine’s technique and her inspiration to hitherto unknown heights.

One day, Christine sees Raoul at the Opera, and eagerly tells Erik about it. I bet he bitterly cursed himself then for passing himself off as an Angel, leaving enough space in Christine’s heart for a real man. But his threats to leave cause her to despair and to try to ignore Raoul - also because a marriage to him would be out of her reach anyway. Now it’s Erik’s turn to whine and accuse Christine of being in love with Raoul in the same way we’ve seen Raoul do before. But just like with Raoul, she won’t have that and even challenges Erik that she will ask Raoul to accompany her to Perros. According to her, Erik’s jealous reaction made her realize that she loved Raoul. I wonder if madly jealous Raoul also made her realize that she might possibly be just a little bit in love with two very different men?

Subconsciously, she seems to kind of know already that Erik is not really an angel, because when the chandelier falls, she is half-mad with panic and terribly afraid that it may have killed “the Voice” (and it would be a bit difficult to kill a heavenly being even if you dropped a chandelier on it). She also admits that then, Raoul and Erik were both “the equal halves of her heart” (and I think they still are, beneath all the complications that have arisen in the meantime). She runs to her dressing-room because that is where she is most likely to find “the Voice”, and when she hears the sounds of Erik singing and playing the “Resurrection of Lazarus” on his violin, she follows his voice through the mirror without being able to say how exactly she disappeared through it. She suddenly finds herself being gripped by a man in a black cloak and a full-face mask and tries to fight back, but then faints. When she wakes, she is resting on the ground near a fountain, and Erik is gently tending to her, but doesn’t reply to her questions so as not to give himself away as “the Voice”. Christine recognizes César the horse, and realizes that even though she never believed in the ghost, she had heard the rumours about him stealing the horse.

Erik takes Christine to the house by the lake, first on César’s back (that’s what he needed the horse for, after all) and then in the famous boat (which is rowed in the novel). She is no longer terrified, but feels strangely peaceful - an effect which she attributes to the possibility of having been drugged, even though she admits that at the same time, she was still in full possession of her senses.

“Lake Averne”, the name of the lake under the Opera House, is a play on words as well as meaning. First, “lac averne” is almost the same as “la caverne”, which means “the cavern”. There is also a real lake named “Lago d’Averno” in Italy, and in Roman mythology, that lake is one of the entrances to the Underworld. This fits with the fact that Erik also bears characteristics of Charon, the ferryman to the Underworld, whose name can be literally translated as “with glowing eyes”. The iconic boat ride certainly resembles the passage into the Hades, which is even alluded to in the novel.

The water tank below the Palais Garnier. Image from atlasobscura.com

Let’s stay in the Underworld for a moment. “The Phantom of the Opera” can also be seen as a variation on the story of Hades and Persephone (Christine’s ship in “Love Never Dies” is not called “Persephone” for nothing). Hades, the god of the Underworld, fell in love with the young and beautiful Persephone and wanted to marry her, but as the goddess of spring, 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. Due to the intervention of her infuriated mother Demeter, it was finally decided that she would divide her time between living on earth for some months every year and living in the Underworld for the rest of the time.

When they arrive, Erik sets a confused Christine down in his brightly lit drawing-room, which has been decorated with an enormous amount of golden baskets full of flowers. It is not quite clear where all the flowers come from, so I guess he bought them all for her. With a salary of 20,000 francs, he could probably afford the luxury of spending so much on flower decorations… He tells her that she is in no danger, as long as she doesn’t touch his mask. When Christine realizes that the Voice is not an angel, she starts crying. Erik then kneels down in front of her and proceeds to tell her without further ado who he is, begs her to forgive him, and lays his heart at her feet. He confesses how much he loves her, and how wrong his actions were, but that he did everything out of love for her. It seems that Erik was rather anxious to reveal the truth that he is not really the Angel of Music and end his deception, but at the same time, was waiting for an opportunity that would allow him to explain everything without the risk of her running away from him forever. Keep in mind that he took on the role of the Angel of Music for just a couple of months, not years as it is commonly assumed.

Christine then stands up to demand her freedom, and is taken aback when he actually concedes it to her, telling her that she is free to leave. But after all, she does not leave because he starts to play the harp and sing for her. The piece he is singing here is the “Canzone del Salice” from Rossini’s “Otello”, in which Desdemona laments the cruelty of love. It is often assumed that the „Otello“ Leroux is referencing here is the more famous “Otello” by Verdi, but that one didn’t premiere until 1887, while the story is definitely set before 1886. Furthermore, Rossini’s version of the “willow song” is the only one that starts with a harp solo. The song is included in the playlist, listen to it here:

https://open.spotify.com/track/25ILZhCIWIRjJVK8SqDWzn?si=U5EPiO_ySBOlIy5XvI1BGw&dl_branch=1

The next morning, Christine awakes on the couch in „her“ bedroom (aka the “Louis-Philippe room”) where Erik must have carried her after she had fallen asleep. When she can‘t get out, she suffers a fit of hysterics, although it seems that she has simply been unable to locate the door set within the wall. Erik has been out shopping for her, which is a rather cute scene when he comes back with all the boxes for her while she yells at him. He calmly tells her to get ready for lunch, and she slams the door in his face so she can take a bath in peace. She places a pair of scissors within reach so that she could kill herself if Erik “stopped behaving like an honourable man”. Her concern is understandable, being alone with the man who is madly in love with her, however it is important to note that Erik never physically forces himself on her throughout the story.

Remarkably, Erik’s house had both hot and cold running water, something that was still very rare then, which suggests that he actually lived in better hygienic conditions than most people at that time, and that he was a skilled engineer.

When she finally joins him, he tells her that she does not need to be afraid, and that all he asks for is that she will spend 5 days with him. After that, he hopes that she will come back to see “poor Erik” from time to time, shedding a few tears beneath his black mask as he speaks. He serves Christine lunch in the drawing-room, consisting of crayfish, chicken wings and Tokay wine, but he himself does again not eat or drink. From their conversation, we learn that Erik has taken on his name “by chance”, whatever that means. The meaning of the name is “sole ruler” which is quite fitting for him.

When Christine has finished eating, Erik invites her to see his room, and she doesn’t hesitate as she instinctively trusts him. Apparently Erik has a very gothic taste as far as room decorating goes, and all this also plays heavily into the death symbolism of his character. Erik sleeping in a coffin is reminiscent of vampire stories, especially because it seems to be a choice and not a necessity. There is also an organ with the score of “Don Juan Triumphant” on it, written in Erik’s customary red ink(?). Erik tells her that he started composing it 20 years ago. Christine asks him to play her something from his “Don Juan”, but Erik refuses because “some music is so formidable that it consumes everyone who approaches it”. It is quite significant that the “sing for me” motif is absent from the novel version, in contrast to the ALW version where it is very strong. Erik, in the novel, has no plans for Christine to sing any of his music. He wants her companionship and her love, and he wants to sing together with her and lose himself in their shared passion for music, but he definitely does not see her as an instrument of sorts. He did help advance her career, but not with the intention of having her perform his work.

Erik makes it clear that his own music is very different from Mozart’s „Don Giovanni“ and from “opera music” in general. “Don Juan Triumphant” can be seen as an allusion to Lord Byron’s epic poem “Don Juan” (in which, incidentally, Don Juan is sold as a slave to the sultana of Constantinople).

He sits down at the piano and starts singing the duet from “Otello” with Christine. There is of course more than one duet in “Otello”, but this one is most likely “Non arrestare il colpo/Notte per me funesta” from Act III (here: https://open.spotify.com/track/151M60b3qxzqKLDFwIVuUB?si=WX4TDWCeQVmIChqd6u7CyQ&dl_branch=1 and here: https://open.spotify.com/track/2Ep1OncGZCNR9yFevG6Pb6?si=QzG2JztuQ42MDoiVrLAaew&dl_branch=1 ) In this scene, Othello accuses Desdemona of betraying him, while she tries to convince him that she is innocent. She realizes that she has fallen victim to Iago’s plot, but Othello does not believe her and stabs her. This opera, for once, is in Italian, while most of the other pieces that appear in the “Phantom” are sung in French.  

The unmasking in the novel happens while Christine is swept up in the passion of her duet with Erik. She “stepped closer to him, attracted and fascinated, enticed by the idea of dying at the center of such passion. But before dying [she] wanted to see his face…”

It’s not like she is sneaking up to him out of pure curiosity, but rather reacting to an instinctive wish to pull away the barrier between them. The scene is even more tragic because with a normal face, the passionate mood that Christine was in would have potentially led to her kissing him. But sadly, his face is anything but normal, so Christine recoils in horror instead. Erik’s reaction to the unmasking is violent and horrific as he goes mad with rage at her, even hurting his own face with her fingernails - an expression of his self-loathing. Throughout the scene, Christine seems fixated on the horror of his face more than his behaviour, though. Ashamed of himself, Erik crawls out of the room and shuts himself up in his bedroom.

“Apollo’s Lyre” by Annie Stegg Gerard

Erik’s appearance as described in the novel is indeed bordering the realm of the fantastic and supernatural. He is so stuffed with death symbolism that it is hard to take everything literally. Christine’s description makes it rather hard to see him as “real” because he seems to look like something straight out of a nightmare.

It is important to note that Erik is not just run-of-the-mill ugly, but that he is very clearly associated with death in many ways - from sleeping in a coffin and having funeral-style decor in his room to actually looking like a „living corpse“. Erik and Christine can 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 motif). Death here is usually represented as either a skeleton or corpse, or as an angel - which is very much in line with Leroux’s Erik.

”Girl and Death” by Edvard Munch

Combined with the fact that Erik‘s music creates feelings of passion, rapture and ecstasy in Christine, it is not a big stretch to conclude that Erik is associated not only with death, but also with sexuality. The duality of sex as both a life-creating and life-threatening force was acutely perceived by the people of that period. Love and death are connected, and both are represented in Erik‘s character. ALW‘s musical adaptation recognized this strongly erotic undercurrent in the story and translated it very aptly into songs such as „Music of the night“ or „Point of no return“. The way in which Christine describes her lessons with Erik - that they “awakened an ardent, voracious, and sublime life” in her, and made her live in a “kind of ecstatic dream” can also be interpreted as her romantic awakening, with all the frightening emotional chaos attached to it.

Raoul, on the other hand, is more associated with purity and propriety - which is reflected in how he views Christine, and the standards that she must conform to in his opinion.

Before seeing Erik’s face, Christine admits that she *would* have come back, but that now, she would never return because “you don’t go back into a grave with a corpse that loves you”. Note how she switches from the first person to the impersonal “you” in this sentence - “you” might not do that, but we already know she did in fact go back more than once. And she is still able to see something of the angel in him because he does not take advantage of the situation, but leaves her alone, turning to his music again.

And then, “music has the power to abolish everything in the outside world except its sounds, which go straight to the heart”. Erik starts playing the finale of “Don Juan Triumphant” where “ugliness, lifted on the wings of love, had dared to look beauty in the face”. Through the music, Christine can glimpse into the depths of Erik’s heart and soul, feel his torment and suffering, and is overwhelmed with compassion.

Once again, she is the one to tear down the wall between them. She pushes open the door to Erik’s room and asks him to show his face, sincerely thinking that she can handle it - but it turns out, she really isn’t quite able to when there’s no music between them. But she manages to put on a brave facade and lie to him about being able to look at him without horror. She despises herself for her lies, but then she also does what she must in order to be set free. Erik takes her for walks along the shore of the underground lake, and for carriage rides to the Bois de Boulogne (that’s where they ran into Raoul in Chapter 9). After two weeks, Erik finally trusts her so much that he is willing to set her free (with conditions, of course). It’s really heartbreaking when she mentions how he dared to try to make her look at him even when he wasn’t singing, like a “timid dog”. At this point, he is in her power just as much as she is in his.

When she finally leaves, she is moved more by his tears than by his threats, and his pain is what gets her to come back in the first place: “Those sobs attached me to him more strongly than I thought when I said good-bye to him.” Part of why she is afraid to leave is that she fears it will kill him if she leaves him.

At the end of the chapter, Raoul asks the fateful question that sums up the tragedy of Erik and Christine:

“You’re afraid, but do you love me? If Erik were handsome, would you love me?” “Why tempt fate, Raoul? Why ask about things that I keep hidden at the back of my mind, like sins?”

Christine’s reply along the lines of “Don‘t ask” was cut from the de Mattos translation. It clearly evidences that Christine has conflicted feelings for Erik that go beyond only horror or pity, and that she prefers to suppress them so she doesn't have to deal with them. The statement also shows that if Erik had not been cursed with his face, then things might have looked very different for him and Christine. Attentive readers of de Mattos might nevertheless notice that her next line „If I did not love you, I would not give you my lips“ evades addressing the „what ifs“ Raoul posed, but it still makes her appear less conflicted than she really is. Christine’s heart is a pretty deep ocean of secrets, and at the back of her mind, there seem to be quite a few things that she is unwilling to admit to herself, as Raoul suspected before:

“You obviously love him, and your fear, your terror - all that is still love, of the most exciting kind! The kind you don’t admit to yourself.”

I haven‘t really counted, but this must be like the fifth time that Raoul insists on his suspicion that Christine is in love with Erik, and he just can‘t get a „no“ out of her. That “no” is given very directly though when he asks her if she hates him. She kisses Raoul to prove that she loves him, at the same time telling him that the kiss is just a one-time thing („for the first and last time“). Then “the night is torn apart”, and the last thing they see is a pair of glowing eyes looking down on them from Apollo’s lyre - which are clearly Erik’s, who has overheard the entire conversation…

Image from wikipedia

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[thephantomessoftheopera]

Notes on Gaston Leroux’s “The Phantom of the Opera” - Chapter 4: “Box Five”

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In „Box Five“, we learn more about Moncharmin and Richard, the new managers of the Paris Opera, and their blossoming relationship with the opera ghost. Leroux exhibits a witty, ironic style whenever he writes about the managers, providing comic relief throughout the novel as the drama unfolds.

Armand Moncharmin, despite knowing nothing about music, has secured his current position at the Opera House due to his connections. He is a charming and wealthy man, and has wisely decided to delegate a large portion of the work of running the Opera House to Firmin Richard, who he appointed as his co-manager. For Richard, Leroux gives a more detailed and tongue-in-cheek description. Richard himself is a composer with no distinct taste in music (he just likes everything) and a rather vile temper.

As you can see in the picture above, there are in fact several boxes labelled “Box 5″ at the Palais Garnier. The Phantom’s box is specified as “first-tier Box 5″ (marked), the first plain box on the (house) left.

A few days after the new managers have comfortably settled into their new position, they are once again reminded of the existence of the opera ghost. A letter written in the same red ink and clumsy handwriting that the managers have already seen in the „book of instructions“ arrives in the mail. Richard opens and reads it. It is dripping with sarcasm, asking Christine Daae to be given the role of Siebel in Faust if she must be denied the role of Marguerite, and to remind them that they better leave Box 5 empty if they want peace. The letter is signed „O.G.“ („F. de l‘O.“ in the original french version) and stamped in the post office on the Boulevard des Capucines, indicating that Erik made the effort to mail his letters from the post office. After Richard has finished reading, Moncharmin comes into the office, holding an identical letter. Both burst out laughing, not taking the whole business seriously and thinking it only a practical joke that Debienne and Poligny are playing on them. Therefore, they have Box 5 reserved for the former managers for that evening‘s performance of „Faust“.

Moncharmin also notices the ghost‘s interest in Christine Daae, causing him to doubt her reputation of being virtuous and without a (male) benefactor. Meanwhile, the Opera company has been anxiously awaiting their fates outside the lobby, and the rest of the day (Jan 25) is spent renewing and cancelling the artists‘ contracts. After such an exhausting day, the managers go to bed early, not realizing that Debienne and Poligny - being afraid of the ghost - did not follow their invitation, and Box 5 remained empty.

The next morning, a thank-you note from the ghost arrives, praising Christine‘s performance and calling Carlotta a „magnificent and commonplace instrument“. The ghost also reminds them that they owe him his yearly salary of 240,000 francs (minus 6,575.30 francs that have already been paid by the former managers for the first 10 days of the year. We also get an idea of the magnitude of his Opera Ghost salary - it is 100 times the salary of a secretary - so for that amount of money he can be expected to do an excellent job, right?

The managers once again choose to sell Box 5 to the public for the following evening. But they shouldn‘t have messed with the ghost. Loud laughter and foolish remarks are frequently heard from the occupants of Box 5, causing an uproar and ultimately resulting in the removal of said occupants, who refused to go without a refund. It is obvious that the laughter and comments were caused by Erik the ghost himself, using his ventriloquist skills. 

This is a pretty typical action we get to see from the ghost - he is actually rarely violent, and his pranks are usually witty and clever. He is rather charming and mischievous, and even though he blackmails the managers, I can‘t help thinking that he fully deserves his salary for being excellent at haunting people!

The supervisor is sent for the next morning to explain what happened, and upon him saying that he has never seen the ghost, Firmin is enraged and threatens to fire anyone who is unable to find him. Then, the usher of Box 5 - Madame Giry - is summoned.

Image from “Le Fantome de l’Opéra” by Gérard Fontaine

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[thephantomessoftheopera]

Notes on Gaston Leroux’ “The Phantom of the Opera” - Chapter 6: “The Enchanted Violin”

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Artwork by @coatntails on deviantart

“The Enchanted Violin” introduces us to the childhood friendship of Raoul and Christine - but first, we learn that Christine did not continue to triumph at the Opera, but only sang once more in society at the invitation of the Duchess of Zurich and, after that, cancelled everything including a charity concert. She was apparently terrified by her triumph during the gala night, and didn’t “recognize herself” anymore when she sings. Before, she was emotionally distant and indifferent because she had shut everything out so she could cope with the grief of her father’s death. The amount of passion and feeling that Erik’s lessons had to rekindle in her must have felt terrifying and perhaps even painful to her. Plus, baring your heart and soul on stage like she did is, by itself, something that can indeed feel terrifying! In this chapter, we learn that Raoul has indeed been watching her performances at the Opera for some time, but also felt that she seemed indifferent to everything and everyone - until her soul finally came alive again with her gala night performance.

Philippe de Chagny has even tried to further her career with the managers to please his little brother, but Christine does not wish for him to do so. Raoul tries to seek her out, but without success. One morning though, Raoul receives a letter from Christine, assuring him that she has not forgotten the “little boy who fetched her scarf from the sea”, and informing him that she will be going to Perros-Guirec to visit her father’s grave on the anniversary of his death. Perros-Guirec is a seaside village in Brittany, quite far from Paris.

Raoul doesn’t lose time and rushes to the Montparnasse station to follow her, but fails to catch the morning train and has to wait all day for the night train (Raoul tends to have a bit of bad luck following him around).

This chapter also gives us a short biography of Christine Daaé. In the novel - contrary to the musical - she is described as blonde and blue-eyed, slender and somewhat short-sighted, which would presumably give her a bit of a dreamy, unfocused expression if nobody hands her a pair of glasses (I guess Erik wouldn’t mind her short-sightedness either!). She was born in the village of Skotelof near Uppsala in Sweden. Her father (who does not have a name in the novel) sang in the church choir and taught Christine to read music before she could read books. He also had a well-known reputation as the best violinist in Scandinavia, and was often requested to play at social gatherings. Christine’s mother died when she was 6 years old, and her father became a travelling musician and took Christine around the country. They were discovered by Professor Valerius and taken to Götheburg, where Christine received her training. His wife, Mama Valerius, treated Christine like a daughter. When the Valerius family moved to France, Christine and her father accompanied them. Papa Daaé did not adjust well to life in Paris though, and often found solace in his music only, locking himself in his room for hours at a time. The only time of the year he enjoyed was their yearly trip to the seaside town of Perros-Guirec, because the ocean reminded him of his native Sweden. Missing his nomadic lifestyle, he decided to once again to spend some time every year as a travelling musician with Christine - which is how Christine came to meet Raoul, who was then staying with his aunt - the one that kindled his love for the sea. Raoul heard Christine sing and was so utterly captivated by her angel’s voice that he started following her around with his governess. One day, at the bay of Trestraou, the wind was so strong that it blew Christine’s scarf into the sea, and Raoul ran after it fully clothed and rescued it. They became friends that summer and played together often, and Christine’s father also gave him some violin lessons.

Bay of Trestraou, where Raoul rescued Christine’s scarf from the sea (image from france-voyage.com)

Both Raoul and Christine loved listening to ancient tales and legends, especially the ones that Papa Daaé told them. Among those stories is the famous “Little Lotte”, who loved listening to the Angel of Music while she fell asleep. It’s a little funny that while they listen to the story, all Raoul does is look at Christine’s golden hair and blue eyes, imagining her as “Little Lotte”, and Christine’s thoughts are focused on how lucky Little Lotte was to hear the Angel of Music. So Raoul dreams about Christine while Christine dreams about the Angel of Music, which kind of foreshadows the setup of the love triangle in the novel.

To be honest, I can’t really blame Christine for thinking she was indeed hearing the Angel of Music in her dressing-room, since the description given fits Erik perfectly:

“No one ever saw him, but he made himself heard to those predestined to hear him. It often happened when they least expected it, when they were sad and disheartened. Then they suddenly heard heavenly harmonies and a divine voice, and they would remember it all their lives. People visited by the angel were left with a kind of flame burning inside them.”

I guess her father couldn’t really find the Angel of Music in heaven, so he sent her the next best thing that was available… Erik might not have been a heavenly angel, but the effect he had on her amounted to the same that is attributed to the Angel of Music in her father’s stories.

After their parting following the first summer that they spent together, Christine and Raoul saw each other again three years later, when they were “no longer children” - perhaps 13 to 14 years old, which would put their first meeting at about age 10 to 11. Professor Valerius has died in the meantime, and Christine’s father has started suffering from a cough. Raoul and Christine’s meeting is a little awkward this time - both seem to be developing tender feelings for each other, but are also very reserved. Their current relationship has now outgrown the sweet and carefree friendship of childhood. Raoul is quite infatuated with her, but he is also badly affected by his jealousy plus the unresolved issue of a peasant girl like Christine not being a suitable choice as a wife for a Viscount - and Christine being acutely aware of that. So yes - it’s complicated between those two. Afterwards, she tries to forget him and dedicate herself to her career instead. But when her father finally dies, her soul and her voice die with him, and even though her talent is still enough to gain entry into the Paris Conservatory, she cannot not bring any more enthusiasm to her studies, and just goes through the motions to please Mama Valerius.

Christine apparently travelled to Perros by herself, staying at the “Auberge du Soleil Couchant”. Raoul is looking forward to speaking to her alone without interference. Despite having sailed around the world, Leroux describes Raoul as “pure as a virgin” and overwhelmed by his love for Christine, who occupies his every thought - in fact, Raoul seems to obsess over things a lot in the novel, not just about Christine. When he finally meets her as she returns from mass, he jumps straight to the point and tells her that he loves her and cannot live without her - which is unfortunately not “what she wanted to hear”. Their conversation goes totally wrong and as his jealous temper gets the better of him, he behaves terribly and they get into a fight (over Erik, of course) to the point where she runs off and locks herself in her room.

Raoul, saddened by the way his meeting with Christine turned out, wanders off towards the graveyard to pray for Christine’s father, and finally sits down, looking out over the moor where he and Christine used to look for goblins when they were children. He never saw any, while Christine always saw lots despite her lack of proper eyesight - which shows that despite both of them being described as “dreamy”, Christine’s imagination is a lot more lively than Raoul’s. She finally comes out to make another try of confiding the secret of the Angel of Music who speaks to her to Raoul, but when she feels he doesn’t take her seriously and questions her virtue, she storms off again, truly angry this time and refusing to come down for dinner.

At night, about 11:30 pm, she finally sneaks out to visit her father’s grave at the Perros graveyard and meet the “Angel of Music” (aka Erik) there. This is obviously the scene which inspired “Wishing you were somehow here again”, though the original context is a little bit different. Raoul climbs out the window and follows her to the graveyard. Raoul’s account of the graveyard scene is given via a transcript of Raoul’s testimony to Commissary Mifroid a few weeks later, after Christine’s abduction. The use of this “source” is one of the things that have given rise to the theory that this is a “detective novel”, however Leroux uses it more like a historian would use a source - it’s just one of different documents that he uses (or claims to use) to prove that his story is indeed true.

Christine doesn’t notice Raoul following her. Her rendez-vous with the Angel of Music is supposedly taking place at exactly midnight at her father’s grave, so Christine is in a bit of a hurry to get there in time. It is still winter, so the graves are covered in snow and lit by the clear moonlight. Christine, who apparently has nerves of steel since she has no qualms about going to graveyards at midnight and then sitting down calmly next to a pile of actual skulls and bones, kneels down to pray when divinely beautiful violin music is suddenly heard, but no player is seen anywhere. The sounds of the piece,  the “Resurrection of Lazarus” are so enthralling that Raoul himself is reminded of the legend of the Angel of Music.

When the music finally ceases, Raoul hears a sound from the pile of bones, and assumes that the invisible musician might be hiding there. Christine leaves, and suddenly the skulls start rolling towards Raoul, and he sees a shadow enter the church. He chases after him and manages to grab his cloak, and when the shadow turns around, he sees a terrifying death’s-head with burning eyes which shocks him so much that he faints. I assume that Erik was not wearing a mask here, and that his unmasked face was weapon enough to take Raoul out without any further need for fireballs or swordfights.

The next morning, Raoul is found half-frozen in the little church, and Christine and the landlady of the Inn both take care to revive him.

Historic images of Perros-Guirec from phantomstheater.weebly.com

Artwork by CoatNTails on deviantart

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