#poto-dracula

[paperandsong]

Parts of a Villain

Gaston Leroux’s Erik is a chimera, constructed from the parts of other villains, literary, historical, and mythological. He seems different from every angle and yet, despite his mental instability, somehow has a coherent personality that we recognize from page to page to stage. 

Here is a look at some of the villains Leroux references in his unique character. This is not a complete list, so please let me know if you have meta to add - I’m here for it!

1842 Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe

Illustration, Arthur Rackham, 1935

In the novel, Erik wears his famous Red Death costume at the Masked Ball, held at the Palais Garnier at Carnival time. In this case, it isn’t only Leroux making the literary reference - Erik himself is making a point about mortality to the other masqueraders. In Poe’s short story, the plague of the Red Death becomes personified as a masked reveler, intruding on Prince Prospero’s belief that he can literally lock death outside his party. At the end of Leroux’s novel, Erik threatens to blow up the entire Opera house, with everyone inside. Presumably, the barrels of gunpowder with which Erik planned to accomplish this are already in place beneath the Opera house during the Masked Ball. He stalks about the party dressed as a literary plague that kills everyone by the end of the story. He is a very clever corpse. 

I’ve written more about these themes here: Phantom of the Opera and Carnival. Read The Masque of the Red Death for free.

1894 Trials and Executions of Anarchist Terrorists

In 1894, Gaston Leroux covered the trials and executions of three anarchists who had committed acts of terror in public spaces. A year earlier, anarchists had also bombed the Liceu Theatre in Barcelona during an opera performance. Leroux’s direct experience listening to the words of these men during their trials most likely influenced some of Erik’s more violent ideas, especially his final plan to blow up the Palais Garnier while it was at full occupancy. 

I’ve written much more about Leroux’s coverage of the anarchist trials here. 

1894 Trilby - George du Maurier

Illustration, George du Maurier, 1894

I have not read all of Trilby, but I’ll start by saying that yes, even the little I have read is just as anti-Semitic as everyone says. Svengali is a terrible caricature. It’s still relevant to point out that Leroux most likely took some inspiration from Svengali for his Erik. Svengali hypnotizes a young woman, Trilby O’Ferrall, giving her a mesmerizing voice (which she does not possess when she is not hypnotized). While Svengali does not hide in the shadows or pretend to be an Angel of Music, his influence on Trilby is similar to that of Erik’s effect on Christine Daaé, giving her career several “triumphs” while also diminishing her health and happiness. Svengali is also seen as the “other” among the novel’s characters, because he is Jewish and foreign. While Erik is born French, his many travels East also mark him as “other”. 

1897 Dracula - Bram Stoker

Illustration, Edward Gorey, late 1970s

Details about Erik that indicate Leroux read and loved Dracula: the Tokay and roast chicken dinner, the coffin bed, the glowing eyes, reptilian description, the thing with the mirrors. I’ve written more about it using the tag #poto-dracula, starting with this post. 

Hades & Persephone

The Fate of Persephone, Walter Crane, 1877

Despite that all of Leroux’s direct references to Hades were removed from the original English translation (thanks for nothing, Tex!), most readers can still see the parallels between Erik and Hades, Christine and Persephone. Erik not only kidnaps Christine, but he lets her go, knowing that she will return. No word about whether the Opera house withers in her absence, but Raoul’s heart surely does! Beyond Hades & Persephone, Erik & Christine belong to the Death and the Maiden tradition. @thephantomessoftheopera has written a great post dissecting these themes:  Eros, Thanatos and the Underworld - Death symbolism in Leroux

I know there are more references to be found in Erik’s character - let’s talk about it in the notes. 

[paperandsong]

The Phonograph in the Gothic

The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison, twenty years before Dracula was published. The phonograph is important as Dr. Seward’s principle method of recording his observations of his work in the asylum and his involvement in the strange and tragic case of Lucy Westenra. He later shares those recordings with Mina Harker as she shares with him her own typed-out journal and that of her husband, Jonathan. 

I find it interesting that Mina has never seen a phonograph until that meeting with Seward. Seward himself sometimes used Lucy’s phonograph while he was treating her as his patient. Perhaps this is a marker of the class difference between Seward, Lucy, and Mina? 

Seward laments the fact that he cannot locate the specific sections of the wax cylinder which may be most relevant to Mina’s interest (the Lucy sections!). Which makes me wonder, why did he use this method at all?  I don’t see how this could be helpful for a doctor treating patients as he couldn’t easily refer to past observations. Was it just easier for him than writing a journal by hand? Did he simply like the novelty of it? Maybe he never intended to listen to it himself and was merely recording for posterity, not realizing how soon the recordings would be needed.  

But it’s easy to see why Stoker would include the technology in his Gothic novel. Although the phonograph had already been around for two decades, it was not yet ubiquitous - Mina had never seen one. And there is something eerie about hearing disembodied voices even today, when it has long since become commonplace. The quality of the recordings on wax cylinders was poor, distorting voice and memory simultaneously. Here’s a great essay on the phonograph in Dracula: His Master’s Voice. 

It is not a surprise that, among other shared details, Leroux also makes mention of phonographic recordings in the introduction to his novel, the Phantom of the Opera.

The corpse isn’t real - but the recordings are. They were sealed in a vault under the Palais Garnier on December 24, 1907 (see photo above), less than two years before the Phantom of the Opera first appeared in Le Gaulois. This is a great example of how Leroux masterfully mixes fiction with fact, making it so easy to believe the entire story is true. Because those wax cylinders really exist, this probably isn’t an overt reference to Dracula the way the Tokay most likely is. But it’s still fun to make these connections. 

When Guillermo del Toro wrote this scene for Crimson Peak, was he making a reference to Dracula? Are there other examples of the phonograph in Gothic literature and film? Feel free to make additions. 

[paperandsong]

Jonathan Harker, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1897

Christine Daaé, Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera, 1909

Oh how interesting! Both Count Dracula and Erik find Tokaji a wine fit for serving their prisoners - I mean - esteemed guests. And chicken too! 

I’m not so sure this is just a coincidence. While Dracula was written too late for Erik to have read it, Leroux almost certainly read it and made this reference to it in his own novel published twelve years later. It would have been fun if Erik had been overtly trying to emulate Count Dracula to impress or frighten Christine, but it’s just as fun to think Leroux dresses Erik in references to gothic literature to impress and frighten us, the readers.   

The Tokay and lack of appetite plus the coffin bed make a strong case for Leroux stanning Stoker: 

The Count has his coffin-home and Erik has his open coffin under a canopy like the drama queen we love: 

Tokaji or Tokay is a sweet wine from the Tokaj region of Hungary and Slovakia.  Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) is an ancient city on the Baltic Sea. It used to be part of Prussia. Then Germany. It is currently part of Russia. I assume that by the “Königsberg cellars” he meant the cellar of the Königsberg Castle. It definitely had wine cellars and, even though it isn’t anywhere near the Tokaj, it probably had wine from all over the world. This detail seems a little random, but again, Teixeira’s translation fails us!

In the original French, the bizarre reason Erik gives for taking wine from the cellars of Königsberg is that “Falstaff sometimes frequented” them. I don’t know Verdi’s Falstaff well enough to know if this is true, or has any importance to the opera. This could all just be a big inside joke between Leroux and his opera and wine loving friends.

Imagine Erik creeping around this old castle just to steal some wine. Sadly, this castle is no more. It was bombed in 1944 and the ruins were later destroyed by the Soviets. 

Thanks to @phannah--montana​ for pointing out the Tokay in Dracula and letting me write a whole essay about it.

[paperandsong]

Possible references to Dracula in the Phantom of the Opera

May 3, 4, and 5

Jonathan Harker comments on the gleaming eyes of the driver that takes him to Dracula’s castle:

Christine Daaé’s account of Erik’s blazing eyes:

Jonathan Harker writes about Dracula’s cold hands:

And his breath is rank:

Christine Daaé finds that Erik is also cold and rank: 

Clueless Jonathan Harker marvels at all the superstitious peasants genuflecting and making signs against the evil eye: 

Racist little ballet girls make a similar sign against the evil eye whenever the Persian walks by at the Opera house. 

Sorelli places a horseshoe near the stage door as a charm against the Opera Ghost (and maybe also the Persian, as he is often nearby whenever Opera Ghost sightings are reported?) 

What do you y’all think? Are these details just your standard Gothic Villain character traits? Or does Leroux write Erik in this way as explicit reference to Dracula? 

[paperandsong]

Dracula, Jonathan Harker, May 28

The Phantom of the Opera, Christine Daaé, At the Masked Ball

Another parallel between Jonathan and Christine...they both desperately fling letters to strangers in the hopes they will reach the intended destination. While Jonathan’s plan does not work and his letter ends up in the hands of the Count himself, Christine’s letter ends up exactly where it is meant to go. 

But have you ever wondered about Christine’s letter to Raoul with the mask ball instructions? 

Considering that Erik has put a lot of thought into his own costume, is it possible he had dictated to Christine what she should wear? Is it possible Erik has also commanded what Raoul should wear? What if it was Erik’s idea to invite Raoul to the masked ball - simply for the drama of it? 

[paperandsong]

More (possible) references to Dracula in the Phantom of the Opera

May 7

Jonathan Harker reports that, yet again, Dracula does not eat with him:

Christine Daaé too, must eat alone. 

It should be noted that Christine realizes immediately that she is Erik’s prisoner while, as of May 7, Jonathan still thinks he is on a perfectly respectable work trip. 

Erik himself suggests that he goes through periods of time in which he does not eat (living on music alone). In this passage he is peak drama, referencing both his coffin-bed and his ability to live without food or sleep for “years at a time”:

Jonathan reports that there are no mirrors anywhere - what an inconvenience! 

Christine also notices the lack of mirrors at Erik’s house on the lake. She does not yet know that Erik actually has an entire room full of mirrors, but she will. One day.

I do not know if these details from Phantom of the Opera are actually references to Dracula. I don’t even know if Gaston Leroux read Bram Stoker’s Dracula or when it was first translated into French. But there are so many small details that Erik shares with Dracula that it seems to be intentional. 

Erik is not a vampire. But he likes to play up his macabre appearance when he’s in a mood. He doesn’t need to sleep in a coffin or to refrain from food the way Count Dracula does; we all assume he has no mirrors in his home because he doesn’t want to look at himself, not because he would have no reflection. Erik does these things for affect. He wants to disturb people - even Christine. And Leroux wants him to disturb us, the reader. 

As Dracula was published in 1897, past the time when the events of the Phantom of the Opera should have occurred, in the mid-1880′s, it might not make sense for Erik to be self-aware of the Dracula references himself. As a character, Erik seems to intentionally reference Edgar Allan Poe’s 1842 story with his Red Death costume but we can’t make the same assumption that Erik has read Dracula, as the dates don’t line up. Although, Leroux’s 1909 novel has lots of other anachronisms, so maybe I’m overthinking this and Erik really is meant to be a fan of Dracula. Leroux certainly seems to be one. 

[paperandsong]

Reptilian Gothic Men

Dracula

The Phantom of the Opera

[paperandsong]

One more parallel between Dracula and Phantom of the Opera - they are both dripping with Orientalism.