Cause and Effect

Why Things Happened The Way They Did:
Leroux’s The Phantom of The Opera

The Opera Ghost really existed; he was not as was once believed a superstition of the ballet girls, or an illusion of the managers. No he truly existed in flesh and blood, though he took the appearance of a real phantom, that is to say of a spectral shade...for he had a heart that could have held the empires of the world, but contented himself instead, with a cellar.
-Gaston Leroux

   The Phantom of The Opera by Gaston Leroux is one of the most well-known of the author’s works. Phantom exists in many layers that interlace to create a complex story that reaches out to us on a deep emotional level. In the relationship of Erik and Christine, and of Christine and Raoul, the story is a Gothic Romance. In the death of Joseph Boquet and the crimes committed by Erik, Phantom becomes a Macabre Horror Story. However from the perspective of the Managers and the journey of Raoul and The Persian the novel is an investigation of theft, murder, and other crimes committed by the man known to most only as “The Phantom of The Opera”. For this reason the complexity of Phantom scares off prospective readers, limiting its reader base to literature students and lovers of the numerous films and plays based off of this work of written art. However if broken down into its simplest interactions the true beauty of Phantom being what it is; a story which plays off of our basest mentalities of That which is Beautiful is Good, That which is Hideous is Evil, The Civilized Savage, and our instinctive fear of what may watch us from the dark places of the world as we go about our lives, emerges.

 The namesake of the story, the mysterious man who calls himself “The Opera Ghost” is a story himself. The man’s name is Erik, and through a defect that he was cursed with at birth a ghostly pale complexion, sunken yellow eyes, a hollow space where a nose should be, high cheekbones and a thin mouth lend his face has the appearance of a skull with skin stretched drum-head tight across the bone. For most of his childhood he was traveled in a freak show as “The Living Skeleton”, teaching Erik not only that his face was a source of shame, but that he was lesser than the rest of society and unworthy of love do to his deformity. With this mentality, Erik travels to Persia, where he builds a palace with hollow walls and traps for the Shah, allowing the ruler to listen to conversations anywhere in the palace. While the palace is being built, Erik became an executioner of sorts, facing armed condemned men with only a rope tied into a noose which he threw with deadly accuracy around the other’s neck and strangled with a twist of the wrist and a sharp pull. However Erik was soon to learn that he was not welcomed anywhere among mankind, once the palace was finished the Shah feared that even blind Erik could build a similar palace for another, thus Erik’s death is decided upon. By simple luck and cunning Erik escapes to Paris where he lives on the lake beneath the Opera Garnier’s cellars. Here he uses his tricks to lead the managers to believe the Opera House haunted, earning a retainer of 20,000 francs a month, and a private box in the theatre in the process. From this way of watching over the Garnier, Erik isolates himself, covering his face with a black mask of fabric, becoming very much the Phantom he calls himself. In this way Society created a monster from a man, whose cruelty matched the hideousness of his face.

  While watching over the Opera Erik discovers a young woman, Christine Daae who through her voice could rival the Prima Donna La Carlotta’s is limited to minor roles. Speaking to her through a hollow wall, Erik offers to teach her music, and Christine believes it to be the Angel of Music her father promised to send her when he died and accordingly accepts the “Angel’s” request. So for years he teaches her in this manner, falling into the closest his damaged heart can feel of love seeing her as the ideal all persons should be. Years pass and Christine rises among the Corps de Opera, standing as near equal to La Carlotta. When this comes to pass, Erik steals her away from her dressing room, taking her to his home beneath the Opera and keeping her there for a full fortnight. Erik tells her “You will remain safe so long as you never try to see Erik’s face. Do not touch my mask and the Angel of Music shall always remain your friend.” But as the end of the fourteen days draws near, she approaches him while he composes, and takes the mask from his face. Erik flies into a rage pulling her hands to the death's head that is his face and cries out “Look you wanted to see! See! Feast your eyes! Glut your soul on my cursed ugliness!” He drops her to the ground and cries into the hem of her dress, not seeing that she has turned her face away. As he weeps he begs for her forgiveness. “Forgive me. Oh Mad Christine who wished to see me! When my father never saw me, and my mother so as not to see me, made a present of my first mask!” After this he grants Christine her freedom, promising to visit her again. As the events of the story progress Erik learns that the Vicomte Raoul de Chagney, a Patron of the opera and Christine’s childhood friend, has fallen in love with Christine. So to avoid losing his beloved Christine Erik steals her away again, planning to make her his wife and keep her at his side forever. When Christine refuses to do as he wishes, Erik threatens to blow up the Opera if she refuses. In this way if he cannot be united with her in life, then he will be with her for eternity in death. This behavior displays that, as Erik’s life was devoid of beauty, Christine had become his Beatrice.

 When Christine is stolen, Raoul journeys into the Opera cellars with the assistance of a man known only as The Persian, or The Daruga who claims to know Erik and to have saved his life in Persia. As they near the Fifth Cellar where Erik makes his home, they fall into a trap. The room is a large octagon in shape with an iron hangman’s tree in the corner, which is duplicated a thousand times in the mirrored walls. In trying to find the trip for the escape mechanism, they set off a heat, leaving them to likely die from the terrible heat. But when they do find escape the wish they hadn’t, as the place they enter is filled with barrel upon barrel of gunpowder. From this room though they hear Erik telling Christine of his plans. Telling her “Choose. Choose either the Wedding mass or the Requiem. If you will take me turn the scorpion, if not turn the grasshopper, but be careful of the grasshopper, for it jumps jolly high, as we all will.” However, Christine chooses and turns the scorpion, finding a ring beneath its tail. And flooding the powder cellar with water from the lake releasing Raoul and The Persian who are unconscious from the rush of water. When they come to, they are in the room with Erik and Christine. Seeing Christine’s joy at seeing Raoul alive, he grants her freedom to wed Raoul. As long as she fulfills a promise he whispers to her.
 
 As the story ends, the reader learns that Erik died from the sorrow of losing Christine. And that she completed her promise to bury him and place the ring he gave her on his finger in his grave. Though Raoul saved Christine from a life she would never want, both Raoul and Christine were responsible for the death of The Phantom of The Opera.