The Phantom of the Opera: Behind the Book

(L.A. Class- Reading Blog-Novel)

                

    There is virtually nothing in this book that isn't meant to touch humanity on a deeper level than the surface. Everything was Erik's way of dealing with the hatred that he is forced to endure to Christine's child-like personality pulls at some level of our subconscious and attacks our feelings. Erik may be the villain but it's hard to see him as simply the antagonist and nothing more than that. 

    As is shown throughout the novel, the entire Opera House seems to fear Erik- not for his more violent and vicious nature, but for his appearance- the yellowed skin that was stretched across a skeletal frame and a nose-less face too tightly, with burning amber irises that threatened death in the darkness to those who dared to gaze upon him. And given the time frame of the late eighteen hundreds, he would have had only one defence; the inky black mask that he used to cover his head. That mask would have been the most important object he owned besides his organ and the music he created with said organ (often mistaken for a piano). Had Erik not been plagued by his corpse-like deformity, it is likely that he would not have needed to endure the life he did, where nearly everyone was frightened of him.

   It is somewhat understandable that those who encountered him would have been frightened-Erik was not, as stated before, a handsome man and his personality also left something to be desired. Perhaps it was largely due to his childhood and the fact that was more than likely abandoned by his mother at some point, but there is some reason that Erik has developed quite a few mental illnesses. Some of them were most likely inherited from his mother or father, whoever they were. 

   One of the disorders that Erik displays symptoms for is Asperger's Syndrome. It can be seen through things such as his lack of empathy towards those who become harmed by him or his actions, and his understanding of language (it is implied that he has always been able to understand things that others had difficulty with as a child)-it is no secret that Erik is a genius. However, there is more evidence against this than there is for it. He is by far more creative than he is logical, a trait that those who have Asperger's often have. It would seem that the Phantom is able to understand the emotions put forth by both himself and others, something that individual with Asperger's Syndrome would have a hard time doing. People who suffer from Asperger’s Syndrome may also have difficulties with understanding things such as pitch, and issue that the Phantom of the Opera (also known as the Angel of Music) does not have. It is more likely that this is not one the disorders he possesses.

    One of the mental illnesses that it is more possible for him to be afflicted with is physcopathy. Erik does not seem to hold any kind of remorse for his actions, nor does he properly take responsibility for said actions. He blames them on the managers or others, saying they provoked him into this. He most definitely has a parasitic lifestyle, leeching money, housing, entertainment, and companionship from the Opera House. He is very impulsive and does not seem to realize the long term effects of his behaviour. Quite obviously he has behavioral problems that have resulted in a more violent side, allowing for a criminal nature. These are some of the few symptoms he displays. Based off this evidence, it seems believable that Erik is a true physcopath.

   This is, however, not where it stops; Erik still has many more issues with his mind. Another possible ailment may be depression. This one is rather obvious, characterized by the fact that he is, unless angry, almost always feeling very low. It is involved in every aspect of his life, from his music to his personal relations. Erik tends to think of himself as being worthless, unloved, and hopeless among other things. He is very withdrawn from other people, and tends to think of the idea of death or suicide as favourable (as shown in the end, when he was not opposed to Christine choosing the grasshopper.). The Phantom also certainly suffers from insomnia, a common affliction among those with depression. He rarely sleeps, rarely eats (which explains his very thin body) and his most commonly shown moods are either agitation or lethargy. These combined with other such facts lead to the belief that Erik is clinically depressed.

   There is an exceptionally lost list for all of the possible mental problems Erik had, excluding the physical ones such as possible jaundice (which would explain why his skin was yellow, and not white or another ‘human’ colour) and necrosis (which would be cause for the good majority of his deformities). Focusing on mental disorders, another one may be bipolar disorder. It is no secret that Erik felt his emotions at what seemed to be an elevated state compared to the rest of people. This may be an explanation for the previous theory of depression, as those with bipolar disorder tend to go through stages of depression, mania, and hypomania. In Erik, the depressive state was already discussed. When it comes to mania, the evidence stacks up: when composing, his attention span is nearly none existent (anything can distract him), he often engaged in behaviour that was ‘risky’, and was often violent, to list a few. For hypomania, it was shown as a much decreased need for sleep (an alternative to the former insomnia theory), being very productive, and he has never, as far as we are aware, had hallucinations or delusions. It is likely that Erik suffered from a form of bipolar disorder, if not depression and anxiety.

   There is also the matter of Erik consistently speaking in third person. There is the idea that he does this so as to separate himself from his looks, which have been the main cause of anything that has ever gone wrong for him. Perhaps he is doing that so he can justify his actions by seeing it from a third person point of view. It is not to be confused with Dissociative Identity Disorder, as he does not create a new person for this. It’s still him acting, talking, and thinking- it’s simply from a third person point of view so that he may distance himself from his actions and the reaction he receives from said actions.

    Though there are many more possibilities for a mental disorder when it comes to Erik, they shall not be all listed here or this analysis would never end. One final theory is for paranoid personality disorder. Erik has always been portrayed as being suspicious of other humans, a trait that most likely stems from his treatment as a child; though not gone very far into, we are made aware that it was not overly pleasant. The Phantom is very withdrawn from society and isolated by his own will, and has a tendency to hold a grudge against someone as well as see any new person as being immediately hostile towards him. These all show textbook symptoms of paranoid personality disorder, which is feasible for Erik to have given what we know about both his past and the events of the book; namely, how he has been treated.

   There were few who desired to show Erik some compassion or even an emotion beyond fear, hatred, or perhaps even exasperation, such as what the managers Messrs Armand Moncharmin and Firmin Richard along with their predecessors Messrs Debienne and Poligny. Madam Giry is among those few people who acted with humanity towards the Phantom of the Opera- she did as he asked, without question, because he asked nicely and treated her kindly. He gave her things in return, and he was never cruel to her, do despite knowing his reputation, she acted kindly towards him. Perhaps part of it was because of his history at the Opera House, but it is likely that a good portion of the reason is that he treated her as a human. 

   The Persian-depending on whether or not you've read 'Phantom' by Susan Kay, you may know him as the Daroga or Nadir-is also in the group that behaved towards Erik with some semblance of kindness. Though not mentioned in this book, it is likely that the Persian knows more of Erik's likely violent, bloody, and miserable past; he also probably knows what Erik looks like without his mask. Yet he still gives Erik the both the benefit of the doubt and the benefit of acknowledging his intelligence, which would be superior to many; especially that of Christine's; not to mention how the Persian also is not afraid to challenge Erik when he knows that he is doing wrong. He led Raoul to Erik and Christine with no thought for his own life, despite knowing full well what Erik was capable of.

    Christine is the only other person who seems to react with something besides abject terror at first glance to Erik- however; there may be an underlying reason for that. There is the distinct possibility that she also has some sort of a mental disorder. In her case, her naivety is creating the idea that she may be either slightly mentally retarded, or borderline. It is more likely that she reverted to a child-like mentality when her father died, due to her closeness of him, and her mind could not deal with it. So, she went back to the mind she had when everything was going the way she wanted it to.

   This may also be the reason for believing in the Angel of Music- she was searching for a new father figure, and Erik was simply the first one to be there for her and attempt to comfort her when she needed it. Christine wanted to believe that an Angel would be sent from heaven like her father promised her, so she did. The idea that the Angel may have been sent from her father provided her a form of closure; this most likely made her more willing to believe that Erik was telling the truth. It may be the main reason that Christine was drawn to anyone at that time, seeking refuge in Raoul Vicomte de Changy after she discovered Erik to be a fraud.

  One may be inclined to suggest that it not quite love that Erik feels for Christine, but instead infatuation with her voice. He sees little of her personality, yet listens to her sing very often. Because music is his escape, it is possible that he fell in love with the voice, not the person, unlike what is suggested by many of the ‘phans’ (fans of Phantom of the Opera) of this novel or the critics who have read it. It is possible for Erik to feel love, just less likely in this case when he honestly barely knew Christine.

   Raoul himself did not possess and mental or physical issues. However, despite this, I do not believe that he was aware of how much care Christine would need throughout their lives when he fell in love with her. It is likely that he merely thought that she as acting as any woman would have in those circumstances, given that at the time women were the ‘weaker’ sex. It would not have been unreasonable to assume that no one would have caught on to how dependant Christine was on other people until after Erik had been dealt with and they were living in relative peace by themselves.

   Though often exasperated with Christine and her contact with Erik-whom Raoul thinks is a monster and nothing more- Raoul defends her and in the end is ready to sacrifice himself to keep her safe from Erik- it is likely that the only reason he does not run headlong into Erik’s lair to attack him is because of the Persian holding him back so he does not act stupidly. At first he believes Christine to be playing with his heart because of how she works her life around the Phantom and at the start ignores him, he eventually sees that she is terrified of Erik and agrees to protect her.   

   From the start of the book, as the last few paragraphs have shown, the characters are portrayed as very complex and dynamic creatures; none quite as many sided as Erik himself. However complicated the characters are, however, the story itself has a very simple plot. The pervading idea is that Erik has spent many a year tormenting the managers of the Opera House, only for the new ones to take action against him. Because they insist on keeping La Carlotta, whom he hates with a passion, as the Prima Donna of the Opera House, Erik ensures that they must put Christine Daae, his student (Whom believes that she has been taught by the Angel of Music, sent by her father from heaven), to sing in  her place. When she discovers that Erik has been lying to her and is merely a man, she is terrified of what he will do if she angers him. Erik is plagued by an unrequited love for Christine, and goes to extremes to please her. In the end, he kidnaps her and forces her to choose between the scorpion or the grasshopper-between marrying him and igniting barrels of gunpowder underneath the Opera House- and she chooses the scorpion. However, in the end, he lets her go and later explains the events to the Persian, who went with Raoul de Changy to rescue Christine. Erik explains that he is going to die and leaves.

   This book is very well written. There is no one who will say that the characters are flat or static, nor would anyone say that the story is not one that touches the heart. On some level, the Phantom of the Opera will always wrench at a person’s ‘heartstrings’, whether through Erik’s side with his story of a life of agony, hatred, and bitterness or through Christine’s side of the death of her one family member, her fear of Erik, and the pain of enduring the thoughts of both Raoul and the managers along with anyone else who commented on her association with Erik. Perhaps even Raoul could evoke a person’s emotions through how much he cares for Christine and how willing he is to protect her from Erik, even when it may cost him his life.

   There is little to be said on the similarities between the original book and the variations through film, theatre, or fan fiction; even the ascended fan fiction such as Susan Kay’s novel, which is generally accepted as canon (real within the fandom-that is, real within the universe used by the story.). The story in the classic book is much darker, less of a romance and more of a horror story than it is anything else. Yet it bounces back and forth between genres as it goes from chapter to chapter, including elements of things such as backstage soap opera to horror, humour to romance, and a small amount of tragedy as well. It is more difficult to see how Christine could have loved him than it is in the various adaptations, which is how it was supposed to be. As much as we would all like to think otherwise, Erik is still the antagonist of this story, and always will be no matter how many different sides Gaston Leroux or anyone gives him to appear more human and broken.  

   This is not to say, however, that the book is without flaws. Many can see it as the classic ‘love triangle’ where a beautiful young girl must choose between the exciting, darker man and the tender, loving, but somewhat boring man. There is little argument against this- at its heart, this book is a love triangle. However, it is a well done love triangle which is what truly matters. Few of our modern day plot lines such as this are able to bring tears to one’s eyes or make them feel the terror that a character feels (which can be done in this book, depending on how strongly you attach to the characters.).

   Though the book may not seem to have the charms that modern day books do, it is a good enough story that people are still reading it over a hundred years later (it was written in 1909) and those who have already done so keep going back to it. Movies are still being made, fan fiction still created, musicals still being produced and performed. It is no secret that The Phantom of the Opera is one of the many favourite books the people in North America have, not to mention persons from other countries and continents as well.

   In the end, despite any flaws it may have the book hold a rich plot line with dynamic characters that tug at your emotions. It goes in depth with the characters, even besides giving the traits for possible mental disorders, and even with the settings. Everything adds something to the story, and it would not be complete without it. It takes a well known plot line, and turns it into a new idea that no one has ever seen, and it is not a book to be forgotten on the top shelf.

   The Phantom of the Opera has captivated audiences for generations, and it seems as though it will not disappoint in the future. With so many different layers to every part of the book, whether characters, setting, time periods, or objects used within the book, it is made to feel as if you are actually there more than many other books have done. It is a recommended read and not a book to be passed over. The novel is one of the best books that I personally have read to date. It has been, and always will be, a personal favourite.