The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
"The Phantom of the Opera," written by Gaston Leroux and published in 1910 as a serialized feuilleton, is a compelling tale set against the backdrop of the Paris Opera House. The story follows a mysterious figure known as the Opera Ghost, who exerts his influence over the theater by demanding that a specific box remain empty and that singer Christine Daaé be promoted. The Ghost's presence becomes increasingly dominant, leading to a series of dramatic events, including a tragic chandelier crash during a performance. Central to the narrative is the love triangle involving Christine, her childhood friend Raoul, and the enigmatic Ghost, whose true identity is revealed to be Erik, a disfigured stonemason.
The themes of beauty, love, and rejection are explored as Christine grapples with her feelings for both men, while the Ghost's obsessive nature drives him to desperate acts. Leroux's work not only captivates with its thrilling plot twists but also delves into the darker corners of the human experience. The novel has inspired numerous adaptations, including films and a celebrated musical, solidifying its place in popular culture. It reflects the fascination with the labyrinthine catacombs beneath Paris, serving as a rich metaphor for the complexities of love and the human psyche.
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
First published:Le fantôme de l’Opéra, 1910 (English translation, 1911)
Subjects: Crime, death, and love and romance
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Thriller
Time of work: The 1880’s
Recommended Ages: 15-18
Locale: The Paris Opera
Principal Characters:
Raoul , Vicomte de Chagny, a young noblemanChristine Daaé , a singer at the Opera with whom Raoul falls in lovePhilippe , Comte de Chagny, Raoul’s older brotherFirmin Richard , andArmand Moncharmin , the new managers of the OperaMadame Giry , a box attendant at the OperaThe Persian , a regular visitor to the OperaThe Opera Ghost , a skull-faced blackmailer with the seemingly supernatural power to appear and disappear at will anywhere in the Opera house
Form and Content
The Phantom of the Opera was written for publication as a feuilleton (a newspaper serial) in Le Gaulois, one of three such daily serials that Gaston Leroux wrote in 1910. Works of this kind inevitably tend to be episodic, crammed with incident and full of such narrative hooks as mysterious apparitions and seemingly inexplicable disappearances; in these terms, The Phantom of the Opera is a bravura performance. Like many feuilletons, it is presented as a quasi-journalistic endeavor: a story carefully pieced together from interviews with the parties involved, which can only be displayed in its entirety by virtue of the investigative flair of the reporter.
Having credited his “sources,” the reporter lays down the background history of the Opera Ghost, a mysterious figure with a face like a death’s head. The main story concerns a period when the Ghost’s appearances suddenly become more frequent and the demands that he makes upon the theater’s managers more forceful, after which he was never seen again.
The Ghost’s increased activity begins with the insistence that a particular box always be left empty for his use and that regular payments of money be deposited there. He also issues instructions to the effect that a singer named Christine Daaé be promoted to leading roles. The intimidated managers of the theater immediately hand the problem over to a new team, Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin. Believing that it is all a practical joke, these resolute skeptics refuse to give in to these demands and set out to trap the supposed joker.
In the meantime, Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny, who knew Christine Daaé when they were both children, falls in love with her after hearing her sing. Unfortunately, Philippe, Comte de Chagny, disapproves strongly of the possibility that his younger brother should marry so far beneath him, and Raoul encounters further difficulties in pressing his suit because he has a rival. Christine has a mysterious singing tutor whom she never sees and who claims to be the Angel of Music about which her father used to tell her stories when she was a child. The “Angel” demands that she renounce Raoul, and Christine initially does so, but Raoul will not accept defeat. His attempts to confront the “Angel” are frustrated, but it quickly becomes clear that this enigmatic individual and the Opera Ghost are one and the same.
The stubbornness of the managers leads the Ghost to spoil a performance by a diva who refuses to make way for Christine. The great chandelier that lights the auditorium crashes down on the audience and kills the concierge, whom the managers intended to appoint in place of Madame Giry, the box attendant who seems to them to be the Ghost’s accomplice. The Ghost cultivates a closer acquaintance with Christine, taking her down to his “house” on the shore of an underground lake in the catacombs beneath the Opera house, where he composes music of his own. There, she snatches away his mask and sees his horrible face, but she persuades him that she loves him in spite of his appearance in order to prevent him from murdering Raoul. During a masked ball where he appears as the Red Death (from Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Masque of the Red Death”), however, the Ghost eavesdrops on a rooftop meeting between Christine and Raoul. When he learns that they plan to elope, he kidnaps her from the stage in mid-performance.
Raoul is befriended by a regular operagoer known as the Persian, who tells him that the Opera Ghost is a stonemason named Erik whose career was blighted by his horrific deformities. Erik helped to build the cellars of the Opera house and incorporated many trapdoors into the edifice. The Persian guides Raoul to the Ghost’s lair, but they are trapped in a curious mirrored “torture chamber.” Philippe, who approaches the house by a different route, is drowned in the lake.
Erik has filled the cellars with barrels of gunpowder. He demands that Christine choose between marrying him and the total destruction of the Opera house, but he knows full well that she will promise him anything and then betray him. There is no way forward for him, and the only question at stake is how much damage the climax of his madness will do. Raoul and Christine escape, leaving him to die alone and unmourned.
Critical Context
Were it not for the text’s provision of the key scenes that have kept the story alive in the public imagination and for the films and the stage musical that followed, Gaston Leroux’s novel would have been forgotten. It must also be remembered, however, that the actual Paris Opera provided the inspiration for The Phantom of the Opera. Paris is set above a network of catacombs so extensive as not to be fully known, and Leroux was not the only Parisian writer to be fascinated with them. The fact that the focal point of French high culture was situated above a dark labyrinth provided a golden opportunity for symbolism. The symbolism embodied in this kind of sensationalist text is inevitably crude and overblown, but it is there nevertheless, and it cries out for recognition and recapitulation. Such caricaturish cinematic homages as The Phantom of the Paradise and The Phantom of Hollywood (both 1974) are as appropriate, in their own way, as the famous stage musical.