"The Phantom of the Opera" is a Gothic romance novel written by French writer Gaston Leroux and got originally published in English in 1911, a year after its final serial publication. Gaston Leroux, like other Gothic novelists, sets the story in an opera house full of secrets. It’s written as if it were the private journal of a man investigating the strange murders in hopes of proving to the public that the opera ghost indeed did exist. The narrator and the author focus their story primarily on the actions of the opera ghost and how they affect the other characters, specifically Christine Daae and Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny. The narrator describes the opera ghost, a man named Erik, as a horrific and ruthless man, capable of committing murder without remorse and even tries to blackmail Christine into loving him. To characterize Erik, Gaston Leroux uses literary devices such as flashbacks, allusion and foil.
Much of the reason Erik is obsessed with Christine and murders for her is due to his past. Gaston Leroux uses flashbacks to give the reader insight into Erik’s childhood and his life as a young adult. Although Leroux doesn’t outright say it, it’s heavily implied that Erik laments the fact that his mother was disgusted by his deformed appearance, which causes him to run away from a young age. It’s also gets revealed that “Erik” isn’t his birth name but rather a name that was given to him, though Leroux never mentions who gave him that name. Because Erik never received the love of his mother, it’s easy to say that Erik’s obsession with Christine stems from that. After he runs away from home, Erik begins to wear a mask and joins a circus, using his deformity to earn himself a position in the freak show. During his stay at the circus, Erik becomes an excellent illusionist, magician and ventriloquist with a beautiful singing voice. His reputation spreads, and he quickly finds himself building a palace and working for the Shah, or Emperor, of Persia. It is here that he becomes a political assassin for the Shah and develops his ruthless method of killing with a noose, an ability he uses many times during "The Phantom of the Opera."
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Throughout the novel, many characters such as Christine and the Phantom himself refer to Erik as the “Angel of Music,” something that further characterizes Erik as an evil and sinister being. Lucifer, the first fallen angel, was referred to as the Angel of Music before his betrayal. It’s said that he had a pair of reeds in his body and, instead of speaking, sang. By alluding to Lucifer when talking about Erik, Leroux is telling the reader that Erik is also a prideful yet sinful man. To further allude to Lucifer, Leroux describes Erik’s home underneath the opera house dark and ghastly and the musical that Erik writes, Don Juan Triumphant, is described as an opera that “burns,” further alluding to Hell.
The last literary device that Leroux uses is foil. Erik is portrayed as a walking corpse and his deformity makes it seem like his face is a real skull; his eyes are sunken into his sockets, and he’s missing his nose. Despite calling himself the “Angel of Music,” he’s anything but one. He represents death and misery while his foil, Raoul, represents light and happiness. Raoul is Christine’s childhood friend and eventual fiancé. He’s described as a handsome young man, full of life and promises Christine that she will lead a happy life should she marry him. The Phantom, on the other hand, blackmails Christine into accepting his marriage proposal by threatening to kill Raoul and blowing up the opera house while it’s full of people. The two are complete opposites, the exact definition of foil.
"The Phantom of the Opera" is the story of a sad man desperately trying to win the love of a beautiful and talented girl. Through the use of literary devices, Gaston Leroux portrays Erik as a depressed sociopath willing to do anything to get what he wants. He is a killer, but one can’t help but understand where he’s coming from and why he is the way he is.
