Hidden messages behind a mask in The Phantom of the Opera Chien, Hsuen En( 簡雪恩 ) Chang, Yi Tz'u ( 張意慈 ) Class 102 National HsinChu Commercial Vocational High School March 29, 2008 1
I. Introduction 1. About the author Gaston Leroux In 1868, Gaston Leroux, a French novelist, was born in Paris, as the son of a wealthy family. After Leroux received his law degree from university, he wasted a considerable legacy on drinking and gambling. As he ran out of his fortune, Leroux began to work as a newspaper correspondent. In 1890 s, as a correspondent, he traveled worldwide. He reported for French papers on the events and exciting adventures across the globe. In the early 1900 s, Leroux devoted himself to writing. He mostly wrote detective fiction. After his first success with The Mystery of the Yellow Room, starring an amateur detective, Leroux began to gain fame as a writer. With his unique writing style, Gaston Leroux wrote many novels that were based on his experiences as a reporter. His novels worked out with such a perfect sense of logic that readers could feel as if they were part of the actual scene to solve puzzling mysteries by themselves. The Phantom of the Opera is one of the best-known examples. It earned for Gaston Leroux the status of being the greatest French detective novelist of his time. After his death, it was adapted into many stage productions and films. In a word, the Phantom of the Opera has become an international success. 2. About the story itself Erik, wearing a mask, had an angel of a voice, but the horrible face of a ghost. He was a poor boy, abandoned by his parents when he was a child. Because of his ugly face, he always put a mask on his face. When people saw his face, they always screamed in horror and ran away quickly. No one wanted to make friends with him, so he hid himself from the world and sang behind a secret wall. One day, he saw a lovely singer, Christine, singing on the stage. Soon he fell in love with her, but she loved Raoul, who was her childmate. He didn t want any other people to get her, so he asked her not to leave him forever. But it was hard to fall in love with him have someone fell in love with him-the Phantom, who always wore a mask? 1
II. Thesis In this paper, we illustrate the reasons why Erik always wore a mask and imposed restriction on himself, and why he couldn t stand up for his right. And furthermore, we come up with an alternative way to deal with his ups and downs in life. 1. Major character analysis 1-1 Erik Erik, the major character, was ugly but smart and talented in music. As the author describes, I was ugly. Worse than ugly, my face was like a skull. My nose was sunk in. It looked as if I had no nose at all. My eyes were small and yellow. My body was a skeleton with skin. But inside, I was a child, not a monster. Not yet. (1) That s the reason why Erik feared to show himself in public and always wore a mask. 1-2 Christine Christine, a beautiful opera singer, loved Raoul instead of Erik, who loved her deeply. Her voice was beautiful, but sad. So sad. I knew the right teacher could make her voice perfect, said Erik.(2) After Erik taught her how to sing, she was capable of being the lead role in the opera performance. However, she didn t love him but admired his beautiful voice. She reached out to him out of sympathy. 1-3 Raoul Raoul, an attractive young man, who loved Christine. That is my dearest wish. I will forget about the North Pole. We will go away together. (3) He was Christine s childmate, and promised to marry her. 2. Reasons why Erik wore a mask and hid himself from the world: 2
2-1 Erik s parents, who ignored him, ordered him to wear a mask. Erik had such a horrible face that his parents ignored him, so his parents didn t love him at all. He was always scolded by his mother and whipped by his father. They also ordered him to wear a mask and to keep away from them. As a result, he wouldn t open his heart to anyone and didn t believe in love. In other words, he was totally an outcast. To protect himself from being insulted and injured, he did nothing but wear a mask to escape from this world, which was his tragic flaw. As the author mentioned, My mother never kissed me. Never! She could not bear to look at me. I was so horrible that she made me wear a mask. My father never even saw my face. (4) 2-2 The public, who made fun of him, forced Erik to wear a mask People went to visit his fair not because he was a movie star or a popular singer but because he had an ugly face. Gradually he thought of this as a good way to make a fortune. He was just like a bird locked in the cage and had no freedom, waiting for being watched by other people. He could hardly do anything to change the situation; he was terribly teased. At night, people came to look at me. My little yellows gleamed in the dark. I took off my mask. People screamed and ran from my tent! But they bought more tickets. They came back to look again. I made money for the fair. And for myself. (5) What frustrated him the most was that he did nothing to remove this disgusting looks. The only thing he could do was wear a mask to avoid being mocked at. 2-3 Erik s ego made himself wear a mask. When Erik heard a couple considering himself to be the Phantom of the Opera, he laughed to himself. He knew that wearing a mask was daunting to the public. So he decided to be the Phantom of the Opera with the mask on. No one opened his or her heart to him; they just kept away from him and spoke ill of him behind his back. He hid himself secretly behind the wall and sang to Christine, because he 3
was afraid that when she saw his face she would faint or screamed for help. Eric said, I could not stop thinking about Christine. One night I hid behind the wall of her dressing room, I began to sing. (6) said Erik. Although his voice was like an angel, his face was like the devil. He had no courage to honestly face everything and everyone. He always put the mask on his face to protect himself from being hurt. Erik fell in love with this beautiful singer, Christine, so he didn t want her to leave him alone. But he didn t consider that Christine was not his possession. Erik said to Christine, Do you love someone here on the earth? If you do, I must return to heaven. I must go away forever. You must love only me, Christine. (7) He just thought there was no real love between him and Christine, so he bound her by his side. Frankly speaking, the purpose that Erik hid himself under the mask was to make himself understood and loved rather than frighten people around him. Wearing a mask was intended to have people disregard his unattractive face. No one can live without friends or love. As Erik said, Stay here with me for a few days. You will learn not to notice my mask. You will learn to know me. Then you may go. But I hope you will come back to see your Erik from time to time. (8) He had been living alone since his childhood, which was a painful experience. 3. An alternative way to deal with Erik s ups and downs in life: 3-1 Don t care about others judgement; look on the bright side. Even though he wore a mask, he still didn t have the strength to face the trouble in life. Imagine my sorrow and rage as she stared at my death s head! At the two dark circles that ring my little yellow eyes! At the hole that serves as my nose! At my sunken mouth! (9) If he looked on the bright side, he still could live in earnest. What he cared about was others judgment, and subsquently, he lacked confidence in himself. In fact, it was he himself that could determine how he lived a life. 4
III. Conclusion He believed in nothing and always had a grudge against someone because his parents spurned him, and everyone made friends with him just because of his magic power. His extreme ego grew out of his inferiority complex and others discrimination against him. He didn t think he was wrong. He just thought all of the consequences was due to his parents indifference to him. He wasn t brave enough to face the problems. The only thing he could do was wear a mask to escape from reality and hide himself from the world. He even took everything in the opera house as his belongings. In this way, he chose to spend his rest of life with hatred below the opera house. As far as we are concerned, he should have accepted his negative appearance, loved himself and chosen to live a meaningful life instead of miserable one. Take the modern dancer, Hwai-min Lin for example. He is the founder of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. When he was a child, he was always seen moving his body like a dancer. But no one believed he would be a successful dancer in the future. His parents thought he should focus on his studies instead of being a dancer. Dancing just could be an interest at most, it was impossible to enjoy the high status by moving his body. His coach even asked him to give up dancing and not to be the black sheep in the group. These words didn t hurt his feelings, he still believed in what he wanted to do. He didn t do the same thing what Erik did. He didn t hide himself under the mask, and didn t care what people said to him. Without a doubt, he finally succeeded in being one of the most triumphant dancers in the world. Take another actor, Christopher Reeve for example. Christophere Reeve became completely paralyzed after a horse-riding accident. Even though his doctors said that he would never move again, he wouldn t give up on himself. What s more, he wouldn t allow the disability to determine how he led a life. He strove to conquer all the difficulties. Compared to Erik, Reeve wasn t afraid of laughing at himself, bringing happiness to people around him. Though he passed away, his life still lived on. Back to the theme, although Erik s heart was full of hatred, he still wanted someone to show his or her love to him. Christine s presence made his life 5
change a lot. Little by little, he learned from her how to love a person. His frozen heart was also melt because of Christine s true love. In the end, he removed his mask and opened his heart to Christine, and Christine reached out to him as well. Reference 1. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, Random House, Ltd.p.5 2. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, Random House, Ltd.p.36 3. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, Random House, Ltd.p.73 4. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, Random House, Ltd.p.5 5. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, Random House, Ltd.p.10 6. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, Random House, Ltd.p.36 7. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, Random House, Ltd.p.41 8. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, Random House, Ltd.p.56 9. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, Random House, Ltd.p.59 6