Phantom of the Opera Case

Haley Myers

Mrs. Goslin

English II Honors

9 Oct. 2013

Phantom of the Opera

        The legendary Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux has been changed numerous of times by movies. One of the most famous movies was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s movie published in 2004. Both of these wonderful pieces of art are filled with inspiring and amazing lessons. This book and movie both has the same message but portrayed in different ways. The movie has more of a friendlier Phantom than the book had.

        Leroux’s book main message is “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” The reason that this is the message is because the phantom is physically deformed from birth. He was able to create beautiful and inspiring music and get a young woman to believe in herself, the impossible dream. Raoul was physically handsome; he listened to music, but had no true understanding of it or the desire to obtain it. Christine loved the phantom, although she was stunned by his grotesque appearance, but she was torn when he kidnapped Raoul, her childhood friend. The Phantom realized it was wrong to force her to love him so he let her and Raoul go. He died of a broken heart, “We cried together! I have tasted all the happiness the world can offer” (Leroux 253). He saw the true meaning of love in Christine; she was willing to give him his desire to have a wife in order to protect Raoul from torture and death. When Christine Daae was a young girl, her father told her stories about the Angel of Music who comes to great artists. The real Angel of Music was Erik, the Phantom; the Phantom tricks her into falling in love with him. She looks past his hideous face and focus on his inside appearance.

Webber’s production of Phantom of the Opera followed along with the book. One of the main changes in the movie was the Phantom’s physical appearance. In the book he was described by Joseph Buguet, the chief scene-shifter, “He is extraordinarily thin and his dress-coat hangs on a skeleton frame. His eyes are so deep that you can hardly see the fixed pupils. You just see two black holes, as in a dead man’s skull. His skin, which is stretched across his bones like a drumhead, is not white, but a nasty yellow. His nose is so little worth talking about that you can’t see it side-faced; and the absence of that nose is a horrible thing to look at. All the hair he has is three or four long dark locks on his forehead and behind his ears” (Leroux 9). He is said to wear a full masks at times. The movie’s take on the Phantom is quite interesting because he is very handsome in the movie. The only damage he has on his face is kind of an acid burn that travels from his right ear all the way to the corner of his eye. He wears a white half mask most of the movie. In the book, the graveyard scene is quite different: Christine is told that if she travels to her father’s modest grave, her “Angel” will play for her on her father’s violin. She does so, hears the music, and leaves the cemetery. In the movie, Raoul has a duel with the Phantom in the cemetery. This is Raoul’s first encounter with the Phantom. Even though there were some differences there were some similarities. One of the similarities was the feeling around the Phantom. The Phantom in the book had sort of a sinister aura around him and made everybody scared when his name was said. The movie did an excellent job on making the aura around the Phantom so similar to the book that it brought out some of the feelings and emotions you get by reading the novel.