Phantom of the Opera
By: Stenly • Essay • 523 Words • May 23, 2010 • 1,261 Views
Phantom of the Opera
Ben Brown
English
November 17, 1999
Phantom of the Opera
In the novel, Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux, we are introduced to a character
known to everyone as the mysterious Opera Ghost. His character in this book is very complex.
Although the Opera Ghost is very ugly physically and mentally, through his actions, we can find
much beauty.
During the masked ball we are given, what the reader believes at the time, a very good
physical description of the Opera Ghost. At the masked ball the Opera Ghost does a perfect job
imitating death. “The Grim Reaper himself must have posed for it,” the on looking crowd would
comment. But the hideous thing that he wears upon his head is, in fact, only a mask. What he
hides underneath the mask is more wretched than anything imaginable to men. The Opera Ghost
was, “Made up entirely of death,”(138). He was so disgustingly ugly that, “his mother would
never let him kiss her, she would throw his mask at him and run away,”(263). Poor Erik’s life
knows nothing but ugliness.
We see more of the Opera Ghost’s ugliness when we read of the Persians description of
the Opera Ghost’s love of torture. Before the Opera, Erik designs torture chambers for a little
sultana in Persia. His design was just a small room with six walls, with each wall being a mirror.
There is also a tree with a Punjab Lasso. The Opera Ghost’s idea of torture was not so much
physical pain, but a torture in which a victim would go mad, and in their madness, they would kill
themselves. On the outside of each one of these chambers there is a place the Opera watches his
victims while they were going mad. Erik truly was ugly, not only physically, but mentally.
We are given our first example of Erik’s