Book Review: Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The newest Phantom of the Opera movie doesn’t really do the book justice. Let’s start with Erik, the Opera Ghost. As I recall, I don’t think he was ever once named the Phantom. It is in the title, but throughout the book he was always just the Opera Ghost. He also had nothing gentlemanly about the way he treated Christine. He terrified her and messed with her mind. He behaved every inch the madman he was. The movie portrays him in a much lighter, kinder way than he is portrayed in the book.

Some things to note as to the differences between the movie and book:

1. The chandelier incident: It did not happen at the end and burn down the opera house. Actually, it happened during Carlotta’s croaking incident. This is also the first performance where the managers sold the Ghost’s opera box since they did not believe that he was real. The chandelier only killed the lady who was in Erik’s box.
2. The Persian: This a deleted character, however he was actually a very important to the story. The Persian is the man who saved Erik’s life, not Madame Giry. He helps Raoul rescue Christine at the end and narrates the whole ordeal.
3. Erik’s torture chamber: As I said before, Erik was in no way a gentleman towards anyone, even Christine. At the end, he even tortures Christine. His torture chamber is very effective, and he uses it against Raoul and the Persian, who barely escape death many times in his psychological torture.
4. Erik’s disfigurement: His whole face was disfigured, described as dead skin, like a corpse. It was not merely half his face. He is also described as having glowing yellow eyes. And he was a madman, not just someone who was angry with his circumstances.
5. There was no awesome cemetery swordfight between the Ghost and Raoul. However, at the cemetery, the Ghost did topple a large pile of bones on Raoul that knocked him unconscious.

One thing the movie does get right is Erik’s transformation after Christine allows him to kiss him. However, he only kisses her forehead. He ceases his madman behavior, allows Christine and Raoul to leave, and tells the Persian that he is going to stop his insanity. Erik then leaves the opera house and is never heard from again. Christine and Raoul are never heard from again either, since they had to elope (you know, Raoul being from an upper class family and Christine being the daughter of a poor man).

A few of my favorite quotes from the madman:

“Oh, my poor Christine, look at your wrists: tell me, have I hurt them? …That alone deserves death…Talking of death, I MUST SING HIS REQUIEM!”

“But I am very tired of it!...I’m sick and tired of having a forest and a torture-chamber in my house and of living like a mountebank, in a house with a false bottom!”

“But what does this mean?...The wall is really getting quite hot!...The wall is burning!” 

“I’ll tell you, Christine, dear: it is because of the forest next door.” 

“Well, what has that to do with it? The forest?” 

“WHY, DIDN’T YOU SEE THAT IT WAS AN AFRICAN FOREST?”