Erik
Erik's legend is part of the Paris Opera, but his anterior life,
reality or myth, must being considered in a very special
way...
In Leroux's novel Epilogue, some aspects of his life from his
birth, are described with detail.
It seems he was born in a small town not far from Rouen
(North of France). His deformed face was repudiated by his
parents and town residents from a beginning and he ran
away at an early age to join a gypsy fair. He crossed whole
Europe and he was exhibited as the "living corpse".
Little by little he was learning magic arts and ventriloquism
as well as he gained fame with his hypnotic voice.
In one of his travels he arrived to a fair in Nijni-Novgorod
(Russia) , where his reputation of his prodigious voice
called the attention of the Shah in Persia who sent his
adviser "daroga" to demand his presence in Mazenderan.
Assuming that he had acquired knowledge about
architecture and he had gained Shah's favour, he was taken
charge of the construction of a palace with secret corridors
and doors. Also, the little Sultana had the caprice that Erik
could create for her a special chamber whose walls were
covered by mirrors and emanated a suffocating heat,
causing death in its victims to amusement of the little
sultana. This chamber was named The Torture Chamber.
Shah didn't want the secrets of his palace to be discovered,
so he ordered Erik's death who had to escape helped by
daroga.
Crossing Constantinople and Minor Asia, he arrived to Paris.
According to Leroux, he was contracted by Charles Garnier
to work in the construction of the new Opera. Probably,
tired of his long travels and fundamentally tired of hiding to
everyone his deformed face behind a mask, he decided
construct a secret dwelling at the Opera cellars where he
could dedicate himself to his love for music.
We could say the real legend of the Phantom of the Opera
begins here.
Always hidden to the world's eyes, he continued composing
the work of his life: Don Juan Triumphant.
Some years later, he met a young soprano called Christine
Daae ; secretly, he gave her singing lessons falling in love
with her.
His deepest passion was get married with her in La
Madeleine (Church near the Opera), but this dream was
truncated when Raoul, Viscount de Chagny entered in
Christine's life. She will have to choose between her
childhood's love and her spiritual love towards the
Phantom...
All the mysterious facts happened during Erik's permanence
at the Opera are described in the famous novel by Gaston
Leroux.
Everyone at the Opera obey Erik: the directors, ushers,
trap-doors, mirrors, boxes, music, scenery...The whole
building is submitted to his desires.
But his mask, makes him be entrench in his own dominion;
it's a symbol which separates two different worlds: sense
and material, darkness and light, Hell and Heaven.
As Hades (Greek god of Hell), Erik protects his dominion
against inopportune intruders; he controls water and fire,
two elements which confront with themselves, but a toy in
Erik's hands.
In fact, Erik's house is like Hell fire, just like the love he feels
towards Christine. Erik makes the whole Opera be a sacred
place, being himself a god who judges it.
The fire is united to blood and its colour, that's why Erik
chooses Red Death dress: its colour represents passion,
death and devouring fire.
Leroux describes him like a corpse. However, Erik shows
us that he is alive in truth: his golden eyes; Raoul can see
through the window of his room, or when they appear in
Apollo's lyre...once again, the symbol of fire appears, this
time, inside him representing his own passion and live.
On the other side, we have the water symbol, opposite to
fire.
The first element united to water is the huge subterranean
lake, which is the frontier most menacing between Erik's
world and light world.
In numerous cultures (Greek, Egyptian, etc.), the water is a
purification symbol; that's what the lake means: only the
pure hearts can cross it, like Christine (remember that
Comte de Chagny couldn't pass it) . Even daroga knew this
symbol and he didn't dare to cross it when he was guiding
Raoul to Erik's house.
This water meaning is shown again in Christine herself.
At the end of Phantom's story, we can read how she begins
to cry and her tears falls down to Erik's face: this tears are
the forgiveness, the purification which Erik's heart needed.
He will sacrifice himself for his beloved, choosing the
fountain (where he took care of Christine the first time he
kidnapped her), as his death place: water symbol again
united to Christine's love and sacrifice.
Please, don't copy this text without my permission.
Erik's legend is part of the Paris Opera, but his anterior life,
reality or myth, must being considered in a very special
way...
In Leroux's novel Epilogue, some aspects of his life from his
birth, are described with detail.
It seems he was born in a small town not far from Rouen
(North of France). His deformed face was repudiated by his
parents and town residents from a beginning and he ran
away at an early age to join a gypsy fair. He crossed whole
Europe and he was exhibited as the "living corpse".
Little by little he was learning magic arts and ventriloquism
as well as he gained fame with his hypnotic voice.
In one of his travels he arrived to a fair in Nijni-Novgorod
(Russia) , where his reputation of his prodigious voice
called the attention of the Shah in Persia who sent his
adviser "daroga" to demand his presence in Mazenderan.
Assuming that he had acquired knowledge about
architecture and he had gained Shah's favour, he was taken
charge of the construction of a palace with secret corridors
and doors. Also, the little Sultana had the caprice that Erik
could create for her a special chamber whose walls were
covered by mirrors and emanated a suffocating heat,
causing death in its victims to amusement of the little
sultana. This chamber was named The Torture Chamber.
Shah didn't want the secrets of his palace to be discovered,
so he ordered Erik's death who had to escape helped by
daroga.
Crossing Constantinople and Minor Asia, he arrived to Paris.
According to Leroux, he was contracted by Charles Garnier
to work in the construction of the new Opera. Probably,
tired of his long travels and fundamentally tired of hiding to
everyone his deformed face behind a mask, he decided
construct a secret dwelling at the Opera cellars where he
could dedicate himself to his love for music.
We could say the real legend of the Phantom of the Opera
begins here.
Always hidden to the world's eyes, he continued composing
the work of his life: Don Juan Triumphant.
Some years later, he met a young soprano called Christine
Daae ; secretly, he gave her singing lessons falling in love
with her.
His deepest passion was get married with her in La
Madeleine (Church near the Opera), but this dream was
truncated when Raoul, Viscount de Chagny entered in
Christine's life. She will have to choose between her
childhood's love and her spiritual love towards the
Phantom...
All the mysterious facts happened during Erik's permanence
at the Opera are described in the famous novel by Gaston
Leroux.
Everyone at the Opera obey Erik: the directors, ushers,
trap-doors, mirrors, boxes, music, scenery...The whole
building is submitted to his desires.
But his mask, makes him be entrench in his own dominion;
it's a symbol which separates two different worlds: sense
and material, darkness and light, Hell and Heaven.
As Hades (Greek god of Hell), Erik protects his dominion
against inopportune intruders; he controls water and fire,
two elements which confront with themselves, but a toy in
Erik's hands.
In fact, Erik's house is like Hell fire, just like the love he feels
towards Christine. Erik makes the whole Opera be a sacred
place, being himself a god who judges it.
The fire is united to blood and its colour, that's why Erik
chooses Red Death dress: its colour represents passion,
death and devouring fire.
Leroux describes him like a corpse. However, Erik shows
us that he is alive in truth: his golden eyes; Raoul can see
through the window of his room, or when they appear in
Apollo's lyre...once again, the symbol of fire appears, this
time, inside him representing his own passion and live.
On the other side, we have the water symbol, opposite to
fire.
The first element united to water is the huge subterranean
lake, which is the frontier most menacing between Erik's
world and light world.
In numerous cultures (Greek, Egyptian, etc.), the water is a
purification symbol; that's what the lake means: only the
pure hearts can cross it, like Christine (remember that
Comte de Chagny couldn't pass it) . Even daroga knew this
symbol and he didn't dare to cross it when he was guiding
Raoul to Erik's house.
This water meaning is shown again in Christine herself.
At the end of Phantom's story, we can read how she begins
to cry and her tears falls down to Erik's face: this tears are
the forgiveness, the purification which Erik's heart needed.
He will sacrifice himself for his beloved, choosing the
fountain (where he took care of Christine the first time he
kidnapped her), as his death place: water symbol again
united to Christine's love and sacrifice.
Please, don't copy this text without my permission.
