Erik Novel

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Erik, also known as the Phantom of the Opera, is the main antagonist in Gaston Leroux's novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (English: The Phantom of the Opera): Erik Description A mysterious, violent, and tragic figure who haunts the Paris Opera House Skills Illusionist, magician, ventriloquist, architect, composer, and swordsman Backstory Born with deformities that are often explained by burns and acid Personality Has a desire to change and live a normal life, but also has a brutal, possessive attitude toward Christine Symbolism His mask symbolizes his vulnerability and the injustice he suffers from In the novel, Erik falls in love with Christine Daaé, a beautiful soprano, and tutors her in music. He becomes enraged when he learns that Christine is in love with her childhood friend, Raoul. The Phantom of the Opera was originally published as a serial in Le Gaulois from 1909 to 1910, and then released in volume form in 1910. The novel has been adapted into several films and a musical.

Novel

This romantic drama tells the story of Erik, a mysterious phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House. The Phantom falls in love with Christine Daaé, a beautiful soprano, and begins tutoring her in music. But Erik is enraged to learn that Christine is in love with her Childhood friend, Raoul.

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In the original novel, few details are given regarding Erik's past, although there is no shortage of hints and implications throughout the book. Erik himself laments the fact that his mother was horrified by his appearance and that his father, a master mason, never saw him. It is also revealed that "Erik" was not, in fact, his birth name, but one that was given or found "by accident", as Erik himself says in the novel. In the novel, Leroux sometimes calls him "the man's voice"; Erik also refers to himself as "The Opera Ghost", "The Angel of Music", and attends a masquerade as the Red Death. Most of Erik's history is revealed by a mysterious figure, known through most of the novel as The Persian or the Daroga, who had been a local police chief in Persia and who followed Erik to Paris:) some of the rest is discussed in the novel's epilogue. Erik is born in a small town outside of Rouen, France. Born hideously deformed, he is a "subject of horror" for his family and as a result, he runs away as a young boy and falls in with a band of Gypsies, making his living as an attraction in freak shows, where he is known as "le mort vivant" ("the living dead").

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During his time with the tribe, Erik becomes a great illusionist, magician and ventriloquist. His reputation for these skills and his unearthly singing voice spreads quickly, and one day a fur trader mentions him to the Shah of Persia.The Shah orders the Persian to fetch Erik and bring him to the palace.The Shah-in-Shah commissions Erik, who proves himself a gifted architect, to construct an elaborate palace, Mazenderan. The edifice is designed with so many trap doors and secret rooms that not even the slightest whisper could be considered private. The design itself carries sound to myriad hidden locations, so that one never knew who might be listening. At some point under the Shah's employment, Erik is also a political assassin, using a unique noose referred to as the Punjab Lasso.The Persian dwells on the vague horrors that existed at Mazenderan rather than going in depth into the actual circumstances involved. The Shah, pleased with Erik's work and determined that no one else should have such a palace, orders Erik blinded. Thinking that Erik could still make another palace even without his eyesight, the Shah orders Erik's execution. It is only by the intervention of the daroga (the Persian) that Erik escapes. Erik then goes to Constantinople and is employed by its ruler, helping build certain edifices in the Yildiz-Kiosk, among other things. However, he has to leave the city for the same reason he left Mazenderan: he knows too much. He also seems to have traveled to Southeast Asia, since he claims to have learned to breathe underwater using a hollow reed from the "Tonkin pirates". By this time Erik is tired of his nomadic life and wants to "live like everybody else". For a time he works as a contractor, building "ordinary houses with ordinary bricks". He eventually bids on a contract to help with the construction of the Palais Garnier, commonly known as the Paris Opéra.

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During the construction he is able to make a sort of playground for himself within the Opera House, creating trapdoors and secret passageways throughout every inch of the theatre. He even builds himself a house in the cellars of the Opera where he could live far from man's cruelty. Erik has spent twenty years composing a piece entitled Don Juan Triumphant. In one chapter after he takes Christine to his lair, she asks him to play her a piece from his masterwork. He refuses and says, "I will play you Mozart, if you like, which will only make you weep; but my Don Juan, Christine, burns." Eventually, after she has wrenched off his mask and seen his deformed face, he begins to play it. Christine says that at first it seemed to be "one great awful sob," but then became alert to its nuances and power. Upon its completion, he originally plans to go to his bed (which is a coffin) and "never wake up," but by the final chapters of the novel, (during which Erik kidnapps Christine right from the stage during a performance), Erik expresses his wish to marry Christine and live a comfortable bourgeois life after his work has been completed. He has stored a massive supply of gunpowder under the Opera, and, should she refuse his offer, plans to detonate it. When she acquiesces to his desires in order to save herself, her lover Raoul (who, aided by the Persian, went looking for Christine and fell into Erik's torture chamber), and the denizens of the Opera, we find out that his part of the bargain was to take the Persian and Raoul above ground. He does so with the Persian, but Raoul was kept "a hostage" and was "locked up comfortably, properly chained" in the dungeon under the opera. When he returns, he finds Christine waiting for him, like "a real living fiancee" and he swore she tilted her forehead toward him, and he kissed it. Then he says he was so happy that he fell at her feet, crying, and she cries with him, calling him "poor, unhappy Erik" and taking his hand.

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At this point, he is "just a poor dog ready to die for her" and he returns to her the ring she had lost and said that she was free to go and marry Raoul. Erik frees Raoul and he and Christine leave. But before they do, Erik makes Christine promise that when he dies she will come back and bury him. Then she kisses Erik's forehead. Erik dies three weeks later, but not before he goes to visit the Persian and tells him everything, and promises to send him Erik's dearest possessions: the papers that Christine wrote about everything that had happened with her "Angel of Music" and some things that had belonged to her. Christine keeps her promise and returns to the Opera to bury Erik and place the plain gold band he had given her on his finger. Leroux claims that a skeleton bearing such a ring was later unearthed in the Opera cellars.

Erik's Deformity

In the Leroux novel, Erik is described as corpse-like with no nose; sunken eyes and cheeks; yellow, parchment-like skin; and only a few wisps of ink-black hair covering his head. He is often described as "a walking skeleton", and Christine graphically describes his cold hands. Lon Chaney, Sr.'s characterization of Erik in the silent film (released in 1925) remains closest to the book in content, in that Erik's face resembles a skull with an elongated nose slit and protruding, crooked teeth. Chaney was a master make-up artist and was considered avant garde for creating and applying Erik's facial makeup design himself. It is said he kept it secret until the first day of filming. The result was allegedly so frightening to the ladies of the time, theaters showing the movie were cautioned to keep smelling salts on hand for the women who fainted in shock.

Skills & Abilities

Throughout his life, Erik had become quite accomplished in many fields of study, which he has used to both astound and even intimidate. Probably the most well known is his knowledge of music and song, which was likely something he either was taught or self-taught, though this likely leans to the latter. He's also known to be an expert tutor, particularly in teaching Christine Daaé in the art of singing opera. As well as both a musician and opera singer, Erik is also well versed in composing much of his music and even performances, such as Don Juan Triumphant. Aside from his artistic genius, Erik is also an accomplished illusionist and ventriloquist, likely something he learned while either in a band of gypsies or in the circus (Depending on which version of the character is in question). He's capable of using such skills to both amaze and intimidate, but also can use it as a means of escape if necessary. He is also well versed in stealth, which allows him to traverse virtually anywhere without being detected, even being able to infiltrate his own performance at the climax.

MBTI Type: INTJ

Erik is an idealistic dreamer with very specific desires; he wants Christine to be his, and for her to sing his music in an opera. He pursues these goals to the exclusion of all other possibilities, with a fierce single-mindedness that makes him dangerous. His songs are full of intense, symbolism that speaks of his own inner turmoil and view of the world (Don Juan Triumphant is the metaphorical representation of his own sexual desires). He has an idealistic view of Christine and has already shaped their future life together in his mind. Though he prefers to use trickery to frighten others, Erik can also be impulsive and opportunistic. He has expensive taste and a desire to experience “the joys of the flesh.” If he sees an opportunity to act, he takes it—such as preying upon Christine’s emotions in the graveyard to lure her back into his thrall (inferior Se). He is devoted to his work and intent on seeing it brought into completion. He is good at organizing others to accomplish his goals and manipulating them into doing what he wants them to do. Erik is opportunistic, choosing logical (if amoral) actions to bring about what he wants—including vocally training Christine, pretending to be the Angel of Music as inspired by her prayers and memories, blackmailing the owners for funding so he can live in comfort, and threatening Raoul’s life to force Christine to marry him. His inability to express his emotions is a source of frustration to him. Erik instead infuses his music with passionate feeling and works through his intense feelings on his own. He wavers between an intense desire to be loved and self-revulsion, bouncing between a desire to control Christine and force her obedience (regardless of her feelings) and selfless love that is so touched by her willingness to embrace and hold him despite his deformity that he simply lets her go. Erik pursues that which his heart desires and has a selective affection for Christine.

Enneagram: 4w3

Erik’s life is built around his suffering. He focuses on his intense emotions and in comparing himself to others, feeling different and removed from humanity because of his deformity. Haunted by a sense of loneliness and despair, he seeks to pour all of his desires into a single perfect creation: Christine. Deeply sensitive and insecure, he expresses his intense pain through haunting, tortured musical pieces full of inner expression and sexuality. As he disintegrates, he becomes a needy and obsessive 2, trying to force Christine to love him, becoming possessive and clingy in a desperate need for love, but she helps him move toward 1—where he sees the wrongness in his behavior, and releases her because it’s the right thing to do. Erik wants everyone to appreciate his genius, and recognize him as an authority on music. He adapts to become what he thinks Christine needs and wants from him (her “teacher”) and to lure her to him, while being very assertive in how he pursues her, goes after the opera managers, and even tries to kill Raoul when he comes into Erik’s lair.

Basic information

Full Name Erik Alias The Phantom of the Opera The Phantom The Opera Ghost Angel of Music Angel of Death Mr. Y Origin The Phantom of the Opera Occupation Maestro Impresario Architect Illusionist Contractor Powers / Skills Genius-level intelligence Charisma Singing Extensive knowledge of opera and other music Physical strength Swordsmanship Evasion Ventriloquism Stealth Stagecraft and stage magic Invention and engineering Architecture Hobby Writing music. Singing. Tutoring Christine Daaé. Playing the organ. Goals Teach Christine Daaé. Be loved and accepted by Christine. Let Christine to choose her love, so she will live happily in her life. Commit suicide, after Christine left him (original novel only). Reunite with Christine again (Love Never Dies continuity). Protect his son Gustave (Love Never Dies continuity; all succeeded). Be with and protect Christine (failed in all continuities). Crimes Serial murder Blackmail Stalking Kidnapping Psychological abuse Assault and battery Arson Type of Villain Tragic Outcast Erik, better known as The Phantom of the Opera, is the titular protagonist of the 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera) written by the late Gaston Leroux and its adaptations. Erik is an extremely intelligent and talented musician who lives hidden at an Opera House in Paris because of his deformity.

Biography

Novel In the original novel, few details are given regarding Erik's past, although there is no shortage of hints and implications throughout the book. Erik himself laments the fact that his mother was horrified by his appearance and that his father, a master mason, never saw him. It is also revealed that "Erik" was not actually his birth name, but one that was given or found "by accident", as Erik himself says within the work. Leroux sometimes calls him "the man's voice"; Erik also refers to himself as "The Opera Ghost", "The Angel of Music", and attends a masquerade as the Red Death. Most of the character's history is revealed by a mysterious figure, known through most of the novel as The Persian or the Daroga, who had been a local police chief in Persia, following Erik to Paris; other details are discussed in the novel's epilogue, e.g. his birthplace is given as a small town outside of Rouen, France.Born hideously deformed, he is a "subject of horror" for his family and as a result, he runs away as a young boy and falls in with a band of Gypsies, making his living as an attraction in freak shows, where he is known as "Le Mort Vivant" ("The Living Dead"). During his time with the tribe, Erik becomes a great illusionist, magician, and ventriloquist. His reputation for these skills and his unearthly singing voice spreads quickly, and one day a fur trader mentions him to the Shah of Persia. After escaping from the Shah's order of execution, Erik finds a place to live beneath a Paris Opera house that is still under construction. Upon the completion of the opera house, Erik planned to retreat to his lair and "never wake up". However, over the course of the novel, he falls in love with Christine Daaé and kidnaps her. Christine's lover, Raoul, comes looking for her with the aid of the Phantom's friend, the Persian. As part of a deal, the Phantom agrees to release Raoul so Christine will marry him. The Phantom does not keep his end of the bargain and keeps Raoul a hostage.

Biography

Upon returning to Christine, she helps the Phantom realize the error of his ways. Erik then releases Christine to be with Raoul. Christine promises to return to bury the phantom after he dies. 3 weeks later Erik dies and Christine keeps her promise, burying Erik with the ring he gave her.