History Literature / ThePhantomOfTheOpera

* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: Except not PlayedForLaughs, and Christine doesn't feel insulted that she escapes this FateWorseThanDeath.

* WickedCultured: ''Guess''.

* {{Blackmail}}: The Phantom demands 240,000 francs a year and exclusive use of First Tier Box 5 or else he'll drop chandeliers on people. One has to wonder what he does with all that money, although [[{{Franchise/Batman}} one possibility springs to mind.]]
** The Batman reference is perfectly appropriate because the answer is:
** WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: Erik being a MadArtist / MadScientist / EvilGenius can make a lot of HomemadeInventions, but still needs the money to buy supplies (the mirrors of his RoboticTortureDevice came to mind). Given the Opera is administrated by two [[PointyHairedBoss Pointy-Haired Bosses]], [[FridgeBrilliance Erik must have not a problem getting everything delivered there]].
** He describes exactly what he intends to use the money for: he wants to live what he considers to be normal life, and no longer hide from the world. He needs funds for that. He's even described using a false nose and moustache, which allow him to appear simply strange and ugly rather than outright monstrous, to move in public and do his shopping.

** On the other hand, the {{Narrator}} never justifies Erik's atrocities before he even becomes The Phantom. Erik is shown as a PsychopathicManchild [[EvilCannotComprehendGood truly surprised he let Christine and Raoul go]]. In the epilogue, the narrator [[{{Hypocrite}} claims to pity Erik,]] [[BeautyEqualsGoodness but never attacks the shallow societies that persecuted him. Instead, he justifies their attitudes because Erik is ''really'' ugly]]. Instead of giving Erik a grave (or even the common grave) [[MoralEventHorizon his last line is a plea for Erik to become a]] DeadGuyOnDisplay in the archives of the National Academy of Music.

** He describes exactly what he intends to use the money for: he wants to live what he considers to be normal life, and no longer hide from the world. He needs funds for that. He's even described using a false nose and mustache, which allow him to appear simply strange and ugly rather than outright monstrous, to move in public and do his shopping.

** Parts of it are TruthInTelevision; the Palais Garnier really is like a maze.

** He describes exactly what he intends to use the money for: he wants to live what he considers to be normal life, and no longer hide from the world. He needs funds for that. He's even described using a false nose and moustache, which allow him to appear simply strange and ugly rather than outright monstrous, to move in public and do his shopping.

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The final line of the novel is a plea for giving Erik's body this treatment. Oddly enough, it seems to be a Type 1, where the person was an honored figure (despite the fact that Erik was a PsychoticManchild unrepentant killer), and his body would be preserved as a relic/object of reverence:

* DeathTrap: The Phantom installed one as the first room beyond the back entrance to his lair to intercept trespassers. When Raoul and the Persian fall into it, it starts as a SaunaOfDeath and ends as a DrowningPit, although its' greatest torture is psychological.

* DramaticUnmask
* DrivenToSuicide: TortureTechnician Erik's favorite method of disposing of his victims with his RoboticTortureDevice. If you are lucky, he only will strangle you to death.

** It's worth noting, though, that Erik seems to have an almost humorously non-sexual view of marriage- his chief goal in having a pretty wife, as described to Christine herself, is to buy her nice things and take her for walks in the park on Sundays, while he wears a mask that (he thinks) sufficiently makes him look "like anyone else".

* FromNobodyToNightmare: After running away from home, Erik [[ComeToGawk was exhibited as “the living corpse” in fairs across all Europe]], then learnt to be a [[StageMagician magician]] and artist from the [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} Gypsies]]. He was a great singer and {{ventriloquis|m}}t and displayed [[StickyFingers great feats of legerdemain]]. The Shah-in-Shah, hearing about him, sent the Daroga to bring him to Persia. While there, he became an AboveGoodAndEvil EvilGenius TortureTechnician who also was a ProfessionalKiller.

* TheGrotesque: Subverted by Erik, whose deformities make him a living corpse, but also averts being a GentleGiant: he is so socially deformed that his attitude as a PsychopathicManchild BastardBoyfriend makes him truly terrifying. Ironically, his AboveGoodAndEvil attitude lets him fit into society very well, as a TortureTechnician, ProfessionalKiller and {{Blackmail}}er, because HumansAreBastards. The {{Narrator}} lampshades in the Epilogue that Erik, with an ordinary face, ''would have been one of the most distinguished of mankind''. However, Erik is vindictive towards the humanity that rejected him, he holds human life at no value, and his [[EvilCannotComprehendGood act of mercy surprised even him]].

** On the other hand, she could be this trope until the end of the novel, but then we discover that any normal woman would have GoneMadFromTheRevelation or be DrivenToSuicide rather than marry Erik. Only Christine could have really agreed to marry him without trying suicide, and Erick is so shocked that he quits his plan to KillThemAll.

* LostWeddingRing: Erik gives Christine a plain wedding ring and says that she is protected so long as she wears it, although Raoul doesn't like it since he wants to marry Christine himself. Christine is thoroughly distressed when she loses the ring, because she doesn't know what will happen.\\
\\
In the final scenes, Erik is revealed to have found the ring, and he gives it to Christine when she promises to marry him.

* LoveHurts

* MadArtist: The Phantom composes beautiful music. And, you know, kills people. Besides the music, [[ProfessionalKiller Erik's]] [[{{Blackmail}} many]] [[StickyFingers talents]] include being a great [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} architect]], the world’s best {{ventriloquis|m}}t and TortureTechnician.

* MadScientist: Subverted by Erik: He built a RoboticTortureDevice / DeathTrap and a DeceptivelyHumanRobot at the middle of the 19th century, but his tragedy, as the {{Narrator}} lampshades in the Epilogue, is that he is so ugly he could never become a scientist, but rather a toyman or stage magician:

** JustifiedTrope: The Phantom can move through the hatches on the Opera, and some rooms were designed by Erik where ''you could not utter a word but it was overheard or repeated by an echo.''

* ThePowerOfLove
* PracticalJoke: [[AgentScully Opera managers Richard and Moncharmin]] believe that each and every one of the strange happenings at the Opera are this. JustifiedTrope: they're two [[PointyHairedBoss Pointy-Haired Bosses]] and [[DudeWheresMyRespect they get no respect]].
* ThePrimaDonna: Carlotta.

* RetiredMonster: Erik, after his FromNobodyToNightmare phase, survives the assassination attempts from his employers because HeKnowsTooMuch. ''Then, tired of his adventurous, formidable and monstrous life, he longed to be some one [[IJustWantToBeNormal "like everybody else."]] And he became a contractor, like any ordinary contractor, building ordinary houses with ordinary bricks. He tendered for part of the foundations in the Opera. His estimate was accepted.''

** Also Raoul, who despite being the ostensible 'hero' does a lot of things that sit rather uncomfortably with the modern reader; Christine is not impressed ''at all'' when she finds out about him listening at her door. And then he goes and hides in her closet...

* TortureCellar

* TragicMonster: The Phantom.

->I am a free agent, monsieur de Chagny; you have no right to control my actions and I will ask that you desist henceforth. As for what I have done during the past fortnight, there is ->only one man in the world who would have the right to demand that I give him an account: my husband! Well, I have no husband, and I shall never marry!”

* TheGrotesque: Subverted by Erik, whose deformities make him a living corpse, but also averts being a GentleGiant: he is so socially deformed that his attitude as a PsychopathicManchild BastardBoyfriend make him truly terrifying. Ironically, his AboveGoodAndEvil attitude lets him fit into society very well, as a TortureTechnician, ProfessionalKiller and {{Blackmail}}er, because HumansAreBastards. The {{Narrator}} lampshades in the Epilogue that Erik, with an ordinary face, ''would have been one of the most distinguished of mankind''. However, Erik is vindictive towards the humanity that rejected him, he holds human life at no value, and his [[EvilCannotComprehendGood act of mercy surprised even him]].

** The Daroga mentions that Erik built a palace at Mazenderan where ''you could not utter a word but it was overheard or repeated by an echo.'' With his trap-doors Erik spied for the Sha. {{Ventriloquism}} explains how Erik could be heard at First Tier Box Five, [[FridgeBrilliance but this trope explains how Erik can hear all the conversations in the ghost’s box without being present.]].

* GenreSavvy: Raoul seems to know he's the [[BettyAndVeronica "safe" love interest]] in a Gothic romance, given his utter lack of surprise at Christine's love for her stalker/kidnapper despite no recognition of StockholmSyndrome as such at the time.

* [[BatheHerAndBringHerToMe Bathe and Come to Me]]

* [[MayDecemberRomance May December... It's Complicated]]: We never learn Erik's actual age, but at the very ''least'' he's old enough to be Christine's father. Close examination of the text, and several of the events mentioned in his back story, concludes that he's probably in his early fifties.
** He's only a few years younger than the old veteran of the opera company, Madame Giry.

* [[ProtoSuperhero Proto Supervillain]]: Erik has a ''lot'' of supervillain-like traits, and is acknowledged as an inspiration for several RoguesGallery characters and even a creepy superhero or two.

* [[MayDecemberRomance May December...It's Complicated]]: We never learn Erik's actual age, but at the very ''least'' he's old enough to be Christine's father. Close examination of the text, and several of the events mentioned in his back story, concludes that he's probably in his early fifties.

* DecoyProtagonist: La Sorelli seems to be set up to be the female lead in the first chapter.

** On the other hand, she could be this trope until the end of the novel, but then we discover that any normal woman would have GoneMadFromTheRevelation or be DrivenToSuicide rather than marry with Erik. Only Christine could have really agreed to marry him without trying suicide, and Erick is so shocked that he quits his plan to KillThemAll.

** Also Raoul, although admittedly to a much lesser extent; Christine is not at ''all'' impressed when she finds out about him listening at her door. And then he goes and hides in her closet...

* KilledOffForReal: The Phantom kills 3 people that we know of by name -- [[spoiler: Josef Buquet, the chief stagehand, for accidentally discovering the back entrance to his lair; the new concierge because the new managers didn't comply with his demands; and Raoul's brother, although he insists to the Persian that the Count just fell in the lake and drowned.]]

* [[ProtoSuperhero Proto Supervillain]]

** This was Erik's real plan all along. Erik really never believed that Christine could marry him without being DrivenToSuicide. When Christine convinces him she will not attempt suicide and kiss him, Erik is so shocked she let her go.

* SingleTargetSexuality: The Phantom for Christine, oh so much.
--->'''The Phantom:''' You alone can make my song take flight, and help me make the Music of the Night.

* PointyHairedBoss: Deconstructed with Opera managers Richard and Moncharmin: Everybody knows they get their jobs [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections thanks to their connections]], that they don’t know a lot about music or how to run the Opera. Nobody really respects them and are accustomed to cruel pranks and jokes, and that is the cause they never take seriously the Phantom’s menaces until the FallingChandelierOfDoom incident.

* PracticalJoke: [[AgentScully Opera managers Richard and Moncharmin]] believe that all and every of the strange happenings at the Opera are this. JustifiedTrope: they are two [[PointyHairedBoss Pointy-Haired Bosses]] and [[DudeWheresMyRespect they get no respect]].

* RoboticTortureDevice: The aptly named ''"torture chamber"'' is completely automated: when the victim falls in the room, it activates and gives him the illusion of a tropical forrest. When the victim cannot endure more, [[DrivenToSuicide there is also a rope to hang himself]]. The Phantom uses it as a defense against curious people. The first victim of the book was already dead when the Phantom found him.
* SaveTheVillain: The Persian did this in the past and now frequently laments "MyGodWhatHaveIDone"

* [[MayDecemberRomance May December...It's Complicated]]: We never learn Erik's actual age, but at the very ''least'' he's old enough to be Christine's father. Possibly her ''grandfather.''

* FromNobodyToNightmare: After running away from home, Erik [[ComeToGawk was exhibited as “the living corpse” in fairs across all Europe]], then learnt to be a [[StageMagician magician]] and artist from the [[{{Roma}} Gypsies]]. He was a great singer and {{ventriloquis|m}}t and displayed [[StickyFingers great feats of legerdemain]]. The Shah-in-Shah, hearing about him, sent the Daroga to bring him to Persia. While there, he became an AboveGoodAndEvil EvilGenius TortureTechnician who also was a ProfessionalKiller.

''The Phantom of the Opera'' was originally a novel by French author Gaston Leroux, published in serialized form in 1909 and 1910. Leroux tells what he insists is the true story of a young soprano, Christine, who believes she is being tutored by the "Angel of Music", sent to her from Heaven from her deceased father. Originally considered nothing special, especially compared to her rival and the opera's resident diva, Carlotta, after three months under the Angel's tutelage, Christine shines. The managers quickly realize the depth of her talent... and so does Christine's childhood best friend, Raoul, who sees her in all her newfound glory and realizes that SheIsAllGrownUp.

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