Why is Phantom of the Opera a story we return to again and again? The 1911 novel,
Le Fantome de l'Opera by Gaston Leroux, was no Harry Potter of its time, and a lot of people who know the story never knew there was a book behind it. Yet it became one of the best known silent movies when Universal Studios brought it to life for the first time in 1925, and besides the dozens of other movie versions that have been made over time there is of course the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that started in the 80s and remains to this day one of the most popular musicals of all time. Not to mention the countless book adaptions, translations, and fan-written sequels both published and all over the internet.
In each of these versions the one character who seems to stay the least consistant is Erik, the Phantom of the Opera himself. Everyone seems to have their own interpretation of him. He has turned from the childishly sadistic killer of Leroux's creation, to an agent of Satan in Robert Englund's horror version, to a misunderstood romantic in Lloyd Webber's musical.
I think that the one element that seems to stay consistant with this character is also the one that we identify with the most, and that is Erik as the recluse, as the man driven to murder and abuse because he was never taught anything different, the man who only wanted to love and be loved for himself but hid behind masks and myths of angels because he never believed he could be. I think we all, at some time in our lives, have learned for ourselves the true cruelty of society toward those who are different or underprivliged. Erik is almost the epitome of the emotionally (And in some interpretations, physically) abused. In Erik's time, outward ugliness was associated with inward sin, and Erik was treated by many with as much love as one would have for the devil himself.
Then there is always the question of: In Christine's place, which will you choose? The infamous love triangle, Raoul and Erik love Christine but which will she choose when she's in a situation where either way she goes she has something to loose?
I myself? I laughed about the quiz result that related me to Leroux's Christine, but I think I am in many ways like her. She loves Raoul, but she continues to return to Erik despite the fact that it may be her undoing in the end, because, I think, she has a certain affection for the tortured man who has known only rejection despite her horror.
"What more can I tell you, dear? You now know the tragedy. It went on for a fortnight--a fortnight during which I lied to him. My lies were as hideous as the monster who inspired them; but they were the price of my liberty. I burned his mask; and I managed so well that, even when he was not singing, he tried to catch my eye, like a dog sitting by its master. He was my faithful slave and paid me endless little attentions. Gradually, I gave him such confidence that he ventured to take me walking on the banks of the lake and to row me in the boat on its leaden waters; toward the end of my captivity he let me out through the gates that closed the underground passages in the Rue Scribe. Here a carriage awaited us and took us to the Bois. The night when we met you was nearly fatal to me, for he is terribly jealous of you and I had to tell him that you were soon going away....Then, at last, after a fortnight of that horrible captivity, during which I was filled with pity, enthusiasm, despair and horror by turns, he believed me when I said, `I WILL COME BACK!'"
"And you went back, Christine," groaned Raoul.
"Yes, dear, and I must tell you that it was not his frightful threats when setting me free that helped me to keep my word, but the harrowing sob which he gave on the threshold of the tomb. ... That sob attached me to the unfortunate man more than I myself suspected when saying good-by to him. Poor Erik! Poor Erik!"
-Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, chapter 12
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