"You will beg my pardon, one day, for all those ugly words, Raoul, and when you do I shall forgive you!"
This quote succinctly captures the essential features of Raoul's character. He has just insulted Christine and accused her of being deceptive because she will not let him out of her dressing room to go after Erik. After Christine refuses to let him out of the room, he bursts into tears. Christine allows him to insult her. She thought of nothing but to keep him from leaving the room. The quote shows how Christine is willing to take hits to her integrity and pride in order to keep Raoul safe, to keep Erik from killing him, and also more generally to maintain the delicate network of relationships that prevent Erik from causing any other kind of harm. What makes it even more difficult is that Christine does not feel at liberty to tell Raoul about Erik and his background. She is under considerable pressure, and Raoul makes no attempt to understand her, despite claiming to love her. Nonetheless Christine does not bow under pressure and still commits to forgiving him when he realizes the mistake he has made. This moment is one of many that display Christine's incredible maturity, and also a moment in which Raoul—her lover—places enormous pressure on her to divulge her secrets. This all make clear how different Christine and Raoul are from one another.
As I had not the same desperate reasons as M. le Vicomte for accepting death, I returned, after giving him a word of encouragement, to my panel…
This is when the Persian attempts to look for an opening in the mirrored walls of the torture chamber and gives Raoul some words of encouragement. Raoul’s uselessness and fatalistic attitude are partly a result of his love for Christine, but they are also a result of his inability to think rationally and quickly in problematic situations. After banging on the walls and calling out to Christine, he sees no other option than to die. His love for Christine, in a sense, is a kind of lazy, apathetic love—however contradictory that may sound. This is because, though he claims to love Christine, he uses only the feelings in his heart to attempt to get her back. He lacks the intellect and cunning to carry out his goals and aspirations, an orientation that certainly does not seem to change much at all over the course of the story.
Then Christine gave way to fear. She trembled lest Erik should discover where Raoul was hidden; she told us in a few hurried words that Erik had gone quite mad with love and that he had decided to kill everybody and himself with everybody if she did not consent to become his wife.
Time and time again, Christine is shown to be the character on which there is the most responsibility and pressure. Though Erik is (as the title suggests) is the main subject of the book, Christine is no doubt the most troubled and dynamic character. Erik’s character development truly comes out at the very end, when he consents to Raoul and Christine’s marriage and gives the Persian some of his belongings; but that is nothing compared to how much Christine has to suffer and sacrifice throughout the novel in an attempt to keep both her lovers (and their egos) from exploding. She is a genuinely compassionate character that commits acts of wrongdoing only to protect the feelings and interests of others, to the point that she is willing to commit suicide to end her suffering. But she does not take her anger or disgust out on anyone but herself, showing another aspect of her delicate but firm personality.
As for Richard, who felt himself turning red under Moncharmin’s eyes, he took Mme. Giry by the wrist and shook it violently. In a voice growling and rolling like thunder, he roared: “Why should I know better than you where the twenty-thousand francs went to? Why? Answer me!”
Bouts of anger and violent reactions are the bread and butter of this book – whether they come from Erik, Raoul, or in this case, Richard and Moncharmin. The managers find themselves on the wrong end of a game of deception and trickery (or at least they continue to think that it is a game) and take their anger out on Mme. Giry. Erik makes fools of them, and this is riveting instance in which Richard seizes Mme. Giry’s wrist and treats her with a kind of disrespect that she has never experienced before. It pushes the boundaries and challenges the characters in ways they have never been tested before. Both managers adjust their behavior accordingly and give Erik the serious attention with which their predecessors treated him.
I have had occasion to say that the managers’ mood had undergone a disagreeable change for some time past and to convey the fact that this change was due not to the fall of the chandelier on the famous night of the gala performance.
The dramatic shift in the behavior and attitude of both managers represents the irony of an attempt to sabotage the preexisting order of things in the Opera House. The new managers, Richard and Moncharmin, do not heed the warnings and advice of Mme. Giry or their predecessors: they attempt to sell Erik’s box and remove Mme. Giry from her position as its box keeper. In the end, as a result of a few clever (and, in the case of the chandelier, deadly) tricks, Erik manages to scare the managers. Their fear shows the irony of resistance and also the irony of sabotage, wherein they tried to foil and disregard Erik’s request, but instead ended up facing a great deal of embarrassment and loses public confidence.
“The misfortune is,” said Raoul, with a grin, “that it’s quite possible. With Erik, you never know. Is it Erik? Is it the cat? Is it the ghost? No, with Erik, you can’t tell!”
Raoul’s obsession and preoccupation with Erik comprises his relationship with his older brother, who is baffled at the fact that Raoul is shooting cats in the middle of the night. This leads to a strain in their relationship, and because of his intense love for Christine, Raoul chooses her over Philippe (who says that he will not allow Raoul to marry Christine). This is yet another example of the immaturity Raoul displays in the name of love, and there is no indication that Raoul is able to navigate long-standing, important relationships (or new ones) with any care. Ironically, his reckless and selfish behavior makes, marrying Christine all the more difficult.
That tragic evening was bad for everybody. Carlotta fell ill. As for Christine Daee, she disappeared after the performance. A fortnight elapsed during which she was seen neither at the Opera not outside.
The quote captures the dark overtone of the story but also the high degree of uncertainty and suspense that Leroux weaves into the plot. The tensions between characters are often a result of secrets and unexplainable events, particularly as carried out by Erik. Relying on each other, especially for Christine and Raoul, becomes a matter of trusting that the secrets they hold (Christine’s secrets are very important) are meant to keep their relationships safe.
The Comte de Chagny…was a great aristocrat and a good-looking man, above middle height and with attractive features, in spite of his hard forehead and his rather cold eyes. He was exquisitely polite to the women and a little haughty to the men, who did not always forgive him for his successes in society.
Leroux gives a description of Philippe in such detail that one might expect that Philippe plays a large role in the story. However it becomes obvious that Philippe actually plays a noticeably small role in the story itself, dying at the very end. Raoul is not shown to express any kind of sorrow or remorse at fighting with him or at the fact that he was killed at the hands of the Siren when he went looking for Raoul. Raoul’s selfishness becomes evident yet again in how he interacts with Philippe, whom Leroux describes as very proud of Raoul and pleased to foresee a glorious career for him in the navy. Philippe also spoiled Raoul, and such an upbringing might be one of many reasons that Raoul behaves rashly and impatiently.
The horrid news soon spread all over the Opera, where Joseph Buquet was very popular. The dressing rooms emptied and the ballet-girls, crowding around Sorelli like timid sheep around their shepherdess, made for the foyer through the ill-lit passages and staircases, trotting as fast as their little pink legs could carry them.
The world of the Opera is vast and complex, and one death excites and elicits the reactions, surprise, shock, and sorrow of everyone. The various types of actors and workers represent, in some sense, a society of sorts. Many have never left the Opera after coming there, and others are well connected to the outsiders and spectators who come to see it. The various moving parts of the Opera become compromised entirely – not just mechanically, but emotionally and psychologically too – at the news of Buquet’s death. There is incredible commotion, with everyone from ballet dancers to the chorus-manager showing concern and asking questions about how he died.
…Christine uttered a deep sigh, which was answered by a groan. She turned her head, saw Raoul and started. She looked at the doctor, on whom she bestowed a smile, then at her maid, then at Raoul again. “Monsieur,” she said, in a voice not much above a whisper, “who are you?”
As the reader later finds out, the reason Christine pretends not to know Raoul is because Erik is watching – and she had already assured Erik that Raoul was no more than a friend. The question points to the incredibly difficult decisions that Christine has to make throughout the story, and the fact that the two men who claim to love her actually make her more tense and distressed than any of the other characters. Their love is quite selfish, and Raoul in particular fails to realize how much he is hurting Christine. However, this question is not only an attempt to pacify Erik, but also a (somewhat) successful attempt to save Raoul from Erik’s clutches.
