Summary
The next day, Raoul sees Christine at the Opera. She is gentle and kind to him. Raoul is going to leave for a polar expedition soon. As for Christine, she tells him that in a month they shall have to say goodbye forever. Even though they cannot be married, they can certainly be engaged for a month. They play at being engaged and enjoy it as if they were children. They make speeches to each other and exchange eternal vows as well. One day, about a week after the game began, Raoul stops playing and says that he will not go to the North Pole. Christine suddenly discovers the danger of the game and does not say a word in reply, going straight home instead. The next morning, Raoul goes to Mamma Valerius, who tells him that Christine had gone away for two days. Christine returns on the following day and renews her extraordinary success of the gala performance. He runs behind the scenes and places himself in her way. She drags him to her dressing room, and they embrace. Raoul swears that he would go, and entreats her to never again withhold an hour of happiness that she had promised him. Christine asks him to leave and come back the next day.
The next day, they go for a walk; throughout the following days, Christine shows him a different part of her empire in the Opera House, which covers 17 stories from the ground floor to the roof. She moves among her subjects and workers like a queen, She knows of unsuspected corners, and the days go by in this way. Raoul and Christine by showing excessive interest in other things, trying awkwardly to hide their affection from one another. Christine becomes more nervous, and on their expeditions often she often starts to run without reason or else suddenly stop. Having seen the upper part of Christine’s empire, Raoul asks her if she could show him the lower part. Christine whispers to him that she will not take him there, because everything that is underground belongs to the Ghost. On the next day and the following days, Christine is careful to avoid trap doors. One afternoon they find themselves under the very roof, in the maze of timberwork. They slip through the buttresses, the rafters, and the joists. They run from beam to beam, and despite the care Christine takes to look behind her at every moment, she fails to see a shadow that follows her like her own shadow.
Christine and Raoul sit on the roof, and Christine tells Raoul that she cannot leave Erik because terrible misfortunes will happen if she does. She has only a day left before he comes to fetch her with his voice. Christine and Raoul resolve to run away after her performance tomorrow evening. Christine tells Raoul about how she met Erik. For the first three months, she heard him without seeing him. The voice answered her questions, and from that time onward – after Mamma Valerius was convinced that it was the Angel of Music that Christine’s father spoke of – the voice and Christine became great friends. It asked permission to give her lessons every day.
Christine agreed and never failed to keep the appointments. Christine says that the voice seemed to understand hers exactly. In a a few weeks’ time, Christine saw the quality of her singing improve tremendously. But as per the voice’s request, she kept the secret between the voice, herself, and Mamma Valerius. The voice said that they would astonish Paris, and Christine waited and lived on in a sort of ecstatic dream. Then one night, for the first time, she saw Raoul in the Opera House. She was so glad to see him that when she reached her dressing room – and the voice saw that something was different about her – he asked what had happened. She told him of her and Raoul’s love story, after which the voice went silent and disappeared. That night she went home in a desperate condition, and she told Mamma Valerius, who said that the voice was jealous. The next day, she went back to her dressing room in a pensive mood. The voice was there and very sadly that, if she had to bestow her heard on earth, there was nothing for the voice to do but go back to heaven.
Christine feared nothing so much as that she might never hear the voice again, and she swore that Raoul was no more than a brother to her. That night she fainted and woke up to Raoul in her dressing room; she pretended not to recognize him for his (Raoul’s) sake, and began to laugh when Raoul reminded her of the scarf in the sea. The voice recognized Raoul and became jealous. The voice said that he would continue to follow her wherever she went. Raoul asks Christine why he did not rid herself of the voice. Christine replies that on the night the chandelier fell, she was worried that the voice might have been hurt. She went to her dressing room, called for the voice, and then, as a result of a mirror trick, she suddenly was outside the room. She was in a dark passage, was frightened, and cried out. An arm of a man wrapped in a large cloak and wearing a mask that hid his face took her round the waist and supported her. (It turns out that it was Erik.) Soon she fainted. When she opened her eyes, she was still surrounded by darkness. She saw Cesar, the missing horse. She called upon the voice to help her, because she never thought the ghost and voice were one. The black shape held her up and put her on Cesar, who quietly carried her through the tunnels of the Opera House.
At last the darkness lifted. They found themselves on the edge of a lake, where Christine saw a little boat fastened to an iron ring on the wharf. They floated across the water, and suddenly she found herself in a drawing room that was decorated with flowers. The man in the mask told her not to be afraid – it was the voice! He told her that she was no danger, so as long as she did not touch the mask. This man had succeeded in taking up his residence five stories under the Opera House. The voice was a man, and then Christine began to cry. The man said that he was not an Angel, a genius, or a ghost. He introduces himself as Erik. That night he sung her to sleep, and the next morning he prepared a meal for her. She was angry with him, and after she had freshened up, Erik told her that he loved her. Erik said he had no name, no country, and that he had taken the name Erik by accident. They began singing a piece from Othello, and Christine found an urge to see what was underneath the mask. Her fingers swiftly tore away the mask, and the face she saw horrified her. Christine fell back against the wall. Erik came up to her and began cursing. He then hissed at her and asked why she wanted to see him. He dragged himself into his room and closed the door. After telling him the whole story, Christine and Raoul kiss.
Raoul and Christine run off the roof. There is no performance at the Opera that night, and the passages are empty. They go to Christine’s dressing room, where Erik gave his word he would not go. Christine notices that she has lost the ring that Erik gave her – which she vowed to keep on her finger if Erik was ever to let her go about and do what she wishes, the price of her liberty. She and Raoul look for it, and when they cannot find it, she disappears. Raoul goes home, and finds that Erik is in his room. He uses his revolver and shoots at Erik, who is apparently on the balcony. It turns out that Raoul has only shot at a cat, and as a result of the gunshot he was awoken the servants and his brother. Raoul attempts to tell his brother about Erik, but his brother thinks Raoul has gone mad.
They argue, and the next day the paper publishes a news about their quarrel: Raoul has committed to marrying Christine Daee, but his older brother, Count Philippe, objects. Philippe says that he will not allow the marriage to happen. Raoul prepares for his flight with Christine: the horses, the carriage, the coachman, the luggage, and the money required for the trip. In the evening he parks his traveling-barouche on the Rotunda side of the Opera House. Alongside it were three broughams, belonging to Carlotta, Sorelli, and Comte Philippe de Chagny. At the performance gala, Christine is met with a surprisingly cold reception. During the performance, the stage is suddenly plunged in darkness. When the gas lit up the stage again, Christine is nowhere to be found. Raoul and Philippe are both stupefied, and some people wonder if this has anything to do with what they read about in the paper that morning.
Behind the curtain is an indescribable crowd. Everyone is asking questions, shouting, and hustling one another. Mercier, the acting-manager, calls for Mifroid, the commissary. Mauclair, the gasman (who controls the stage lighting), and his assistants are not to be found. Mercier, Remy (the secretary), and Gabriel (the chorus master) begin arguing about what just happened, and approach the managers’ office. Suddenly a voice makes all three of them turn around: it is Raoul, and he asks where Christine is.
Raoul’s first thought after Christine’s disappearance is to accuse Erik. He unsuccessfully goes around the Opera House asking about the entrance to the Rue Scribe. Mercier tells Raoul that he should direct his questions to Mifroid, the commissary of the police. They all soon go to the managers’ office, and despite Mercier's attempts to storm the door, it remains closed. Raoul is the last to enter, and as he enters, someone puts his hands on Raoul’s shoulders and he hears someone say in his ear that Erik's secret concerns none but Erik. The hand and voice belong to the Persian. At the moment when Raoul is about to inquire about his mysterious intervention, the Persian bows and disappears.
Analysis
Immediately following Christine’s return – which is just as sudden as her disappearance – she decides to “play” with Raoul by getting engaged to him for a month (because Raoul is soon leaving for a polar expedition). However, the game takes an unexpected turn (Raoul says he loves her too much to leave and wants to actually get married), and, yet again, Christine faces a difficult choice. She leaves for her home in silence.
What we see with this incident is that the choices Raoul makes do not necessarily have grave consequences for him as much as they do for Christine. Though playing the getting-engaged-for-a-month game was an unwise (and unorthodox) move on Christine’s part, she seems to be the only one who has to face the consequences. Having to hold an emotional and unpredictable Raoul at bay, Christine’s maturity and decision-making are greatly tested. Leroux reminds the reader again and again that in fact the one who actually cares more about the relationship is not Raoul, but rather Christine. It is not Raoul who has to make the difficult decision – he only makes those that he wants to. Christine has to negotiate and mediate the jealousy and irrationality of both her lovers, if she wants to survive at all.
Leroux also draws out the role of the woman in late nineteenth century high society: despite having a great deal of freedom in certain aspects of life (such as her profession), the woman still cannot express herself as openly and candidly as men can. Christine cannot go with her will and act on her emotions in the way Raoul and Erik can and do.
