| “ | Can you bear to look or even think of me? | „ |
| ~ The Phantom of the Opera. |
| “ | Feast your eyes, glut your soul, on my accursed ugliness! | „ |
| ~ The Phantom of the Opera upon being unmasked. |
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.
He falls in love with Christine Daaé, a young singer whom he is determined to teach and gain her acceptance and love. In the sequel of the 1986 musical adaptation, Love Never Dies, the Phantom also has a son with Christine named Gustave.
Portrayals[]
Erik has been portrayed by several actors over the years, including:
- The late Lon Chaney in the 1925 film.
- The late Claude Rains, who also portrayed Griffin in The Invisible Man, Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood, Herod in The Greatest Story Ever Told, and Jacob Marley in Scrooge, portrayed another version of the character, Erique Claudin, in the 1943 film.
- The late Herbert Lom, who also portrayed Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther franchise, in the 1962 film
- The late William Finley in the 1974 film.
- The late Steve Harley in the 1985 music video.
- Michael Crawford in the original 1986 production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
- Robert Englund, who also played Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street horror films, Bill Gartley in Stephen King's The Mangler and Mayor Buckman in 2001 Maniacs, in the 1989 slasher horror film.
- The late Julian Sands, who also played the eponymous character in Warlock and Warlock: The Armageddon, Valmont in Jackie Chan Adventures, Vladimir Bierko in 24, Miles Castner in Dexter, Jor-El in Smallville, DeFalco in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Yulish Rabitov in Banshee, Gerald Crane in Gotham and Steve Essex in A Nasty Piece of Work, in the 1998 film.
- Gerard Butler, who also portrayed Set in Gods of Egypt, Clyde Shelton in Law Abiding Citizen, Count Dracula in Dracula 2000, and Attila in the 2001 miniseries of the same name, in the 2004 film.
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.
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.
Musical[]
The plot for the 1986 musical adaptation follows the story of the novel fairly closely with some minor changes. The plot of the musical, like the novel, revolves around Erik's love for Christine and his efforts to be with her. Also like the novel, the musical ends with the Phantom realizing the error of his ways and allowing Christine and Raoul to be together. However, different from the original novel, at the end of the musical the Phantom does not die: after being left by Christine, he just abandons his lair and disappears leaving his mask behind.
Adaptations[]
Film & Television[]
The Phantom of the Opera
(Lon Chaney Sr., 1925)
The Phantom of the Opera
(Herbert Lom, 1962)
The Phantom of the Opera
(Animated film, 1988)
The Phantom of the Opera
(Charles Dance, 1990)
Dario Argento’s The Phantom of the Opera
(Julian Sands, 1998)
The Phantom of the Opera
(Gerard Butler, 2004)
Musical[]
The Phantom of the Opera
(Musical by Ken Hill, since 1976)
The Phantom of the Opera
(Musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, since 1986)
Loosly based versions[]
The Phantom of Hollywood
(Jack Cassidy, 1974)
Phantom of the Paradise
(William Finley, 1974)
Phantom of the Ritz
(Joshua Sussman, 1988)
Other Media[]
- The Phantom of the Opera appears in pony form in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic IDW comic book The Return of Queen Chrysalis, in one of the doors in Queen Chrysalis' castle. Rarity opens his door and he appears on a piano with his mask on his hoof saying "Come, my angel!".
Deformity[]
In the Leroux novel, Erik is described as corpse-like with no visible 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's characterization of Erik in the silent film The Phantom of the Opera (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. In this version, Erik is said to have been deformed at birth. Chaney was a masterful make-up artist and was considered avant-garde for creating and applying Erik's facial make-up design himself. It is said that he kept it secret until the first day of filming. The result was allegedly so frightening to the women of the time that theaters showing the movie were cautioned to keep smelling salts on hand to revive those who fainted.
Several movies based on the novel vary the deformities. In Universal's 1943 adaptation, he is disfigured when the publisher's assistant throws etching acid in his face. In the musical horror film Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Winslow (the Phantom character) gets his head caught in a record-press, while the horror version (1989) starring Robert Englund has him selling his soul to Satan and having his face mutilated as a result. This version also has a gruesome variation on the mask, in which Erik is sewing flesh to his face.
In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation (taking a tip from Universal's 1943 spin on the story), only half of Erik's face is deformed (thus the famous half-mask often associated with Erik's appearance). His show was originally planned to have a full mask and full facial disfigurement, but when the late director Harold Prince realized that it would make expression onstage very difficult, they halved the mask. The logo featuring a full mask was publicized before the change. The deformity in the musical includes a gash on the right side of his partly balding head with exposed skull tissue, an elongated right nostril, a missing right eyebrow, swollen lips, different colored eyes, and a wrinkled, warped right cheek. For the 2004 film adaptation of the musical, this deformity is redesigned to resemble that of a face mildly malformed by a birthmark, rather than a skull-like face, making it look much less gruesome than previous adaptations of the story.
The lyrics in the Phantom's final scene in his lair have sometimes been interpreted to mean that the deformities affect his ability to engage in intercourse since having been questioned by Christine if she had been taken to become "Prey for [his] lust of flesh?", he then responds "That fate, which condemns me to wallow in blood/Has also denied me the joys of the flesh.". However, this has been clarified; the line instead refers to the Phantom's lack of sexual experience as a result of his face. His ability to engage in intercourse is further demonstrated in the sequel to Lloyd Webber's show, Love Never Dies, in which it is revealed that the Phantom and Christine had sex the night before her wedding, resulting in her pregnancy and her giving birth to their son named Gustave.
Gallery[]
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External Links[]
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 Villains
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