{"id":4108,"date":"2025-04-14T11:30:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/?p=4108"},"modified":"2025-04-14T12:51:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T16:51:52","slug":"the-phantom-of-the-opera-without-the-opera-by-juliana-kifus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/2025\/04\/14\/the-phantom-of-the-opera-without-the-opera-by-juliana-kifus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Phantom of the Opera without the Opera by Juliana Kifus"},"content":{"rendered":"

A malformed, masked entity lurks in the shadows of a Parisian Opera house. His presence had only haunted the house until an aspiring opera singer, Christine Daa\u00e9, stepped onto the stage. However, then the so-called \u201cPhantom\u201d develops a desire to help Christine in her career and become the lead performer–but at what cost? <\/span><\/p>\n

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1925 film <\/span>The Phantom of the Opera<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>The story of <\/span>The Phantom <\/span><\/i>has been told and retold since it first hit the public in 1910 when a French author, Gaston Leroux, published his first novel <\/span>Le Fant\u00f4me de l’op\u00e9ra. <\/span><\/i>Although there are different variations of the story, there\u2019s a pretty solid base structure for how the story is told. A ghost is rumored to haunt an Opera house in Paris after a man, Joseph Buquet, is found hanging with no rope. A young and newly emerging singer, Christine Daae, begins her career when the lead singer at the Opera house, Carlotta, becomes ill. The Phantom develops an interest in Christine and vows to help her excel as a vocalist. He attempts to do this by writing a letter to the Opera house, threatening them if they don\u2019t cast Christine as the lead in <\/span>Faust. <\/span><\/i>They don\u2019t follow through with his orders: Carlotta ends up physically unable to sing, the iconic chandelier falls killing a spectator.<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

(the chandelier falling)<\/em>Christine is then abducted by the Phantom, who, <\/span>at this point, we know isn\u2019t some divine or otherworldly being, but rather a man named Erik. He was exiled from the French government for being \u201ccriminally insane\u201d and cast into the depths of the Opera house. Erik ends up falling in love with Christine, but her lover, Rauol, and his mask being removed gets in the way of his plans. He keeps Christine in his lair as he wants to be with her forever, but Rauol fights to free her. Eventually Rauol and Christine end up together and The Phantom is back to his fated destiny of living his life in solitude.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This plot has been delivered through book, multiple film renditions, and has been the longest-running Broadway show ever. Each rendition of the story holds a uniqueness that can be appreciated, but they\u2019re so different they almost become incomparable. I say \u201calmost\u201d because the 1925 rendition of the film, the first cinematic depiction, cannot be topped. The film\u2019s genre is listed as \u201chorror\u201d and in terms of \u201chorrifying\u201d, it may not have you throwing your popcorn around the theatre or cause you to sleep with a night light on, but there\u2019s undoubtedly an eeriness about the film that doesn\u2019t go unnoticed. The intersection of it being a black and white film, as well as a silent one, creates a very specific vibe that we tend to lose in films now. It adds an element of mystery and wonder, and what\u2019s more horrifying than the unknown? The artistry in the film is shown through gestures big and small. When the giant chandelier crashes down on the spectators during the performance, we can\u2019t hear any screams, but we can feel the instant fear and panic ensues on the audience. Before The Phantom is revealed, his silhouette is cast on the walls through shadow. His being is merely a whisper through the town, hardly anyone has seen him and lived to tell the tale. This takes me back to my point before, utilizing what we can\u2019t see can be more horrifying than what we can see.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film industry has leaned away from producing art on this specific level. With an increase in technology and abilities, we now have superb color, sound, and even special effects like CGI. I am not saying the films created now aren\u2019t artistic, they\u2019ve just majorly shifted in aesthetic value. One of the most well-known aspects of <\/span>The Phantom of the Opera<\/span><\/i> is the soundtrack produced by the esteemed Andrew Lloyd Webber, which is not part of the 1925 film. This does not mean the film lacks significance, though, as it remains a classic in the silent film industry. The lack of color and music shouldn\u2019t be a problem in this movie’s composition as it causes you to feel entranced by what\u2019s actually happening in the plot. Lo Chaney, the actor who plays <\/span>The Phantom<\/span><\/i>, is known for his acting and also his impressive ability to do special effects makeup. He is even known as \u201cThe Man of a Thousand Faces.\u201d He was before his time in how he constructed his Phantom face, it was a major development for this specific film.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

(Erik without his mask)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Before releasing the film to the public, they decided to keep his face a secret until it was in theatres to add an extra level of mystery. It was so shocking that audience members were reported to faint upon first viewing it. This seems like an absurd circumstance now because of the many, more unquestionably horrifying creatures we\u2019ve seen in the film industry, but we also have to recognize the time and place. Nonetheless, it is very much still art.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The film can be used, not only for aesthetic value or historical film prevalence, but there\u2019s also an underlying theme in the midst of it all. Erik, at the end of the day, was just a man who suffered from a mental illness and a face deformity. He was a criminal and definitely made some questionable decisions, but his situation almost makes you feel bad for him. He was cast out of society because of his circumstances, but it was the cruelty and hatred of humankind that made him <\/span>The Phantom<\/span><\/i>. How couldn\u2019t we expect deviant behavior from him when society had turned him into a monster? It\u2019s unjustifiable to kidnap anyone or murder them in cold blood, but I\u2019m not sure what other behavior you would expect to see from someone who\u2019s been living underground for the majority of his life. Someone who has been turned into a whisper in the night, but not under his own accord. Someone who has been stripped of their personhood. All of the film conflicts could have been prevented if Erik had been approached in a humane way. Next time you want to cast someone out or label them as <\/span>The Phantom<\/span><\/i>, think about what things make them different from you and think about what things make you different from them. This shouldn\u2019t create a divide between you, but rather help you acknowledge your differences and how you can exist together despite them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A malformed, masked entity lurks in the shadows of a Parisian Opera house. His presence had only haunted the house Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2311,"featured_media":4109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,29,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwr","category-reviews-recommendations","category-what-were-reading"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4108"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4126,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108\/revisions\/4126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}