The 16th in 2021.
This story is a well known tragedy, written by Gaston Leroux. The famous Paris Opera House is the main spot for our characters.
At the beginning, it covered with a mysterious and horrible vibe. Everyone gossiped the phantom whom they encountered. But the ghost was totally different in their eyes and ears respectively. If you never met him, you might think the ghost of Opera is a creature with various shapes.
Our ghost is named as Eric. He emerged everywhere in the Opera House, making ballet dancers shout, keeping horsemen talking, even the managers felt confused by him. Because they received a letter from Eric, and they were blackmailed for 2000 francs per month.
Eric is a genius. He excelled at architecture, design ,music and even assassinate, he is a great conjuror as well. However, he never appeared in front of people without a mask for his extreme ugliness.
He loved a soprano at the Paris Opera House. The very soprano is Christine Daae , a young Swedish singer, who dreamed to be a great singer since she was a little girl. Her father was a good teacher to her, but died at her very young age. Before he died, he told Christine he would become the angel of Music, and take care of her on heaven.
So when Eric’s charming angel-like voice penetrated into Christine’s dressing room, she astonished. She thought that must come from her father from heaven.
Do I say Eric is a great architecture designer? He can devise and invent different things , even some stuffs that could make you see illusions.
He led Christine across the mirror which stands in her dressing room, put her on the white horse, passed through the community road, took the boat over the lake, and entered his hidden house. There, Christine was surprised by his enchanted voice and his mask. So when he stopped sing, she can’t help stripping his mask, then the horrible face revealed. Eric was so angry that cursed Christine for her ignorance. Nobody on the surface saw his real face, he lived in dark as being invisible from common people. This incident ended at Christine’s promise to visit him again at last.
After Christine went back surface, she told Vicome Roaul de Chagny — her real lover the whole experience. Roaul advised her to go away, had better no longer come back to Eric’s underground palace. Christine rejected for she thought Eric is the angel of Music, and he taught her singing, and he’s so pitiful. She made up her mind that she would visit Eric again. Roaul was very upset, doubting Christine’s love. In order to conceal Roaul’s doubts , they engaged.
Once their engagement information appeared on the newspaper, Eric was mad. He kidnapped Christine through the trap-door during Christine’s performance on the stage, in front of all spectators. Even make three workers die. The whole theater boiled. At last, the police came and investigated the case. Meanwhile, Vicome Roaul de Chagny dreaded for Christin’s sake. He would have carried her away before the performance. But she insisted on singing for Eric for the last time.
He tried his best to explain the whole experience to the police, but no one refer to him as a common man. Suddenly, he was dragged away by a Persia. The Persia told him that he can help Christine, and they should start to slide into Eric’s community road right now. To the Persia’s surprise, without any doubts Roaul believed in him, and followed him down to the underground with his pistol.
They groped a long time in the dark with a tiny lantern, passing many traps and tricks, then arrived one room which is called as torture-chamber. The room has a transparent door to the other room where Christine was tied by rope.
In the torture-chamber, they almost died of heat, drowning and hang...
To be honest, I don’t want to give you more details for I should keep the secret until you read it.
During struggling in the room, they heard the conversation between Eric and Christine. Eric tied Christine on a chair, and entreated her to marry him. She refused. Then Eric slammed the door and left. After a while, he came back, threatened Christine to make a choice, scorpion or grasshopper? Which alternatively represents two different results. Scorpion means Eric, afterwards they will marry and live a happy life like an common couple on the surface. And grasshopper represents explosion. Because he has already prepared many barrels of gun-powder under the Paris Opera House, enough to explode half city. Therefore thousands of people will die .
In the end, Christine pressed the scorpion button, saved thousands of people. So Eric kissed Christine on her forehead . She didn’t retreat.
At that moment, Eric cried like a child for Christine’s manner. As his biological parents never allow him close to them. There’s no way to accept a kiss. He kneeled down and kissed Christine’s feet, she cried also. Her tears dropped on Eric’s forehead, through his mask melt with his tears. Eric cried louder , he took off the mask, looked at Christine. She hold his face, muttering poor Eric, pitiful Eric...
Few months later, the Persia stood beside his window, listening to the rest of the story from Eric.
He said, he let Christine go with Roaul, but when he die, Christine should come back and give his gold married ring back, then buried it with him.
Several days later, Eric died. He was buried under the Opera, along the river bank where he met Christine for the first time.
This is a tragedy. You might hate Eric, think he’s a demon, he can do everything in order to get what he wants in the middle of the story. However, in the end, the only thing what he wanted is love from people.
It’s definitely a masterpiece, you would carry many feelings when you read, but touching is the most impressive.