CurvedSpace Forums: Erik Owns Your Face - CurvedSpace Forums

Jump to content

Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • {lang:pm_locked} This topic is locked

Erik Owns Your Face

#1 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Nazē. {lang:icon}

  • OGFEWSWCSWOCSUUPOTOFTW
  • Icon
  • {lang:view_blog}
  • Group: Moderator
  • Posts: 2,432
  • Joined: 13-July 05

Posted 17 November 2006 - 02:54 PM

TS One of my all-time favorites is a book called The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux; this book is filled with fascinating characters all over the place. CD Erik, the main character and the phantom, is a disfigured genius, one who has no remorse over the murders he commits as he "haunts" the Paris Opera House. CM Although he is only a topic brought up in the dark of night to scare even adults among many, Erik himself is a mastermind of sheer musical abilities and beliefs. CM There are many people who we believe have personalities and characters very similar to those of people in the past; the phantom is not quite like that – he is the first and only real "Erik", even if only in fiction. CD As you may or may not already know, the reason for all the shivers he causes is his face; he has had a facial deformity his whole life, since his birth. CM Of course, there are those who turn that question over in their minds: Is the reason for his seemingly macabre acts really his abnormal face, which he tends to hide behind a mask? CM Either way, Erik really isn't the completely unfeeling monster most people had come to believe he was; after all, he did have a burning passion for the young, beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé; if he'd had no feelings, how did he manage to love someone? CS His hideous features, which include hollowed eyes that glow in the dark, a few weak wisps of thin hair, yellow, sickly skin, and a nose that isn't there – they all add to his powerful, frightening, and yet fascinating demeanor.
TS Part of the reason Erik is believed by many to be a genius is his ability to do so many things, so well; he is a ventriloquist, a magician of sorts, a composer, an architect, and a singer. CD Giry, the mother of a young ballet dancer who belongs in the Opera House dormitories and box keeper, describes Erik, saying: "He's an architect and designer, he's…a composer and a…magician. A genius, Monsieur!" – to which the person she is talking to replies, "But clearly, Madame Giry, genius has turned to madness." CM It's not a surprise that precious few people in the story even knew of all these talents of the "Opera Ghost", as he was often referred to; after all, on most occasions, once someone got a tad too close to prying into his affairs, they'd be mysteriously hanged. CM After reading through the story a couple of times, it's pretty obvious Erik's reaction to that – that's exactly the way he wants it to be; he has secrets, and not everybody can just go and dig them up. CD In fact, speaking about his architectural skills, he built, with his own hands, the underground house he lives in; during the time he was helping build the Opera House, he used the spacious and vast Opera House cellars to create the house on the lake, which, as odd as it may seem, is also underground. CM The only reason Christine Daaé even came to be so involved with O.G. (Opera Ghost) is that Erik was quite clever in luring her to him; to Christine, (in the beginning, anyway) he is the "Angel of Music" who gives her voice lessons; it's not until a few chapters later that she discovers the cruel truth of the situation – he is not an angel after all, but a deformed killer who is madly in love with her… but it's already too late, for she is too into the plot to escape him – how surprisingly twisted. CM This just goes to show the extent of his brilliancy and planning; Erik used what he was good at to try to snatch at what he wanted – something we all tend to do at one time or the other. CS He was not, as many of the other characters in the story believed, simply an excessively ugly masked loser who lived underground and happened to be oh-so-very traumatizing; he was a very real person, perhaps more real than the rest of us – his unique position in the world only added to that.
TS I have already mentioned his extreme love for Christine (who happened to be in love with another man – only to add to the tragedy that is Erik's story); what I have not mentioned is the change that occurred in Erik whenever he was around her. CD At the end of the book, he speaks about himself regarding Christine, saying, “Then I made her understand that, where she was concerned, I was only a poor dog, ready to die for her…” CM While he was associating with anyone else, he was the terrifying, dark “ghost” that killed without a second thought, not even considered a real person. CM But when he was alone with Christine, even if she was held against her will in his home on the lake, he did, in fact, become a miserable worshipper of the ground she treaded – a mad, horrid man became a pet that clung to his mistress, all because of love; he’d definitely kill for her. CD One of my favorite parts of the book is also at that part towards the end, when Erik is talking: “I felt her tears flow on my forehead… on mine, mine… they mingled with my tears in my eyes… I tore off my mask so as to not to lose one of her tears… and she did not run away!... And she did not die! …I have tasted all the happiness the world can offer!” CM Christine was the only experience with love that he had ever had; it was also the most powerful, strongest kind of love there is out there. CM One would not think that that kind of sheer emotion was possible from a man who did not care a bit about the world and the normal people it homed. CS But it’s true; Erik’s mind and soul may have seemed to hold such darkness, callousness… but I know, and you do too, that it was only his way of claiming justice in the world that had been so heartless to him.
Video of the Week! Click it! ;D (Second attempt!)
Blame it on the Pop

Posted Image
Why yes... I did give in to this here thing above. =O

Hug?
0

Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • {lang:pm_locked} This topic is locked

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users