Summary of Phantom Of The Opera by Gaston Leroux

The Phantom of the Opera belongs to the category of Literature, which combines equals parts of horror and romance. Set in the Paris Grand Opera house, which exists to this day, it is a most unusual plot and quite unique from that of any other story. The author Gastonia Leroy has made optimum use of his in-depth knowledge of the Opera house in Paris and has concocted a truly fascinating tale, which is both horrific and pathetic at the same time. The Opera House at Paris is a true marvel of art constructed in the 17th. Century. It has seven stories and has more than two thousand rooms in addition to innumerable secret cellars, passages and even an underground lake. Leroux uses his intimate knowledge of the Opera house exquisitely to create an atmosphere of mystery, horror and romance and has the reader guessing for the greater part of the story as to who or what the Opera Ghost actually is.

The story opens with the day on which the managers of the Opera, Mm. Debienne and Poligny are due to retire and are given a final performance to mark the event. There is great excitement in the changing room where the Opera Ghost is the main topic of discussion. Various people claim to have seen him and many are of the opinion that he is in some way responsible for the death of Joseph Boquet, which is declared as a suicide due to lack of evidence. Another cause for excitement is the discovery of Christine Daae, a young opera singer who only a year ago played an insignificant role in the Opera. However when the lead singer Carlotta had been taken ill, the managers Dibienne and Poligny had replaced her with Christine much to the surprise of everybody and the even bigger surprise was the she was an even greater success than her predecessor. Here we are introduced to the Comte de Chagny, a benevolent man of much wealth and social standing who has a brother Raoul, who is younger than he by twenty years is and whom he loves almost like a son. Raoul has known Christine since his childhood. Once in his childhood he had gone into the sea and rescued her scarf. He approaches her after the opera but Christine refuses to recognize him and wishes to be left alone. Raoul waits outside her room and is shocked and surprised to hear another mans voice coming from her room. When she leaves her room he enters but is surprised to find no one there. The Opera Ghost sends a number of letters to the new managers insisting that Christine Daaes talent is used to its full potential and also that Box Five on the Grand Tier must be reserved for him. The new managers refuse to take the Opera Ghost seriously and sell box five. During the performance that evening strange voices and disturbances force the occupants of box Five to leave. The managers ask Mdm. Giry, the box keeper the reason for this and she states in a matter of fact way that it is probably the work of Opera Ghost, upon which the managers dismiss Mdm. Girly. Some time later, Christine Daae writes Raoul a letter telling him how she has not forgotten him and asking him to meet her in Perror where she will be as it is the death anniversary of her father. Raoul meets her there and reaffirms how much he really loves her. However when Raoul asks her about the voice that he heard in her dressing room on the night of the Opera, she gets upset and locks

herself in her room. Later that evening she tells Raoul that the person whose voice he had heard in her dressing room was none other than that of the Angel of Music. Raoul is not convinced of this and tries to tell her that someone is trying to make a fool of her but Christine refuses to believe this and runs away. Raoul follows her to the graveyard where her father is buried and hears her singing to the most perfect music coming from a violin whose player is unknown. After she finishes, Raoul is knocked unconscious by somebody who apparently does not want him to find out more about what is happening. Meanwhile the managers inspect Box Five and find that there is no Opera Ghost inside. Finding all other things satisfactory, they decide to view the next Opera from the same Box. On the morning of the Opera, the managers receive another note from the Opera Ghost demanding that they reserve Box Five exclusively for him. He also insists that Mdm. Giry is re-instated as the boxkeeper and that Christine Daae is given the lead role in Faust. The managers do not give into his demands and watch the Opera that evening from Box Five, quite confident that the Opera Ghost will not come. But they are in for a nasty shock. After the first two acts are over, Carlottas otherwise clear and pristine voice suddenly changes into a croak. The managers rush out to see what has happened and on their return hear the Opera Ghosts voice coming from Box Five. He shouts out that Carlotta is singing to bring down the chandelier. Before the managers realize what he means by this the huge 200 kilogram chandelier falls from its place on the ceiling onto the head of the lady who has replaced Mdm. Giry, killing her instantly and injuring many others. By the end of the evening, Carlotta is taken ill and Christine has disappeared. Raoul is much worried and goes to the home of Mdm. Valerius in the hope of finding her there. He is told that she is with her angel of music. Later that evening, Raoul sees her passing by in a carriage and calls out to her but she does not seem to hear him. The next day she sends him a note saying that she wants to meet him that night at the masked ball. When he meets her there she takes him to a private box to talk to him. On the way they see a man dressed in scarlet and claiming to be Black Death, who in reality is the Opera Ghost. He follows them but Christine realizes the imminent danger to Raouls life and prevents him from going out of the room. Raoul realizes that this is a trap and tries to leave the room but Christine prevents him from doing so. She then tells him that she will never sing onstage again or see him anymore. Saying this she leaves Raoul and goes away. Raoul hides behind the curtains in her room and sees Christine write something on some sheets of paper and hide them away. Then suddenly out of nowhere he hears a mans voice in the room. He peeps out from behind the curtain but is astonished to see that there is no one there in the room besides Christine. Raoul steps out from his hiding place but before he can reach Christine a strong cold blast pushes him back. Then for a minute he sees about twenty images of Christine and then she disappears. Raoul is very curious to know where Erik has disappeared to and who this man Erik actually is. The following morning he is surprised to see that Christine is back at the house with Mdm. Valerius. He informs Mdm. Valerius that the Angel of Music is taking advantage of Christines good faith. Upon hearing this Christine is much angered and tells him that no one but her husband has any right to demand an account of what she does. During this conversation Raoul happens to see a gold band on her finger. She tells him that he should forget about the man whose name he heard in

the dressing room and give up trying to fathom the mystery of the mans voice. Then she promises Raoul that she will call him to visit her but that he must never again enter her dressing room without her permission. Raoul agrees to this and leaves. The following day, Christine and Raoul meet and decide to have a secret engagement, as Erik would be very angry if he got to know that Christine had betrayed him. After the engagement she goes away for two days and nobody has any clue as to where she is. On her return she is constantly with Raoul and she takes Raoul around the Opera House somehow not willing to leave it. When they are exploring one of the floors of the Opera House, they happen to find a trap door. Christine implores Raoul not to go down below as all the underground regions of the Opera belong to the Angel of Music. Raoul insists that Christine tells him all that she knows about Erik, whereupon she drags him to the roof of the Opera House so that Erik may not hear them and then tells him all that she has seen in her two days of absence. She tells him of the underground lake below the Opera House and describes the Opera Ghost saying that he is not an angel, nor a ghost nor a genius...he is a man. She tells him of the hideous face of Erik which she has seen on unmasking him. Then she tells him about Eriks musical piece called Don Juan Triumphant which he has spent twenty years writing and which he wants to take to his grave with him. Raoul asks Christine if she really loves Erik and Christine tells him that the only reason she has told Erik this lie is to ensure Raouls safety. She could never love Erik because in him she sees, feels and smells death which itself terrifies her. Unknown to them, Erik has followed them and suddenly Raoul sees two glowing eyes and feels certain that Erik is present but Christine nervously tries to reassure him that Erik is supposed to be working on his piece Don Juan Triumphant and so cannot be anywhere near them. They go to Christines dressing room where they decide to run away after the next evenings performance and her final meeting with Erik. It was then that Christine realizes that the ring EriK had given her was missing from her finger. She is much worried because the ring is a sort of safety net to protect her from Erik. The next day Raoul makes all the arrangements for their escape but that evening during the performance the lights suddenly go out and Christine disappears. At first people think she is with Raoul, but then he appears without her. He searches for her madly all over the Opera House but she is nowhere to be found. He then sees the Persian, the wise man who seems to know everything about the Opera House. All he tells Raoul is that Eriks affairs only concern him and leaves. Meanwhile the managers finally give in to the Opera Ghosts demand and decide to pay him the twenty thousand francs that he has asked for. Then Mdm. Giry is called to their office and she tells them of all the people that the Opera Ghost has helped to promote, including her own daughter Meg who is to get the part of the empress. This has convinced her of the existence of the Opera Ghost. The managers decide to see for themselves if the Opera Ghost really exists. They lock themselves into their office and M. Richard places the twenty thousand francs in his coat and pins up the pocket. They decide that if by midnight the money disappears, then they will also be forced to believe in the existence of the Opera Ghost. Sure enough at 12o clock the money had disappeared without the safety pin being removed. Raoul complains to the commissary about Erik but they begin to suspect that he is not totally in his

senses. They tell Raoul that the abductee is probably his brother, the Comte de Chagny, who has abducted Christine because he is against their marriage. Raoul is very angry with his brother but on the way out he meets the Persian once more and he explains to him that no one but Erik had the ability to carry out such an abduction. He then takes Raoul to Christines dressing room, hands him a revolver and shows him the way to Eriks underground world through a two way mirror. The Parisian tells Raoul to be ready to fire in case they meet with some unexpected danger. They meet up with a number of strange things including a head of fire who identifies himself as the rat catcher. They reach the underground lake and the Parisian starts to search the walls to see if he can find any loose stones so that they can gain entry inside. Finding one stone loose they get in and see that they are in some sort of room. The Persian sees a Punjab lasso and gets terrified. Soon they realize that they are in a sort of torture chamber, which is hexagonal in shape with cracked mirrors on all sides. On one side is a tree so that when the room is lit up it gets magnified and looks as if there is an entire forest of trees. They find that there is no way to escape from here and that they are trapped. While they are there the Persian tells Raoul all about Erik and how he had tried many times to enter Eriks house but had failed. The only reason he was still alive was because he had once saved the life of Erik. He also tells Raoul how Erik has mastered the art of using the Punjab lasso and it was he who was responsible for the hanging of Joseph Bouquet. Meanwhile they hear Erik talking to Christine. He has given Christine a choice. Either she must marry him or else everybody would have to face the consequences because of her. They hear Christine sobbing and then hear Erik leave the room. Raoul and the Persian are able to communicate with Christine whom Erik has tied up since she had tried to kill herself rather than be with Erik. Since both Raoul and Christine are trapped they can do nothing. Soon Erik returns. He senses Christines nervousness about the room next door. He knows that someone is in the Torture room, a room of mental torture where he has created all sorts of illusions to scare people, literally to death. Now he tortures the Parisian and Raoul by switching on a light and increasing the temperature of the room. The room now looks and feels like a tropical forest. Soon the room starts having its desired effect and Raoul begins to crumble under the pressure. The Persian starts to search the walls to see if he can find the spring that opens the door of the Torture room. Finally he succeeds and a door opens which leads to a cellar filled with barrels of gunpowder. Now they realize that if Christine refuses to marry Erik, he plans to blow up the entire Opera House and everyone in it. Erik has given Christine a scorpion and a grasshopper. If she chooses the scorpion it would mean that she would marry Erik and everything would be all right. , but if she choose the grasshopper, then it would be a sign of refusal and Erik would kill everybody by blowing up the Opera House. Erik gives Christine upto 11oclock that evening to decide. When Christine sees that her refusal will have such grave consequences, she decides to accept Eriks offer. Erik saves the lives of Raoul and the Persian and the last thing the Persian hears is that he would soon take them back to the surface in order to please his wife. Some days later the Persian is recuperating in his flat in Paris when Erik pays him a visit. The Persian asks him many questions about Raoul and Christine. Erik replies that they are both alive. The Persian then asks about Rauls brother, the Count and Erik informs him that he is dead but emphasizes that his death was an accident. Finally he tells the Persian that he is going to die and that he has given Christine orders to post his obituary in the Epoque, which is a Parisian newspaper.

He says that he has freed Christine so that she can finally be with her true love, Raoul. This is the last time that the Parisian sees Erik. Three weeks later the Persian reads Eriks obituary in the Epoque and knows that he is no more. Thus ends the story. In the end we see that Erik is neither an angel nor a ghost but a person possessing all the qualities and feelings of a human being. The Opera Ghost is a person who has been spurned even by his mother because of his repulsive looks. He attempts to be a normal human being but faces pain and misery throughout his lifetime. We see that he does have a side that is capable of loving when he falls in love with Christine but even this feeling is not reciprocated. Finally when he realizes that he cannot have Christine he frees her so that she can be with her true love, Raoul and gives up his own life. Feared in life and remembered in death, the Phantom of the Opera lives on forever.