Gothic Tropes in Webber's Phantom of the Opera

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Andrew Lloyd Webber's classic musical, based on Gaston Leroux's Gothic tale Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, hit the silver screen in 2004, giving fans a chance to experience the magic of the West End in their very own living rooms. It also gives us a perfect opportunity to analyse this story that's cloaked in mystery, lust and desire, alongside the visuals that film can create.The aim of this post is to pick out classical Gothic elements such as theme, character, setting and imagery that appear within the film, to show how these themes have stood the test of time, and show how traditional Gothic themes are still relevant today. 

Character and Setting.

When it comes to Gothic setting, Phantom is a good example as the story is mainly set in a Paris opera house in 1870. The ornate splendor of the opera house is contrasted in two different ways throughout the film. Firstly, it is contrasted with the 1919 scenes of the film in which we see the run down and fire damaged ruins of the opera house. These scenes are also filmed in black and white, which further contrasts with the rich golds and reds of the 1870 opera house. The moment when the newly restored chandelier rises at the start of the film beautifully encapsulates this contrast (viewable here). This can be further contrasted with the end of Clara Reeve's canonical gothic text The Old English Baron. At the end of the novel, once the rightful heir has been found, 'every door in the house flew open' (Reeve, 115). The dawning of a new age breathes fresh life into the house here, causing the house to 'celebrate' in supernatural style. However in Phantom, it is the past that is glorified as the present day scenes (thus the end of the story) are in black and white.  This presents an interesting contrast between both text and film as Reeve is attempting to create a somewhat happy ending to her novel, following the bloodshed that came before it. Phantom, however, does not give us this. Instead, it gives us decaying images of the once proud opera house, and an old Raoul, lamenting on the past. 


The second way that the opulent 

Moving from the opera house to the
tunnels.
From:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfTgCPUJwRk

setting is contrasted is with the underground settings in which we see the Phantom. This setting is comprised of a series of dark and wet tunnels which allow the Phantom to navigate his way around without being seen. Although the underground setting heavily contrasts with its above ground counterpart, this cannot be said for the Phantoms 'room', so to say. Here, we find an array of ornate candelabras, an organ, gold statues, and to top it off, a peacock shaped bed. This lavish setting achieves what it intends to do, as a wide-eyed Christine follows the seducing Phantom around his lair. (For a 'guided tour' by the Phantom himself, click here). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJHMMrVgd-I

In this early portion of the film, we see the dynamics of traditional Gothic Romance characters come into play, that being the innocent young girl in Christine and the mysterious, tempting 'villain' in the Phantom. This can be seen in its strongest form when the Phantom is first introduced to us, in Christine's room. As his voice booms out from an unknown location, Christine helplessly replies 'Angel! I hear you!/Speak- I listen/ Stay by my side, guide me/ Angel my soul was weak, forgive me/ Enter at last, Master'. By these few lines alone, Christine is firmly positioned as inferior to the Phantom. By using words such as 'master' and 'guide me', we know that he is very much in control. This relates to ways in which women are presented in canonical texts, with an example being Horance Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. Early in chapter one, the male/female dynamics are set: 'Presuming on the unshaken submission of Hippolita... [she] would obey, if it was his pleasure' (Otranto 36). Here, Hippolita is completely dominated by Manfred, and she is willing to do anything for him, even if he treats her bad. Although the dynamics between Phantom and Christine are similar at this point in the film, by the end Christine takes the power away from him, thus subverting the relationship construct of Walpole's text. This shows perfectly how we are able to use elements of old gothic texts yet change them to fit modern times; although their relationship follows a traditional pattern at the start of the film, present day values ultimately stand triumphant at the end. 

The Supernatural Explained.

 Pioneered by the 'respectable face of the Gothic' Ann Radcliffe, the supernatural explained can be defined as:

 '[a]narrative technique... according to which several plot-based occurrences that momentarily seem, for both reader and heroine alike, to be of preternatural, other-worldly causes are eventually revealed to have rational, material origins' (Dale Townsend, 'Horror and Terror). 

This technique is one employed by Radcliffe throughout her novels, starting with A Sicilian Romance (1790), through to her final novel Gaston de Blondeville which was written in 1804, yet was published after her death (Clery, 110). The use of the supernatural explained was met with high praise in her earlier works, leading one critic to write, in regards to The Mysteries of  Udolpho, that Radcliffe creates an effect in which 'the reader experiences in perfection the strange luxury of artificial terror' (Clery, 107). 

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This technique, although pioneered by Radcliffe, was employed be numerous female writers that came after her, such as Charlotte Smith and Eliza Fenwick (Clery, 108). We also are able to go back and find early precursors to Radcliffe's supernatural explained in The Old English Baron. The self proclaimed 'literary offspring of the Castle of Otranto', Reeve's text attempts to re-write Otranto by employing a much more 'realistic' supernatural code, moving away from giant swards and helmets falling from the sky. This kind of rewriting, then, can be seen as a reason for the existence of the supernatural explained, which is 'strengthened by the fact that The Italian had been written as a moralising corrective to [Matthew Lewis'] The Monk' (Clery, 110). By wanting to 'moralise' the preceding texts, Reeve and Radcliffe wish to use a supernatural that both scares the reader, yet keeps the text grounded without going overboard.  

In this sense, the supernatural explained that can be found in Phantom falls into place. The film (and stage production) is a rewriting of a previous gothic text, so it needs to be able to balance the supernatural features of the original text, with the advantages of modern day cinema. By using the special effects that film can offer, we are able to create realistic ghostly scenes, yet by using the supernatural explained, an added layer of meaning is applied, allowing the audience to view the characters as real, and not ghostly apparitions of modern cinema. 

 The first instance of the supernatural explained we come across in the film is during the  'Mirror Scene' when we first meet the Phantom. As the Phantom sings to Christine, he magically appears in her mirror. At the start of the next song, 'The Phantom of the Opera', we see a close up shot of the Phantoms hand reaching out to her and it appears as though Christine has walked through the mirror to him. When Christine's friend Meg goes to her room to find her friend, she is met by a dark, empty room and the mirror which has been slid across to reveal a secret passage. By explaining how this small yet vital 'trick' was accomplished, we are now privy to the fact that the Phantom may not be everything that he seems to be. 



Both images taken from this video clip, where you can watch this scene in full.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh3_ps50yrg














Although not a typical example of the supernatural explained, the Phantom's back story reveals information to us which enables us to view him differently than we do before hand. Told by Madame Giry to Raoul, we are told how she rescued him from a traveling freak show. Dubbed 'The Devil's Child', due to his facial disfigurement, he was locked in a cage and beaten in front of an audience. It was only after strangling his tormentor that he is able to escape with the young Madame Giry, and hides underneath the opera house (full story here). Before this information is divulged, we see the Phantom as a dark, mysterious and seducing character. He is also referred to by the other characters in the film as the 'opera ghost', which also highlights the supernatural elements to his character. After we hear this story, however, we start to feel sorry for the Phantom, especially at the end of the film where he lets Christine go with Raoul. A combination of his tortured childhood and the fact that he seems to actually love Christine creates this emotional scene in which we all secretly wish that she did, in fact, pick him over Raoul. 

Overall, I feel that The Phantom of the Opera brilliantly encapsulates the essence of canonical Gothic literature. It is able to draw upon key themes and ideas, yet alters them to fit with modern outlooks and tastes. It is because of this that Phantom is able to show that the core principles of 18th Century Gothic literature are still just as relevant today, making The Phantom of the Opera and modern day gothic classic. 




Bibliography 

Celery, E.J, The Rise of Supernatural Fiction 1762-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University          Press, 1995)

Miles, Robert, Gothic Writing 1750-1820 A Genealogy (Manchester: Manchester University          Press, 2002)

Reeve, Clara, The Old English Baron (Oxford: Oxford University Press,2008)

Schumacher, Joel, Lloyd Webber, Andrew, The Phantom of the Opera (Warner Bros., 2004)

Townsend, Dale, 'An Introduction to Ann Radcliffe', <http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-                 victorians/articles/an-introduction-to-ann-radcliffe> [Accessed 18/01/16]

Walpole, Horance, The Castle of Otranto (Oxford: Oxford University Press,2014)