Previous
Chapter 22
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Phantom of the Opera, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Natural vs. the Supernatural
Love vs. Jealousy
Violence, Revenge, and Redemption
Beauty vs. Ugliness
Summary
Analysis
The Persian’s narrative continues. He describes the torture chamber as a room made of six walls, covered in mirrors. In a corner, an iron tree allows the trapped prisoners to hang themselves if they become too desperate. Raoul and the Persian suddenly hear a door open to their left, and Erik tells someone to choose between the Wedding Mass and the Requiem Mass. After hearing the interlocutor’s moan, the men conclude that this must be Christine. Erik then explains that, now that he has finished Don Juan Triumphant, he wants a normal life, far from violence—a life that he hopes to share with Christine if she agrees to be his wife. His threatening tone makes Christine cry, but Erik tells her that he is not a bad man and simply needs to be loved in order to change.
The design of Erik’s torture room highlights his callousness, as he does not feel guilty forcing people to reach atrocious levels of despair before killing themselves. In this episode, Erik’s vengeful, manipulative tendencies reveal themselves, as he no longer wants Christine to love him spontaneously, but prefers to give her the choice between love (the Wedding Mass) and death (the Requiem Mass, which is a Mass for the dead). At the same time, his admission that he does not necessarily want to keep on being so tyrannical suggests that he, too, is trapped—physically, in an underground cellar, but also psychologically and socially, since he cannot easily escape his life as a recluse.
Themes
Hearing an intense, overwhelming lament of despair, the men realize that it comes from Erik’s own voice, while Christine is probably too shocked to say anything. Erik begins to yell that she doesn’t love him and asks her why she is crying, which he says breaks his heart. After a moment of silence, Erik suddenly hears the sound of an electric bell and goes to see who is at the door.
Erik’s willingness to force Christine to marry him despite her lack of love for him shows that he is more intent on controlling her and forcing her to abide by his wishes than on allowing her to express herself freely. His sincere despair suggests that his only way to express his grief is by making others suffer as well.
Themes
As soon as Erik leaves, Raoul calls out to Christine. He tells her that he is on the other side of the wall, and she explains to him that, driven crazy by love, Erik is ready to kill everyone, including himself, if Christine does not agree to marry him. She has until eleven o’clock the next day to make a decision. She adds that she is completely bound and that there are only two doors in the room, one of which leads to the torture chamber. The Persian tells her that she must open that door for them, but Christine says that Erik has forbidden anyone to use his keys, which he calls “keys of life and death.”
Christine’s assumption that Erik is behaving in this violent manner out of love is misguided, since Raoul—who also loves her—wants to protect her, not harm her. Her conflation of love with brutal possession explains her attitude toward Erik: she cannot hate him, does not judge him too harshly and, in fact, pities him. Erik’s willingness to kill himself highlights his isolation and desperation, as he has lost all will to live after being rejected by all of mankind.
Themes
Desperate, Christine then tells Raoul to flee immediately, but Raoul says that he will not leave without her. She says that she tried killing herself earlier by hitting her head against the wall, which is why Erik tied her up. Suddenly, they hear Erik return and keep quiet. Erik returns apologizing for his appearance, saying it is the man’s fault, as well as the siren’s. Christine tells him that these ropes hurt and asks her to release her. Erik concludes that, if they are going to die together, he could do so. He says that he, too, is tired of this life. Freeing Christine’s ropes, he notices her staring at him and begins to ramble, saying that the man who came is now safely at the bottom of the lake. He adds that he must sing the Requiem Mass for him.
Although Christine sometimes seem naïve and weak, as well as too forgiving of Erik, her attempt to kill herself reveals the depths of her anguish and her horror for her captor. It also signals that, like Raoul, she, too, is capable of acting impulsively, to the point of putting her own life at risk. Erik’s mention of the “siren”—which he himself controls—suggests that someone has perished because of him, and that he is still just as willing to kill off intruders as before. This highlights the danger that Raoul and the Persian face.
Themes
Get the entire The Phantom of the Opera LitChart as a printable PDF.
At this information, the Persian is moved by anguish, wondering who has been trapped in Erik’s lake. However, they all now hear Erik singing his Requiem, an incredibly moving, furious and powerful Dies Irae. To Daroga, Erik sounds like the God of Thunder. However, all of a sudden, Erik stops and, enraged, asks who has taken his keys.
Later, it appears that the drowned man was Count Philippe. Erik, however, claims that Philippe’s death was accidental and that he found him when he was already dead, although the lack of details Erik relates leaves ambiguity about his actual role.
Themes
