Love vs. Jealousy Theme Analysis

Admired by both her childhood friend the Viscount Raoul de Chagny and by the mysterious “Phantom” Erik, opera singer Christine Daaé soon finds herself stuck in a love triangle. However, despite each character’s frequent professions of love, no character proves perfectly trustworthy or upright in their romantic pursuits: Erik strives to control Christine through violent domination, Raoul often doubts of innocent Christine’s honesty and chastity, and Christine proves partially unwilling to leave her violent captor Erik and escape with her childhood love Raoul. In the end, the novel suggests that love sometimes gets distorted into jealousy (as embodied by both men vying for Christine’s affections), which is unproductive and harmful. In contrast, the supreme expression of love is self-sacrifice: the desire to put another person’s happiness before one’s own.

Caught in the messy tangle of a love triangle, Christine sometimes demonstrates ambiguity in her choice of lovers, though at other times she seems sincere. Regardless of how Christine acts, though, Erik and Raoul respond by default with jealousy, which damages both men’s respective relationships with their beloved. Fearing rejection, Erik does not hesitate to kidnap Christine, force her to remain loyal to him (using a ring as a signal of their bond), and threaten to kill her if she does not accept him as her husband. Through these violent actions, he reveals himself to be domineering and possessive, unable to actually form a relationship of mutual trust with Christine. Although less violent, Raoul also proves unable to trust Christine. Christine explicitly declares her love to him (which she has borne him since their childhood in Brittany), yet Raoul still doubts the sincerity of her feelings. Raoul does not understand that Christine occasionally ignores him so as to protect him from Erik’s wrath, instead interpreting Christine’s actions as manipulation. Raoul’s recurrent angry outbursts, at odds with Christine’s good intentions, depict him as a fickle lover, unable to trust in Christine’s sincerity. Both Erik and Raoul thus reveal an ability to conceive of their relationship with Christine as a mutual relationship of love and trust. Instead, they resolve to take her away—Erik through violent means, kidnapping her to keep her under his control, and Raoul by running away with her, far from Erik.

Throughout these episodes, Christine’s attitude remains partially ambiguous. When Raoul asks her if she would love Erik were he not so ugly, Christine finds herself at a loss to answer. She also acknowledges that, despite agreeing to escape with Raoul, part of her might actually not want to leave Erik and that her resolve might fade. These anecdotes do not prove that Christine harbors feelings of love Erik, but they prove sufficient for Raoul to doubt her love for him. Overwhelmed by their jealousy, neither Raoul nor Erik is able to see Christine for who she is: a sincere person who has found herself in a complex situation and is trying to hurt others as little as she can.

While Erik and Raoul’s jealousy certainly speaks to the sheer intensity of their passion for Christine, all of the characters learn to express their love in more constructive, respectful ways through self-sacrifice—the capacity to sacrifice one’s self for the person they love. Despite his occasional fits of jealousy and mistrust, Raoul puts his life in danger in order to save Christine from Erik’s grasp. When he enters Erik’s cave to save Christine, Raoul knows Erik will probably try to kill him. However, his attitude throughout this ordeal remains faithful and committed, and his capacity for self-sacrifice reveals his noble intentions to love and protect Christine as best he can. Christine, in turn, proves willing to sacrifice herself for her beloved, Raoul. When Erik forces her to choose between marrying him or dying, Christine is inclined to sacrifice her own life to remain faithful to her childhood love, Raoul. However, when she discovers that she can use her clout over Erik to save Raoul’s life, she decides, instead, to renounce her own happiness. She agrees to marry Erik on the condition that he will free Raoul. In the wake of her previously ambiguous feelings, Christine now highlights her love and compassion for Raoul through self-sacrifice: she would rather live a miserable life by Erik’s side than take part in Raoul’s death.

Finally, even Erik, who has so often been driven by violence and control, ultimately decides to sacrifice a wedded life with Christine so that she can live happily. After Christine agrees to be his wife, she lets him kiss her on the forehead, which no other woman has ever let him do. In this moment, Erik realizes that Christine is an honest, noble person who remains steadfast in her commitments (in this case, to behave as Erik’s wife). This episode moves him, and he realizes that he no longer wants to keep Christine captive against her will. Therefore, he decides to let Christine and Raoul free, allowing them to live a happy life together. In this moment, Erik shows enough love and respect for Christine to understand that he must sacrifice his own selfish desires in order to honor hers. The novel’s resolution thus highlights the characters’ love and respect for each other, despite earlier moments of ambiguous or jealous behavior. It suggests that self-sacrifice—actions that put the beloved’s life and happiness before one’s own—is the ultimate act of genuine love.