Phantom Of The Opera

2 Pages 579 Words

Because of normal disbelief in ghosts and the paranormal, Gaston Leroux goes to great lengths to ensure that, in fact, “The Opera Ghost really existed.” In the prologue of The Phantom of the Opera, written with the feel of a gothic novel, Mr. Leroux says, “He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge,” he uses this explicit sentence to stress the importance that the ghost really exists. Without this assurance of the author, the whole story from here gets doubted by some skeptic, ruining the book for he or she.

When Gaston Leroux says, “Yes, he existed in flesh and blood,” he precludes any thought the reader might have about drug induced hallucinations or real phantoms for that matter. From when the words “flesh and blood” signal to the readers that Erik, an antagonist of many heads, exists as a phantom to the people around him instead of a real specter, to the point when Erik receives his poetic justice by meeting his termination and Raoul, the protagonist, gets his retribution, Gaston Leroux strives to ensure that the “ghost” existed as a real human being. A great mind once said, “Tell a man a billion stars exist in the universe and he will believe you, tell him the bench has wet paint, and he has to touch it.” Human nature tells us to want to disprove something that someone says. Since Leroux knows this, he plants the seed of curiosity in the reader’s mind, willing them to read on.

Only unreasonable people believe that Erik exists as a ghost. When normal readers read this novel, they catch themselves at times thinking, “No way a ghost could of done that,” or, “It is not a ghost because of...” Only an irrational hillbilly with 9 teeth could think that Erik ...