Erik and Gollum

[igenlode]

Some of the elements of Erik's character in Leroux are really very reminiscent of Tolkien's subsequent creation of Gollum; the tendency to weep and cringe and refer to oneself in the third person, to giggle in a nasty way, and of course to be consumed by longing for the unattainable within full view, to the extent of commiting murder to get it ;-p
And there's that scene where he paddles away across the lake with only his two eyes visible, which is an almost palpable echo of the subsequent scene in "The Lord of the Rings" where Gollum is spotted in the dusk paddling along after Frodo's boat.

I wonder if Tolkien ever did read "The Phantom of the Opera"? I'm sure there wasn't any direct influence involved (Gollum was created for "The Hobbit", which draws its imagery largely from fairy-tales), but "The Hobbit" was actually written only about twenty years later -- because "Phantom" is a historical novel, one tends to forget that it was written in quite a different era from that in which it was set.

He would have been about twenty and up at Oxford when it first came out, and not really in the right demographic to take an interest in that sort of thing -- by the time the film was made and the story acquired popular traction in the English-speaking world, he was busy making translations from Middle English and probably not an aficionado of Lon Chaney horror movies ;-D So I feel the odds are that he probably never read Leroux...

Comments

[darlingdeathbird]

Sorry to just come springing out of the wood-work, here, but I'm really enjoying your posts. I love this kind of analysis of the book, and I'm with you in the "does not ship C/E" camp... although I find their interactions the most fascinating. It's a complicated situation. But I enjoy hearing more about Raoul being interpreted, and the kind of relationship he has with Christine. My interpretation of him has mostly been the whole seeing him as a symbol of her former identity, to simpler and happier times, what she has lost or had mangled by life (and by Erik). But after reading your musings, I think the missed the part where Christine's life dictated that she be more practical, and that it's Raoul doing a lot of the fantasizing. I may have switched that around in my head thanks to some of the adaptations. lol It's hard not for everything to meld together. Anyway, I'm excited to see that there is discussion about POTO on Dreamwidth, still. If you know of any other good communities or blogs that are active on the subject, I'm totally here for it. -Jenny