A random collection of facts about our favourite Opera Ghost ❤️
His eyes are golden and glow in the dark.
He is fond of good wine.
When he goes out to run errands, instead of his usual black silk mask, he uses a papier-mâché nose with a moustache attached to it.
He has hot and cold running water in his house (which was very advanced for the time).
He invented electric heating.
He plays not only the organ, the piano and the violin, but also the harp (he‘s an angel, after all!).
He sleeps in a coffin and loves gothic room decor.
His handwriting is clumsy, childlike and looks as if he uses matchsticks to write. He prefers red ink.
He only gave lessons to Christine for three months.
He returned all of the money that he had extorted from the new managers.
His house is not located in the sewers or catacombs, but between the inner and outer wall of the tank built to contain the groundwater in the foundations of the opera house.
He spent more than 20 years working on „Don Juan Triumphant“.
One of the many mysteries in “The Phantom of the Opera” is our title hero’s age. Unlike Raoul’s age, Erik’s age is never explicitely stated despite the rather extensive background for him which Leroux put down in the Epilogue. But even though Leroux does not give conclusive information about Erik‘s age, there are some fixed points from which we can deduce a likely age range for him.
To determine when Erik was born, the most important clue is the Louis-Philippe furniture that he inherited from his mother. Louis-Philippe became king in 1830, so any furniture that would be labelled „Louis-Philippe“ would be from a year later than 1830. We do not know when his mother acquired the furniture, but by far the most likely occasion at that time would be her marriage. Leroux does not mention any irregularities concerning Erik’s birth, so I assume he was born after his parents‘ wedding - therefore, no earlier than 1830, and probably a couple of years later.
The next fixed point in time is Erik‘s stay in Persia. Leroux mentions the Emir of Afghanistan „at war with the Empire“, which would pinpoint this period as the time of the Anglo-Persian war from 1856-57. Shortly before he goes to Persia, Leroux states that Erik „already sang like no one else had ever sung“ - the „already“ indicating that he was still quite young at that point. Considering what he accomplished in Persia, I don‘t think it likely that he was any younger than 17 in 1857. My personal guess is that he was between 20 and 25.
So, how old was he by the time the events of the novel occurred? We do not know when exactly the story is meant to take place, but again, we can confine it within a certain range. Erik prophecies that Meg Giry will be Empress by 1885 - which suggests 1884/85 as the latest possible year. „Le roi de Lahore“ premiered in 1877, making 1877/78 the earliest possibility. According to Leroux, the events took place „not more than 30 years ago“. Counting from 1909, the year of publication, this would put a limit on 1879, but if we consider 30 years from the time of Leroux actually researching and writing the story, 1877/78 is possible.
Taking this into consideration, Erik is not older than 54, and not younger than 37 at the start of the novel. I assume that Erik was probably in his mid-fourties - also because he was obviously still fit enough for stunts such as climbing up to the Apollo statue, which „is not easy“ according to Christine.
Erik’s really a monumentally selfish character. He goes after what he wants with no conpunctions and no care for what other people want. After all, no one has ever cared about what he wanted, either. Even when he holds back from things it’s with a childish calculation - he really doesn’t care that the daroga wants him to not murder people, but he wants the daroga not to be angry with him.
Especially with the backstory Leroux gives him you can see him going from one thing to another based on his own desires. He even goes back to France and decides to live an ordinary life because he wants to, only to find it uncomfortable and decide he wants to hide away.
His desires themselves don’t tend to be evil, just the complete lack of morals or compassion with which he pursues them.
Redraw of a veeeeery old piece that I did when I first got into the fandom, and I’m so happy of how this redraw turned out ☺️ I poured so much into the original piece and I still like it, but I thought why not try to draw what I originally had in mind?
The major differences are Christine’s dress and Erik’s face. Concerning the first, the reason it was so simple is because I simply wasn’t skilled enough to draw something else than a regular corset-directly-on-the-skin dress (god klaus why, you did the research you knew this was ridiculous). For Erik’s face, I was just still very influenced by the musical while just having finished the book, that’s why our poor fellow had the 2 deformities :’) Now I prefer my Erik to just have the regular « skull face » deformation. Oh and Christine has a hand now because I’m better at them lol
Now here you h ave it, my phantom of the Opera fanart inspired by Klimt’s kiss and Van Gogh’s stary night. (…it’s an excuse for not putting any real effort into the background)
Redraw of a veeeeery old piece that I did when I first got into the fandom, and I’m so happy of how this redraw turned out ☺️ I poured so much into the original piece and I still like it, but I thought why not try to draw what I originally had in mind?
The major differences are Christine’s dress and Erik’s face. Concerning the first, the reason it was so simple is because I simply wasn’t skilled enough to draw something else than a regular corset-directly-on-the-skin dress (god klaus why, you did the research you knew this was ridiculous). For Erik’s face, I was just still very influenced by the musical while just having finished the book, that’s why our poor fellow had the 2 deformities :’) Now I prefer my Erik to just have the regular « skull face » deformation. Oh and Christine has a hand now because I’m better at them lol
Now here you h ave it, my phantom of the Opera fanart inspired by Klimt’s kiss and Van Gogh’s stary night. (…it’s an excuse for not putting any real effort into the background)
