欧宝娱乐

If Kay had stopped where The Phantom of the Opera book and musical started, she would have had a decent book on her hands. Despite turning Erik, the Phantom, into a terrible Gary Stu, she did give him an interesting and detailed history. In fact, if you stop reading the book before Christine comes in, I'd imagine it's pretty enjoyable. However, I kept reading, and there's my problem.

(Possible SPOILERS)

Once Christine and Raoul entered the story, I moved from wariness, to shock, to disbelief, to tears.

First of all, the relationships are not at all true to the characters. In other versions, Christine turns to Raoul for help because of her fear of the Phantom. In this novel, Christine only runs to Raoul when she's angry at Erik because she's jealous of his cat or because he's scared her. Raoul becomes little more than a tool for a tempermental little girl to punish her would-be lover.

Raoul isn't much better. In the other stories, he's patient and kind to Christine. He sticks by her side like the loyal guy he is. In Phantom, when Christine won't let him have his way, he stalks off to sulk until his next encounter with her. Since Christine seems to have mysteriously lost her fear of the Phantom, and therefore doesn't need to turn to Raoul for protection, Raoul becomes nothing more than a prodding figure. He's continually trying to cut Christine's ties with Erik, and all the while it's not what Christine REALLY wants, but she goes along with Raoul because she's confused.

Then there's Christine and Erik. In other versions, the Phantom has the shadow of his disfigurement hanging over him and it distorts his soul. In those versions, it's Christine who shows him love and kindness and helps him find the good in himself. In Phantom, it's the other way around. Despite his tendency to murder people and kidnap people and act like a sociopath, Erik becomes the enlightened figure in Kay's novel. The more Christine is around him, the more educated she becomes, the more deeply she thinks about things. She starts to become ashamed of herself because she doesn't have the courage to touch him. She realizes that the Phantom has loved her as no man has loved a woman before. And yet, I'm not convinced. Because he lies to her? Kills in order to possess her? Yells at her for, say, asking him to kill a spider? Wants to possess her even if it is not what she wants/not what is best for her? Or perhaps it's because he is only content to let her go (and yet STILL doesn't) when he realizes that she likes him best.

It occurred to me that this was the sort of story I would expect to read in a fan fiction, where the story didn't turn out the way some fangirl wanted it to, so she twists and distorts the situations and the characters to fit her own means.

Don't get me wrong. I adore the Phantom. I think he's a phenomenal character. But this, to me, is not a great love story. It is the story that ignores the flaws of the Phantom, and therefore makes his redemption meaningless. In the other stories, when Christine shows him love, she helps him let go of the obsession that made him want to possess her at any cost. Instead, he becomes a noble figure as he realizes that she loves Raoul and he lets them both go, even though it pains him. It's a bittersweet ending, no doubt, but it has an integrity. In Phantom, I felt like that was lost. After all, he loses his moment where he shows his love for her for the first time by allowing her to leave with Raoul. In Phantom, we're robbed of that moment. Instead, the only side we ever see of the Phantom and his love for Christine is the selfish, "I want her because I love her and I'll do whatever I have to do to make her stay with me to make me happy," side of him. In the end of Phantom, I wanted to cry because I felt that all three of the characters were cheated in order to make a "happy ending." But the happy ending, when it is the wrong ending, is not the best ending.