Oh boy, I'm getting flashbacks to my voice lessons years ago. I always took The Phantom of the Opera to be an Apollo and Dionysus story. The protagonist must choose between the Phantom who represents Romanticism and Raoul who by being set up in opposition to the Phantom represents reason. The Phantom lives in the dark. The darkness is inherently impressionistic. It only lets you see the outlines of things and gives the imagination full freedom to project whatever meaning or beauty it wants onto whatever outlines the eye can perceive. The mask accomplishes the same thing. As long as you don't what a mask conceals, it may be concealing anything! Ultimately the protagonist's love for Raoul leads her to recognize the truth that the Phantom is a male siren. She chooses truth over dreams, however beautiful, and Raoul (Apollo) over the Phantom (Dionysus)
The Phantom's mask, when he says that Christine is his mask, is the persona he created entirely for her to view. Powerful, commanding, untouchable, that's how he wants her to see him, so he manipulates and shapes himself for her. He does play tricks on the managers but he never shows himself to them and isn't trying to overpower anyone, only Christine. I love this story so much and watched the movie since I was young, the book was beautiful as well!!
I always thought the story had some parallels to Beauty and the Beast, only that Christine withdraws in the end and does not achieve a full transformation of the Phantom as Belle does with the beast.
Another interpretation: a lot of gothic victorian stories involving monsters (or similar) and an ingenue type of woman have the underlying moral lesson that if a woman wants to mature she needs to suppress her male side (which was represented in those stories as a monster) and sort of relegate that role to her husband. Its that victorian old timey sort of morality that Freud preached. It's also why the Phantom is "inside christine's mind", its also a part of her. Usually the monster was a male that was slain by the male interest (representative of a "good" "appropriate" man by that society's standards), sometimes the "monster" was a woman ie Bertha Mason. Check out Madwoman in the Attic, explain this perfectly.
Oh wow, this reminds me of the Jungian concept of the animus! Except Jung would have argued it needs to be integrated rather than repressed. Super interesting!
@@BookandHearth i could be wrong, but didn't young say something in the lines of how people should integrate their anima/animusnby seeing it reflected in their partners? I remember listening to Marie Vin Franz saying something in the lines of "men should be men and women should be women, thats why God made us that way", I think maybe he had a more contemplative idea of what this integration meant? Which imo is still a lukewarm form of integration. Jung didn't have the best relationship with women (cheating, womanizing) but he loved to theorize about them and how he thought they should think.
This used to be my favorite movie. From age 11-13 I watched it every day because I related to both the Phantom and Christine so much. I was also a misunderstood artist and lost my father as a girl. He was a wonderful person and very talented, inspiring me to become a painter. As a teenager I met an older artist who influenced me greatly and unfortunately also took advantage of me. I was profoundly innocent because my father was amazing, and deeply confused when other men turned out to be quite different. Your video rings so true to my experience. Now I alchemist the pain by creating art all my own - the dark teachers from my past have been banished. They are hungry ghosts chasing the light of others. If you have the spark of creation within you, please realize how beautiful that is and how it might draw in energies that wish to feed off you. And also know that it’s your birthright, it’s YOURS. No one can take it away from you nor claim credit for it.
Many women (I’m one of them) struggle with having had a physically or emotionally absent father. We are attracted to unavailable or abusive men. Christine is caught between the man who really loves her and the Phantom who is not real or authentic. That made the story very compelling for me.
This movie was one of my favorites as a teen. Still is. I was always drawn to the phantom as he represented a figure that is supportive of Christine's talents, ambition and career. All Raul did was give her a ring, take her out of the theather and made her have kids. It also pissed me off that he didn't believe her or made her act as bait when she didn't want to. Some trauma about not being taken seriously here, i guess. And the dark gothic aesthetic, of course. Still dress alt to this day
I saw Phantom live as a kid way back in the early 90s. I think I was in the very last row, but it was still cool, got the t shirt and wore it all the time
It's been a decade since I read the book, but the impression I got is that the Phantom character is more unhinged and aggressive in the book than the movie. In the movie, Gerard Butler is intense but more involving and seductive than scary.
@BookandHearth repeating myself too insistently, but you must see the full Broadway production from Universal Studios for the 25th Anniversary of PotO at the Royal Albert Hall for an even more complete perspective of the characters, motivations and story! Not to mention a stunning cast performance! Searchable and findable on RUclips at The Show Must Go On! Something that a 2 hr so film by its format can only interpret so far. I understood the characters and appreciated the story way more! 🎭 🎉 not to mention the extensive moving vocal performances blended with close up angled capture of performance!🎉
@@BookandHearth Can confirm, there is soooooo much more happening in the book that recontextualizes a lot. Most notably, the Phantom's backstory is completely different, his deformity far more extensive, and his skills far more varied. Also, the seemingly pointless scene in the movie with Raoul surrounded by mirrors after the masquerade is a nod to a far more important scene in the book hahah
There’s a book called The Phantom by Susan Kay that’s entirely from the perspective of The Phantom. Almost like a biography. It gives a lot of great insights. Amazing book
This reminded me of this quote looked it up and posted it here. "The Germans who supported their demagogue all had fathers whose every trait was exactly like him, even including his theatrical rants. One exception: This new father never blamed them for causing all problems, as their own parents had done. Instead, he blamed others for every societal problem. This token of parental love, never given by their own parents, engendered absolute, hungered devotion. The same is underway in America today. Unloved children, even decades later, gravitate toward someone who will give them permission to release pent-up, unconscious hatred toward their parents, for the mistreatment received, upon innocent scapegoats. Unloved children, unless helped by a teacher or another adult, are the origin for racism and all hate."
Although I'm not very familiar with the film, I really enjoyed this analysis! What I love about hearing people's analysis of stories is how we each bring a story to life in our own way through interacting with it. If it's something you would be interested in some day, I'd love to see a line editing video with an old story excerpt (they are my fave videos from authors!!) It's always fascinating getting to see how writers polish their work.
Yess, I realized in making this video how incredibly subjective art analysis is! I love hearing the different flavors of interpretation that different people bring to art. And thanks for the suggestion! That's actually something I've been considering doing. I recently went back into my writing from 3 years ago and felt horrified at how much editing it needs. I guess it's a good thing that my writing has improved, but rereading old work is like hearing your own voice in a recording or hearing nails scratch against chalkboards 🙈
@@BookandHearth Absolutely! Sharing old work or works in progress (even in a context where the point is to polish it) can be so vulnerable and uncomfortable, which is why I want to only suggest it if you are interested! As you said, being able to see the difference in your writing definitely shows the massive growth you have achieved, which is amazing!
I LOVED your interpretation Ana! After viewing the film for the first time not too long ago, I had wondered about the intentions of the characters actions and why some of it had resonated so much to me that it felt uncomfortable in a way. But the story is so beautifully written that it was something so horrifying I couldn’t stop thinking about.
I loved the 2004 movie too as a teen, and I can tell you you’re going to like the book quite a bit. The 2004 movie is beautiful, gorgeous, and visually sumptuous, and yet also a watered-down version of the Broadway play, which itself is a watered-down if much better executed depiction of the book. The movie and play interpretations are almost more fascinating with the added lens that Andrew Lloyd Webber was in the middle of a scandalous, passionate affair with Sarah Brightman at the time. Webber’s not exactly a looker in the traditional Hollywood sense, and Brightman has genuine talent and chops under her belt - he wrote Christine’s part *for* her. Christine is blonde in the book and yet Emmy Rossum is noticeably kind of dolled up to look like Brightman (I say this loving how much we got to see the costume, hair, and makeup departments positively GUSH and go all out and then peculiarly hold back for Gerard Butler in the unmasking scene).
Okay, I just watched your critique of the anti-horror tiktoker debacle yesterday, and now THIS pops up in my recommended? Phantom has been in my life since before I was born! Subscribed😁
Ooh girl THIS IS A TOP FAV MUSICAL. I usually just listen to this musical instead of watching it. I dont even see Phantom as a person. I see him as a delusion/a vision that Christine has. I think Christine has schizophrenia or hallucinations or something. Angel Of Music is my favorite song from the musical, and I think it encapsulates where I got this way of thinking from kinda well because its too complex for me to explain in a short YT comment. Lol, that's just how I like to think of the story! I think you mentioned that in passing too. You said something like "maybe the phantom is part of christine" and i take it to the next level and say christine created that man from thin air😂
@@mrsevent7 😂 you're gonna have to suspend disbelief because there's no evidence. I wouldn't call it a theory of mine more like my wish for how the story actually was. ❤ also I usually don't watch the movie, I just listen to the musical and let my imagination go wild.😂
I've just watched the movie and after seeing the opening chandelier scene (amazing btw), I thought that perhaps the chandelier is an axis mundi (the point of connection between future and the past).
The Phantom of the Opera is a classic. It is a sad story. The Phantom and Christine both have emotional scars. Christine lost her father. She was close to him. The Phantom was never shown that kind of love before. Roul. From what I read. Raul is a narcissist too. I think Christine can handle him better. Besides Roul knew Christine growing up.
Oh boy, I'm getting flashbacks to my voice lessons years ago.
I always took The Phantom of the Opera to be an Apollo and Dionysus story. The protagonist must choose between the Phantom who represents Romanticism and Raoul who by being set up in opposition to the Phantom represents reason. The Phantom lives in the dark. The darkness is inherently impressionistic. It only lets you see the outlines of things and gives the imagination full freedom to project whatever meaning or beauty it wants onto whatever outlines the eye can perceive. The mask accomplishes the same thing. As long as you don't what a mask conceals, it may be concealing anything!
Ultimately the protagonist's love for Raoul leads her to recognize the truth that the Phantom is a male siren. She chooses truth over dreams, however beautiful, and Raoul (Apollo) over the Phantom (Dionysus)
Wow, I love this interpretation! It's so cool hearing others' analyses.
The Phantom's mask, when he says that Christine is his mask, is the persona he created entirely for her to view. Powerful, commanding, untouchable, that's how he wants her to see him, so he manipulates and shapes himself for her. He does play tricks on the managers but he never shows himself to them and isn't trying to overpower anyone, only Christine. I love this story so much and watched the movie since I was young, the book was beautiful as well!!
Beautifully put!!
I always thought the story had some parallels to Beauty and the Beast, only that Christine withdraws in the end and does not achieve a full transformation of the Phantom as Belle does with the beast.
Another interpretation: a lot of gothic victorian stories involving monsters (or similar) and an ingenue type of woman have the underlying moral lesson that if a woman wants to mature she needs to suppress her male side (which was represented in those stories as a monster) and sort of relegate that role to her husband. Its that victorian old timey sort of morality that Freud preached. It's also why the Phantom is "inside christine's mind", its also a part of her. Usually the monster was a male that was slain by the male interest (representative of a "good" "appropriate" man by that society's standards), sometimes the "monster" was a woman ie Bertha Mason.
Check out Madwoman in the Attic, explain this perfectly.
Oh wow, this reminds me of the Jungian concept of the animus! Except Jung would have argued it needs to be integrated rather than repressed. Super interesting!
@@BookandHearth i could be wrong, but didn't young say something in the lines of how people should integrate their anima/animusnby seeing it reflected in their partners? I remember listening to Marie Vin Franz saying something in the lines of "men should be men and women should be women, thats why God made us that way", I think maybe he had a more contemplative idea of what this integration meant? Which imo is still a lukewarm form of integration. Jung didn't have the best relationship with women (cheating, womanizing) but he loved to theorize about them and how he thought they should think.
This used to be my favorite movie. From age 11-13 I watched it every day because I related to both the Phantom and Christine so much. I was also a misunderstood artist and lost my father as a girl. He was a wonderful person and very talented, inspiring me to become a painter. As a teenager I met an older artist who influenced me greatly and unfortunately also took advantage of me. I was profoundly innocent because my father was amazing, and deeply confused when other men turned out to be quite different.
Your video rings so true to my experience. Now I alchemist the pain by creating art all my own - the dark teachers from my past have been banished. They are hungry ghosts chasing the light of others. If you have the spark of creation within you, please realize how beautiful that is and how it might draw in energies that wish to feed off you. And also know that it’s your birthright, it’s YOURS. No one can take it away from you nor claim credit for it.
Many women (I’m one of them) struggle with having had a physically or emotionally absent father. We are attracted to unavailable or abusive men. Christine is caught between the man who really loves her and the Phantom who is not real or authentic. That made the story very compelling for me.
This movie was one of my favorites as a teen. Still is. I was always drawn to the phantom as he represented a figure that is supportive of Christine's talents, ambition and career. All Raul did was give her a ring, take her out of the theather and made her have kids. It also pissed me off that he didn't believe her or made her act as bait when she didn't want to. Some trauma about not being taken seriously here, i guess. And the dark gothic aesthetic, of course. Still dress alt to this day
I saw Phantom live as a kid way back in the early 90s. I think I was in the very last row, but it was still cool, got the t shirt and wore it all the time
Me too!! My parents and I sat through an entire day of a time-share presentation so that we could get free tickets in Las Vegas 😂😂 It was so worth it
It's been a decade since I read the book, but the impression I got is that the Phantom character is more unhinged and aggressive in the book than the movie. In the movie, Gerard Butler is intense but more involving and seductive than scary.
Now I really wanna read the book... Yeah, I did get the impression in the movie that the Phantom had no intention of causing Christine any harm
@BookandHearth repeating myself too insistently, but you must see the full Broadway production from Universal Studios for the 25th Anniversary of PotO at the Royal Albert Hall for an even more complete perspective of the characters, motivations and story! Not to mention a stunning cast performance! Searchable and findable on RUclips at The Show Must Go On! Something that a 2 hr so film by its format can only interpret so far. I understood the characters and appreciated the story way more! 🎭 🎉 not to mention the extensive moving vocal performances blended with close up angled capture of performance!🎉
@@BookandHearth Can confirm, there is soooooo much more happening in the book that recontextualizes a lot. Most notably, the Phantom's backstory is completely different, his deformity far more extensive, and his skills far more varied. Also, the seemingly pointless scene in the movie with Raoul surrounded by mirrors after the masquerade is a nod to a far more important scene in the book hahah
There’s a book called The Phantom by Susan Kay that’s entirely from the perspective of The Phantom. Almost like a biography. It gives a lot of great insights. Amazing book
This reminded me of this quote looked it up and posted it here.
"The Germans who supported their demagogue all had fathers whose every trait was exactly like him, even including his theatrical rants. One exception:
This new father never blamed them for causing all problems, as their own parents had done.
Instead, he blamed others for every societal problem.
This token of parental love, never given by their own parents, engendered absolute, hungered devotion.
The same is underway in America today. Unloved children, even decades later, gravitate toward someone who will give them permission to release pent-up, unconscious hatred toward their parents, for the mistreatment received, upon innocent scapegoats. Unloved children, unless helped by a teacher or another adult, are the origin for racism and all hate."
This is just pathologizing racial in group preference. Racism is not a form of hatred, we are not the same.
Although I'm not very familiar with the film, I really enjoyed this analysis! What I love about hearing people's analysis of stories is how we each bring a story to life in our own way through interacting with it.
If it's something you would be interested in some day, I'd love to see a line editing video with an old story excerpt (they are my fave videos from authors!!) It's always fascinating getting to see how writers polish their work.
Oohhhh you must listen to the musical...it's one of the longest running Broadway shows for a reason.
Yess, I realized in making this video how incredibly subjective art analysis is! I love hearing the different flavors of interpretation that different people bring to art.
And thanks for the suggestion! That's actually something I've been considering doing. I recently went back into my writing from 3 years ago and felt horrified at how much editing it needs. I guess it's a good thing that my writing has improved, but rereading old work is like hearing your own voice in a recording or hearing nails scratch against chalkboards 🙈
@@BookandHearth Absolutely! Sharing old work or works in progress (even in a context where the point is to polish it) can be so vulnerable and uncomfortable, which is why I want to only suggest it if you are interested! As you said, being able to see the difference in your writing definitely shows the massive growth you have achieved, which is amazing!
I LOVED your interpretation Ana! After viewing the film for the first time not too long ago, I had wondered about the intentions of the characters actions and why some of it had resonated so much to me that it felt uncomfortable in a way. But the story is so beautifully written that it was something so horrifying I couldn’t stop thinking about.
I love that it resonated with you so deeply!!
I was obsessed with the movie as well! lol.
I loved the 2004 movie too as a teen, and I can tell you you’re going to like the book quite a bit. The 2004 movie is beautiful, gorgeous, and visually sumptuous, and yet also a watered-down version of the Broadway play, which itself is a watered-down if much better executed depiction of the book. The movie and play interpretations are almost more fascinating with the added lens that Andrew Lloyd Webber was in the middle of a scandalous, passionate affair with Sarah Brightman at the time. Webber’s not exactly a looker in the traditional Hollywood sense, and Brightman has genuine talent and chops under her belt - he wrote Christine’s part *for* her. Christine is blonde in the book and yet Emmy Rossum is noticeably kind of dolled up to look like Brightman (I say this loving how much we got to see the costume, hair, and makeup departments positively GUSH and go all out and then peculiarly hold back for Gerard Butler in the unmasking scene).
This was such a good analysis/interpretation. I want to watch it now! :)
Can you analyze interview with the vampire?
PLEASE omg I love that movie
Love your content, I'll save this video and watch it after I read the book❤
Ooh lmk if the book is as atmospheric as the movie! It's been in my cart for weeks
I love your outfit 😭 Please drop where you got the corset and top from!!
Okay, I just watched your critique of the anti-horror tiktoker debacle yesterday, and now THIS pops up in my recommended? Phantom has been in my life since before I was born! Subscribed😁
Haha welcome!!
I love that people are still talking about this movie in 2024. Also, you should definitely check out Phantom by Susan Kay
Thanks for the suggestion! How would you describe the prose?
Smashing the mirror can also mean he is not a double anymore = not two faced anymore
I think he just hates himself and smashes the mirror out of self hate. He's very self-destructive. He's not demure or mindful.
LOL not demure at all
Ooh girl THIS IS A TOP FAV MUSICAL. I usually just listen to this musical instead of watching it. I dont even see Phantom as a person. I see him as a delusion/a vision that Christine has. I think Christine has schizophrenia or hallucinations or something. Angel Of Music is my favorite song from the musical, and I think it encapsulates where I got this way of thinking from kinda well because its too complex for me to explain in a short YT comment. Lol, that's just how I like to think of the story! I think you mentioned that in passing too. You said something like "maybe the phantom is part of christine" and i take it to the next level and say christine created that man from thin air😂
Ooh that would be quite the plot twist!
That...just blew my mind. I'm gonna have to rewatch to find some evidence to support this.
@@mrsevent7 😂 you're gonna have to suspend disbelief because there's no evidence. I wouldn't call it a theory of mine more like my wish for how the story actually was. ❤ also I usually don't watch the movie, I just listen to the musical and let my imagination go wild.😂
I've just watched the movie and after seeing the opening chandelier scene (amazing btw), I thought that perhaps the chandelier is an axis mundi (the point of connection between future and the past).
Whoaaa that's such an insightful idea
The Phantom of the Opera is a classic. It is a sad story. The Phantom and Christine both have emotional scars. Christine lost her father. She was close to him. The Phantom was never shown that kind of love before. Roul. From what I read. Raul is a narcissist too. I think Christine can handle him better. Besides Roul knew Christine growing up.
Can you talk about the persona games if you’ve played any of them?
Is this like a video game? I've never played!
@ yes they’re Japanese turn based role player video games and they might just be your thing with their goth and Jungian themes.
Your one of my ideal women
❤
Epic!