When he realizes she loves her childhood friend Raoul instead, he kidnaps her again, threatens to blow up the Opera and the people in it unless she marries him, and reveals that he has perfected some Eastern torture techniques and that he’s using them on Raoul and another man. He releases her only after forcing her to promise she will remain true to him. In the novel, The Phantom of the Opera, who lives under the Paris Opera where singer Christine performs, gains emotional influence over her as she seems to believe he is her dead father speaking to her.

If “abusive” seems too strong a word consider the plot of the novel, which differs significantly from that of the musical.

It takes a remarkably abusive character, the titular Phantom of the Opera, and transforms him into a seemingly sexually desirable, if dangerous, leading man. This week’s question is: Is the Phantom of the Opera abusive or romantic? (You can discuss the musical or the book version, or the differences between the two.)Īndrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel has always intrigued me.

Sequel to phantom of the opera book