The Phantom of the Opera

As a Gothic mystery novel, The Phantom of the Opera infuses its narrative with supernatural elements, although it reveals most of these elements to be simple tricks. Different characters have different reactions to these mysterious incidents, either superstitiously believing in them or remaining skeptical. The text shows that both ends of the spectrum of belief can have truth to them. On the superstitious side, characters believe in bad luck and omens, and others believe in disembodied specters. Most of the Opera's artists believe there is a mysterious figure causing trouble at the Opera, whether he is “a gentlemen in dress clothes” (16) or a walking skeleton. The artists have trinkets to protect themselves from bad luck—especially when they hear of strange incidents occurring, like Joseph Buquet's death in Chapter 1—but the ghost's movements don't preoccupy their minds. Like Jammes, who “seemed already to have forgotten the ghost” (34) moments after her encounter, these artists find fun and levity in the ghost rumors. Christine and Mme. Giry are two characters who are deeply superstitious and believe wholeheartedly in the supernatural—Christine in her Angel of Music and Mme. Giry in the Opera Ghost. Though people around them write their beliefs off as naive and foolish, these women have interacted with the entities firsthand and won’t be swayed from their truth. Their understandings of their situations may be highly imaginative, but the main facts of each woman's experience remain true, so the narrator doesn’t present them as incompetent. As the text begins with the narrator's assertion that the Opera Ghost really existed in “the complete appearance of a real phantom” (9), those who dismiss these women’s stories outright are illustrated as the ones in the wrong.

On the opposite side of the belief spectrum is logic and rationality. Characters on this end would often be considered more reasonable and level-headed, but in a Gothic tale such as this, the staunchly logical are frequently the subject of ridicule by the text. Men like the Moncharmin and Richard, Mifroid, and Philippe all write off the possibility of a ghost's existence, and these men are illustrated as the foolish ones. The text finds the police's complete dismissal of the ghost rumors particularly damning, as their lack of inquisition leaves several criminal cases unsolved or highly underdeveloped. The narrator describes the acting magistrate M. Faure “an incredulous, commonplace, superficial sort of person […] with a mind utterly unprepared to receive a confidence” (249) of the fantastic story. By perceiving every story of a "ghost" as the ravings of madmen, the police miss key evidence that could illuminate the mysterious circumstances at the Opera. Moncharmin and Richard’s firm and furious skepticism in the ghost leads them to nearly lose their minds in trying to prove their staff wrong. Philippe only believes his brother’s story when it is too late, and in being unprepared for the dangerous man his brother was raving about, Philippe accidentally dies in the underground lake.

Some characters toe the line between reason and imagination, like the Persian, Raoul, and the narrator. These characters eventually grasp the total truth of the mysterious events. The men all understand that the events of the Opera cannot be explained in a clear-cut way, as the real man at the center of the mystery is such a fantastical—though real—person. In common amongst these "logical" men is their curiosity. Raoul is the most superstitious and influenceable of the group, but he consistently questions the real-world machinations behind Christine's fanciful stories. At Perros-Guirec, Raoul doesn't believe a real Angel has visited Christine, but he follows her at night to be sure, ultimately discovering the tangible man behind the music who he tries to expose. The Persian has prior knowledge of Erik—having seen his cruelty and other-worldly appearance firsthand—so he believes the rumors of a ghost, though he knows they are imaginative stories covering up simple ignorance “that the ghost existed in the flesh” (207). The narrator refuses to believe the police's basic incident reports. His curiosity uncovers the tale that explains the mysteries by simply “follow[ing] Erik’s actions logically through the whole tragedy of the Chagnys” (255). In each case, the men need physical proof of the specter's existence—a scientific course of action—but their open-mindedness allows them to follow different paths of inquiry to the truth, unlike the purely superstitious and the purely logical characters.