On the one hand, it was the end of the old ways, on the other, the beginning of the new (Hall 5-6).

The former sees it as an era coming to a close, the latter as a time of artistic and social rejuvenation. The two terms denote two contrasting ideas of the time period. Leroux, born in 1868, came of age in the late Victorian period, a time known in France as both the fin de siècle – the end of the century – and la belle époque – the beautiful era. The original novel, titled Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, was written by French journalist and detective fiction author Gaston Leroux and published in 1910. This essay shall explore these changing interpretations and how they reflect societal values with regards to chaste and sexual relationships between men and women. Though always centered around more or less the same three principal characters – Erik the Opera Ghost, Christine Daaé and Raoul de Chagney – or their approximates, each successive adaptation reinterprets these characters and the themes they represent within the context of the time period. In the century since its original publication, the story of The Phantom of the Opera has been adapted into numerous films, plays and novels, becoming a cultural icon, if not within its native French culture, then certainly in the imagination of the English-speaking world.

So I thought I'd share.Įvolving Views of Chastity and Sexuality in The Phantom of the Opera Even before I received my grade, I was quite proud of it.

At fourteen pages, it is the longest paper I have ever written, and also the one which I enjoyed writing the most. For my final, I wrote a paper and did a presentation on The Phantom of the Opera. Bookwrm17This past semester, I took a class called 'Making Sense of Monsters and Masks' which focused on themes of masking and monstrousness in francophone literature.

Phantom of the opera christine