I just reread the book about nine months ago (the Annotated version, which has finally been republished), and I can’t recall anything in it about impotence. Certainly there’s nothing about it inany of the film versions I’ve seen – and I think I’ve seen them all (even the awful Robert Englund one). I suspect it’s an invention of Andrew Lloyd Webber or one his lyricist.
My wife, Pepper Mill, Phantom fan extraordinare, thinks that the line “has also denied me the joys of the flesh” simply means that he was unable or unwilling to approach women. I can elate.
I disagree. He was willing to murder Raoul to get her to wed him; that’s certainly rape of a sort. And I rather think that if Raoul hadn’t shown up to give him an edge, or if Christine had done as Raoul asked and let him die, the Phantom would still have forced himself upon her had he been capable.
In fact, reading that, I retract my earlier contention that Eric was impotent.
I remember a scene in the book in which Christine relates to Raoul through the mirrored wall of the torture room that she’s tried to kill herself by knocking her head against the wall, but the Phantom restrained her and presented her with the scorpion/grasshopper choice.
Which is curious: at that point, he obviously doesn’t care if she really loves him or not (your would-be fiance trying to kill herself instead of marrying you is a pretty big clue, there), but he still wants her to “choose” him by turning the scorpion.
But then, the Phantom of the book is even more of a raving loony than the Phantom of the play, so I don’t know how much stock we can set in consistent characterization.
Well, if I had meant to say that I interpret the Phantom’s answer as telling the tactless hussy that he couldn’t, you’d have grounds for the question. But instead of using reported-speech mode, I put my paraphrase in quotes. And why yes, at that time and place Christine’s question was reasonable.
Last year I had the pleasure of playing Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, and in the scene at Orlovsky’s ball where he recognises Adele and she begs him not to give her away, Falke says “I won’t, if you’ll do something for me”. The way our excellent Adele played this piece of dialogue, her fluttering reply “What do you want me to do?” was a perfect feed line for “I suppose a shag would be out of the question?”, and I just had to ad-lib that once during rehearsal
I realize that this strays from both the original book and the musical, but Frederick Forsyth wrote a short novel called The Phantom of Manhattan which serves as a non-musical sequel. In the book, which takes place some years later…
…we discover that Christine’s child, whom everyone assumed to have been Raoul’s, could not have been. Raoul, as it turns out, had suffered a nasty wound to the groin area (fighting off a mugger, IIRC) that had, well, incapacitated his manhood. The book is mostly about the relationship that grows between the child and Eric, who is now living the American Dream in NY.
Again, this is not an “official” part of the story, but as I recall, Forsyth’s introduction says something about having gotten ALW’s enthusiastic approval for his addendum.
Having seen the stage version a half dozen times or so, it was interesting to see the movie version. It was a nice job. I will say, however, that I really wish they could have gotten Crawford and Brightman to do the lead roles as originally planned. Although Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler did adequate jobs, I just don’t think they had the passion and presence that Crawford/Brightman would have brought to the screen.
You can put me in the “unfeeling” camp–that’s what Crawford says, but ALW seems to change lyrics as it suits him.
It honestly never occurred to me that Erik might be impotent. I think I was too young to grasp the idea when I first saw the play, and that may have colored my perceptions. Now, I can understand why one might think so, but I can’t bring myself to agree.
I’m out of the “concealing” camp and in the “unfeeling,” and I’m the one who brought it up in the first place. :smack: A close listen to the soundtrack supports the rest of y’all. Also, I’m certain ALW has naught to do with the lyrics anywhistle. I’m sure I could find out who wrote Phantom’s lyrics and book, but I’m just too lazy to do so know…
Too lazy to google. Hmmpf. No wonder I’m going to hell.
