(no subject)

[not_mephistopheles]

[Erik's Voice]

{Quotes/Character Interpretation}

"My old interest in divination had never left me, and from time to time I still consulted the tarot cards in a desultory fashion. It was a long while since they revealed anything significant, but now of late, each time I picked a card at random I seemed to turn up Death. Death...or The Lovers. I could not interpret this cryptic message but it seemed to be irredeemably bound up with a feeling of doom that was beginning to weigh ever more heavily upon me."
[Dissection: So he doesn't really plan to read tarot or anything; he just does it at random/semi-instinctually. I also believe this is a case of Erik avoiding/ignoring something he doesn't want to think about. Death and The Lovers are not a complex message; Death means Change and The Lovers means a Choice. But at this point in his life, Erik is just getting comfortable, contenting himself in being alone. He doesn't want it to change, and he doesn't want the pressure of a choice about it. So instead he throws up his arms like OH WELL I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS.]

"Still I was silent, thinking of the dozen apartments Jules had rented for me since I began work on the Opera. Each time the pattern had been similar. First, the anonymous abusive letters, then the wanton unprovoked damage, and finally the aggressive blow or nervous tap of the proprietor upon my door."
[Dissection: At this point Erik is really tired of being rejected by the world; he is nearing his 'fuck it' moment where he decides to live underground forever. It hurts him every single time he's driven out of a place, because he never manages to feel safe anywhere. Totally part of what makes him decide to abandon the world (or attempt to).]

"If there had been no horsemeat or rats, she would have eaten human flesh; I would have killed, if necessary, to protect my precious, precious little lady."
[Dissection: Do not fuck with this man and his pets. Earlier bits mention him 'exclaiming with joy' when he finds little kitten Ayesha, and she did completely give Erik a purpose to life for when he had nothing else. He also mentions that he would rather starve to death than kill her for food/her pelt. I think this shows how insanely protective he can be over things he has come to love (and allows himself to love).]

"I have no idea what freak arrangement of my vocal cords enabled me to reduce certain people to a state of trancelike obedience—regrettably, it is not possible to perform dissections upon oneself! But I regarded my voice as a weapon, as lethal, in its way, as the Punjab lasso, and I never scrupled to use it whenever the opportunity was offered."
[Dissection: I %100 believe Erik would totally dissect his own vocal cords if possible-- it will probably be a LH!verse thing. This statement also shows Erik's ruthlessness about using his advantages over others.]

"But when I crossed the huge main foyer with its ten crystal chandeliers, I instinctively averted my eyes from the mirrors.These cruel instruments of suffering abounded everywhere in the glorious upper reaches of my palace, and a single careless sideways glance was all it took to give me a sword thrust of pain. But all beauty must have its imperfection, all happiness its share of sorrow. The mirrors reminded me why I was here, why I could never bear to leave this place and build again, as Garnier would."
[Dissection: Erik believes mirrors are a necessary evil; he has a strange relationship with them where they hurt him, but a mirror also becomes his portal to Christine, which I think kind of alludes to the fact that Erik is recklessly drawn to things that hurt him.]

"I left without returning to look one last time upon my mother's dead and unlovely face. The beautiful features, delicate as a butterfly's wing, were buried safely in the mists of my memory. I could not wipe them from my mind, but there was a certain comfort in knowing that I would never see that face resurrected. She had never existed for me outside an illusion. She had never existed; and now at last I could forget her forever."
[Dissection: An example of Erik distancing himself from things that hurt him, and finding safety in detachment. Also somewhat hints at his enchantment with very beautiful things.]

"There was something terribly wrong with this girl, a near extinction of spirit that made her voice affect me like a cry in the dark. She was dying slowly on that stage, drowning in my ears… I couldn't bear to listen a moment longer. I must not think what I might have made of that lovely, lifeless voice had it only been entrusted to my care."
[Dissection: So Erik can kind of sense certain things about a person by hearing how they sing; upon hearing Christine, his immediate impulse is to sculpt her voice into something worthy of itself; and perhaps, in doing so, remove whatever pain causes her to sing like she's drowning. It's an impulse that is both protective and possessive which I think is pretty characteristic of thier whole goddamn relationship.]

"You only want to see her, that's all, just to see her. What's wrong with that, you gutless fool? Listen… I'll tell you what you ought to do now…"
[Dissection: a very slippery slope]


{*}