Phantom timeline
7 August 2015 02:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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(Original text cut and pasted here for reference since I can no longer access Tumblr pages)
Phantom Chronology
Based on the clues that Leroux gave in The Phantom of the Opera, I believe that the main events of the novel could possibly have been set in 1884. I will explain my train of reasoning below.
Before I start, I should clarify that I’m aware that Leroux was not particularly concerned with temporal details — like, has anyone else noticed the time anachronism that happens in the “Interesting Vicissitudes” chapter? :D The Persian confronted Erik about the chandelier crash *before* it happened. Erik caused the chandelier crash on the same night that he first brought Christine down to his lair (the chandelier fell, Christine rushed to her dressing room, and Erik brought her through the mirror). However, when the Persian went to question Erik about the chandelier, Erik had not yet abducted Christine, meaning that the chandelier crash as told in “Interesting Vicissitudes” happens earlier than the chandelier crash told in the “Faust etc.” chapter.
Therefore, based on Leroux’s less than precise nature, his statement that “the events hardly date back thirty years” could mean as early as 1879 (30 years prior to the publication of the “Foreword” in the Gaulois serialization). However, as a literary exercise, I have attempted to reconstruct the time frame based on the details that Leroux gave in his narrative. (I am aware that Leroux may not have considered the factors that I describe below, and may have had a different date in mind.)
In the chapter, “The Torture Begins,” Christine looks into Erik’s mirrored torture chamber and comments that it looks like the Musée Grévin. Now, this is actually another anachronism on Leroux’s part, because the Palais des Mirages (Hall of Mirrors) in the Musée Grévin to which Christine is alluding wasn’t built until 1900. But that little flub aside, the Musée Grévin itself was inaugurated on June 5, 1882. Now, we know that “Apollo’s Lyre” takes place in the springtime, because Leroux writes that “an evening inflamed with springtime surrounded them.” Based on my reading of the novel’s internal chronology, the events in “Apollo’s Lyre” occur sometime in early spring, probably towards the end of March. Since Christine is abducted the following evening after her rooftop confession to Raoul, and peers into Erik’s torture chamber shortly thereafter, this was likely no earlier than the end of March, 1883 (since in the early spring of 1882, the Musée Grévin was not yet open).
Now, Mme Giry tells the Managers that she received a letter from Erik which seemed to promise that in 1885, Meg Giry would become an empress. Mme Giry recounts that she said to Erik that if Meg were to become an empress by 1885, Erik would have to quickly get Debienne and Poligny to promote her to coryphée. At the time that Mme Giry tells this to Richard and Moncharmin, she is clear that 1885 is still sometime in the future, so the latest that the novel could be set is in 1884. And as I will show below, I believe that the events in the story were indeed set in 1884.
Okay, now I realize that this next bit of deduction is most likely above and beyond what Gaston Leroux did in writing his story, ;D but here is why I think that the story took place in 1884.
Leroux wrote that the masked ball was held before Shrovetide (the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), the last day of Shrovetide, is always 47 days before Easter, which changes dates year-to-year based on the lunar calendar. In 1883, Easter fell on March 25, meaning that Mardi Gras fell on February 6 that year. This means that if the story were based in 1883, the masked ball would have to take place no later than February 3.
Leroux gives two dates that place the beginning of his novel within a calendary context. The gala for Debienne and Poligny at which Christine triumphs probably occurs on January 11. The last day of the old Managers’ contract was January 10 (as Erik states in a letter), and the evening prior to the gala, Richard and Moncharmin had officially taken over as the new management. So it’s likely that at the end of Debienne and Poligny’s last day, they handed the reins to Richard and Moncharmin. Then, by January 25, Richard and Moncharmin are just starting to settle into their management.
We know that the disastrous performance of Faust at which Carlotta croaks and the chandelier falls occurs some time after January 25. We also know that following the “cursed” performance of Faust, Christine disappears for two weeks, and that after she returns, she tells Raoul to meet her at the masked ball.
There is simply not enough time for all of this to take place if the story were set in 1883. There need to be at least a few weeks between January 25 and the masked ball, but instead there are only nine days.
Now, in 1884 (which incidentally was a leap year), Easter fell on April 13, meaning that Mardi Gras was on February 26th, and that the latest that the masked ball could be was February 23. Since February 23rd of that year was a Saturday, this makes sense as a day for the masked ball to be held on.
In the letter that Christine writes to Raoul, she tells him to meet her at the masked ball “apres-demain” — the day after tomorrow. This means that Christine would have written the letter on February 21. Assuming that she wrote the letter as soon as she got back from Erik’s house on the lake (or perhaps before her final ride with him in the Bois, since the letter is described as being flung into the street, as perhaps from a carriage window), this means that her abduction took place no later than February 6. This is because the next day (February 7) when Christine wakes up, Erik tells her that she will be with him for two weeks, starting that day. Since Christine sends Raoul the letter telling him to meet her at the masked ball on February 21, this means that the latest date that Erik could have released her would have been February 21, two weeks after February 7, the day after the evening when he abducted her.
This external chronology works within the internal chronology of the novel, since the disastrous performance of Faust occurs not long after Richard and Moncharmin are settling into their management on January 25.
Now, as for the time frame of the rest of the novel, we know that Erik had started tutoring Christine roughly three months before he first abducted her, so probably sometime in November of the previous year.
Further, we know that the sightings of the “Phantom” began a few months prior to January (so probably about when Erik started tutoring Christine), and that Erik first commandeered Box 5 for his exclusive use a little more than a month prior to the gala, so probably around the beginning of December of the previous year. We also know from “The Magic Envelope” that Mme Giry started serving as Erik’s personal courier for transmitting his salary about a week prior to Debienne and Poligny’s departure, so from the beginning of January or so (though she had served as his box attendant for a little while before then).
Moving forward, Christine and Raoul’s (and Erik’s) trip to Perros probably takes place four days after the gala (on January 15 or so), because in “Apollo’s Lyre,” Christine describes that the Voice was jealous of Raoul’s visit to Christine’s dressing room and made a terrible scene for two days afterwards, and then presumably on the third day, Christine told the Voice that she would be going to Perros the following day to visit her father’s grave, and would invite Raoul to show that he was just an old friend.
Following the 1884 chronology, Christine is with Erik from no later than February 6 through February 21, and then attends the ball with Raoul on February 23, after which she goes through the mirror with Erik. Sometime during the morning or afternoon of February 24 (Christine returns to Mama Valerius’ later that day), after Erik leads Christine back to his lair, he gives her his gold wedding ring.
The day after the ball (February 24), Raoul confronts Christine at the apartment she shares with Mama Valerius, and notices Erik’s wedding ring. A day after that, Raoul meets Christine at the Opera, and tells her that his expedition to the North Pole will be leaving in three weeks to a month (so at the end of March). They decide to play at being engaged during the time that they have left together.
One week later, so around the beginning of March (following the 1884 chronology, March 5), Raoul declares that he will not go to the North Pole but will stay there with Christine. Christine is distraught, and goes straight home. The next morning, Raoul goes to Mama Valerius’ apartment, and learns that Christine will be away for two days to be with her Angel of Music. After that time, Christine returns to the Opera, and scores another triumph, this time in La Juive. After the performance, Christine tells Raoul that she sang for him that evening.
Over the next two weeks or so (Leroux doesn’t indicate a specific time period), Raoul and Christine play at being engaged, but Christine becomes more and more nervous as Raoul’s date of departure nears. Towards the end of March, Raoul swears to Christine that he will free Christine from Erik’s power. Christine realizes that she and Raoul need to talk someplace where Erik will have no chance of overhearing them (ha!), and so they go up to the roof. According to an 1884 calendar, the first day of spring was on March 20, so their trip to the roof in Apollo’s Lyre had to occur between March 20 and March 24 (which is the latest that Raoul’s expedition would be due to leave — that is, a month after he first mentioned it to Christine at the end of February).
Later that evening, Raoul returns home and goes to bed. When he awakes during the night, he sees two eyes staring at him, seemingly at the foot of his bed. After searching for the source of the eyes, he shoots at them, thinking that perhaps they belong to Erik. When he goes out on his balcony, he sees a trail of blood that leads up a drain pipe and along the gutter. Philippe tells Raoul that he has shot a cat. Raoul is not so sure.
The evening after “Apollo’s Lyre,” Erik abducts Christine during her performance as Marguerite in Faust, and the Persian and Raoul chase after them, ending up in Erik’s torture chamber. Erik says that the following evening at 11pm, Christine must decide everyone’s fate.
At 11pm the following evening (March 22 at the earliest), Christine turns the scorpion, and saves everyone from being blown up. In the process, however, the torture chamber is flooded, and Raoul and the Persian nearly drown.
Sometime the following day (March 23 at the earliest), the Persian awakes, and is tended to by Erik and Christine. He falls back asleep, and later that evening, Erik brings him back to his apartment, where he is brought inside by his servant, Darius.
Meanwhile, later that evening after Erik returns back to the house on the lake, he chains Raoul up in one of the Communard’s dungeons. When Erik returns again to the house on the lake (March 24 at the earliest), Christine is there waiting for him. She lets him kiss her forehead, and cries with him, calling him “poor, unhappy Erik.” Later that day, Erik frees Raoul and brings him back up to rejoin Christine. Christine kisses Erik on the forehead, and Erik lets both Christine and Raoul go. Raoul and Christine then abscond to some secluded area of Paris or its environs, where they await the announcement of Erik’s death.
That morning (again, March 24 at the earliest), the Persian awakes in his own bed. A few days later, after he has regained his strength, the Persian goes to the police to tell them about Erik, but the examining magistrate, M. Faure, takes him for lunatic.
The Persian then decides to write up his account of what happened so that he can alert the press about Erik’s supposed murder of Philippe and abduction of Christine and Raoul. Perhaps a few days after that (so about a week after Erik let Christine and Raoul go, and likely at the end of March or the beginning of April), Erik comes to the Persian’s home to tell him that he is dying.
Three weeks later, so no earlier than about the third week of April, the Persian puts the announcement in the Epoque that Erik is dead.
In all, from the time that Erik first spoke to Christine in her dressing room (November) to the time of Erik’s death (late April), the novel spans about five and a half to six months.
For the purposes of my Philippe-story, I'm assuming that Raoul was born in December or thereabouts, thus making him only just twenty-one at the time of the gala (and allowing him to be twelve at the time of his father's death, be under his sisters' care for a few months, move in with his aunt, and still be only twelve throughout the summer with Christine ;-p)