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Christine's headscarf theory
I thought I'd already linked to this, but apparently not... For my reference, then (so that I don't have to keep searching for it), F. de l'opera's theory that Christine's 'red scarf' was actually a peasant headscarf:
http://operafantomet.tumblr.com/post/96354400557/fdelopera-operafantomet-fdelopera
Raoul Week QOTD (from “The Enchanted Violin”):
One day, a young boy from the town was out with his governess and made her take a long walk, for he could not bring himself to leave the little girl whose voice, so sweet and pure, seemed to have enslaved him. In this way, they came to the shore of an inlet that is still called Trestraou. In those days, there was nothing there but the sky and the sea and the golden sand. And above all, there was a strong wind, which carried away Christine’s scarf into the sea. Christine let out a cry and reached out her arms, but the headscarf* was already far away upon the waves. Christine heard a voice which said to her:
“Don’t trouble yourself**, mademoiselle, I shall go collect your scarf from the sea.”
And she saw a little boy running, running, despite the cries and indignant protestations of a respectable lady dressed all in black. The little boy went into the sea fully clothed and brought her scarf back to her. The little boy and the scarf were both in a fine state! The lady in black was unable to regain her composure, but Christine laughed heartily, and she gave the little boy a kiss. It was the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny.
—
Notes:
* In this sentence, Leroux refers to Christine’s scarf not as “echarpe” (scarf), but as “voile” (veil, or headscarf), indicating that Christine’s scarf was used as a head covering instead of as a neck scarf as in the ALW musical. A headscarf or kerchief was often worn by Swedish girls and women in the 1800s and even into the 1900s, as in the artwork above by Anders Leonard Zorn.
** redeaths, Raoul uses the formal “vous” form to address Christine. Such a polite young man! :D
Fun coincidence: In some areas of Sweden, it was costum for a man to give his bride such a headscarf on their wedding day!
How interesting! I wonder if Leroux knew of this? Even if he didn’t, Raoul returning Christine’s headscarf still bears significance.
Though I support this interpretation, I can’t help but thinking “voile” might be just as much a reference to the material used? That the “voile” was some sort of drape made of a sheer fabric?
I know Daddy Daaé and Christine played Swedish peasants in Bretagne, traveling around and performing for people like they had done in Sweden. But at the same time, it sounds strangely old fashioned that Christine would wear a head scarf in Swedish manner. Even in Sweden it would be considered fairly rural and something you’d be more likely to see on elder (married) women than on young girls. Christine, being unmarried and having lived in Paris for some time, doesn’t seem like a likely headscarf wearing candidate.
I will not Lerouxify the 2004 movie, but this came to mind:operafantomet, I had considered this when I translated the “scarf” passage, since in English the word “voile” does mean “sheer fabric” (it is a French loan-word that entered the English language in the late 1800s).
French also carries a tertiary meaning of “voile” as “sheer fabric,” however the sentence construction is different when the word is used this way. If you want to use “voile” to mean “sheer fabric” in French, you use the construction “en voile de [material used]” to describe a piece of clothing. So you could say “une écharpe en voile de coton” — literally “a scarf in the manner of a veil made of cotton,” or more generally “a scarf made of veil-like cotton fabric.” (I think the word that you are looking for is “voilage,” which means transparent net fabric, like what 2004 Movie!Christine wears in the graveyard scene.)
When the word is used by itself, however it means “veil” or “headscarf,” as in its modern usage describing a Muslim hijab.
(And of course, this is only when the noun is masculine — “le voile.” When the noun is feminine — “la voile” — it means “the sail,” like on a sailboat. Leroux used “le voile,” so we can rule out that possibility.)
(“Voile” [masculine] also contains a figurative sense, like in English, where you can say “voile du secret,” i.e. “veil of secrecy.”)
In short, the sentence construction and the context do point to Leroux’s use of “voile” as meaning “veil” or “head covering.”
As for Christine wearing a head covering that in real-life 19th century Sweden would have seemed overly provincial, well, we’ve seen Leroux get details of Scandinavian life confused or over-generalized before. Like the interchangeable way that he used Sweden and Norway, or Christine being a blue-eyed blonde with pale skin. So it is entirely plausible that Leroux envisioned Christine walking along the Trestraou beach in Perros-Guirec wearing a headscarf.
I appreciate the detailed answer! I’m not questioning that he DID mean some sort of headdrape. I simply meant that Leroux might have used the word “voile” to deliberately indicate a light sheer veil and not a more bombastic cotton/wool headscarf.
A Swedish styled headscarf just seems so out of character for Christine, especially being an unmarried teenage girl. It’s borderlining theatrical, but hey - maybe that’s what she and Daddy Daaé went for when performing in Bretagne.
