The Prison of the Mind.

With the success of the musical, most people now the basic story of Phantom of the Opera. A disfigured genius living beneath the Paris Opera House falls in love with the young singer Christine Daae, but because of his deformity must use hypnotic suggestion upon her impressionable mind in order to gain her confidence. When Christine falls in love with the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, the Phantom will stop at nothing, even murder, to protect his own interests.

With this storyline in mind, let's take a closer look at the similarities between the three stories...

1. Deformity.

This face, which earned a mother's fear and loathing... A mask, my first unfeeling scrap of clothing...1

The Phantom, Sharaz Jek and George Cranleigh all have badly deformed faces, although only the Phantom's was so from birth. George was tortured by the Butiu Indians, while Sharaz Jek was scalded by a mudburst on Androzani Minor.

2. Intelligence.

Man must be a genius, in his way.
Chellak, Caves of Androzani, episode 2.

All three men were leaders in their fields. The Phantom was not only a gifted singer and composer, but also a builder and architect who helped build sections of the Paris Opera.2 Sharaz Jek was a robotics expert, and George Cranleigh, before his mutilation, was a famous explorer.

3. Madness.

It was the black orchid. To the Butiu Indians it's sacred. They cut out [George's] tongue and hung him by the heels over a very slow fire. It was done every day for a week.
Black Orchid, p.139.

This torture caused George's madness, which is so severe that only vestiges of his former self remain.

The Phantom and Sharaz Jek are different to George Cranleigh in that, whereas his insanity developed during the torture, theirs was caused by the mental effects of having the deformity. The Phantom is emotionally scarred by the fear and revulsion that others experience at the sight of his face3; Sharaz Jek sees these reactions in others, and even feels it in himself.

Even I can't bear to see or touch myself, I who was once... once... once comely.
Caves of Androzani, episode 2.

Sharaz Jek was also twisted by his hate for Morgus, whom he blamed for his injuries.

Jek: Do you think I'm mad?
Peri: No.
Jek: I am mad. Do I frighten you?
Peri (terrified): N-no.
Caves of Androzani, episode 3.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about both the Phantom and Sharaz Jek is that they both can at times be completely lucid, then turn upon their captives without warning, as Sharaz Jek does in his first meetings with the Doctor and Peri.

4. Unrequited love.

George Cranleigh was forced to live in the same house as the woman he loved, Ann Talbot. She, believing him dead, had become engaged to George's brother Charles, thus making life even more unbearable for George.

This face- the infection which poisons our love...4

Sharaz Jek and the Phantom have a different problem. Sharaz Jek falls in love with Peri on sight, but believes she could never love him because of his injuries.5 Similarly, the Phantom adores Christine, but believes she could never love someone as deformed as he is. Therefore, he uses hypnotic suggestion and plays upon her memories of her father to gain her trust.6

5. Sexual Frustration.

That fate, which condemns me to wallow in blood,
has also denied me the joys of the flesh...7

The Phantom blames his face for his being forced to kill to keep Christine, blames it for his being unlovable emotionally and physically...

It is of course extremely difficult to conclusively prove that the three characters suffered from a sense of sexual frustration because of their appearance, although it can surely be no coincidence that most of the Phantom's assignations with Christine take place in the bedroom of his lair beneath the Paris Opera, and that the first time George is shown sneaking a look at Ann she is in bed, asleep.

In Sharaz Jek's first encounters with Peri, he makes highly suggestive and rather predatory advances towards her, conveyed in the main through body language.

I shall make you quite comfortable. And after a few years you will be quite content living here with me. Quite content. [He places a hand on Peri's shoulder.]
Sharaz Jek, Caves of Androzani, episode 2.

Jek continually mentions Peri's beauty, another disturbing physical reference. This reiteration is given a new dimension, however, later in the story, when he speaks to Peri.

You're so important to me. I've lived so long in these caves, alone. I can have no more. Now I can feast my eyes on your delicacy, and forget the pain and blackness in my mind.
Sharaz Jek, Caves, episode 3.

The Phantom, Sharaz Jek and George Cranleigh all arouse great pity and compassion in an audience. All three were forced to live hidden away from a society that finds any departure from `normality' difficult to cope with. Certainly they produce fear in other characters and in the audience, but the bleak nature of their lives affects the objects of their affection, and their unhappiness is understood.8

Should we pity him? Should we curse him? He asked only to be someone like everyone else... He had a heart great enough to hold the empire of the world, and in the end he had to be content with a cellar. Clearly, then, we must pity the Opera ghost.9

Footnotes: 1 The Phantom of the Opera, Act 2 scene 9, music by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe.
2 Leroux G., The Phantom of the Opera, Bantam, New York, 1990, p.273.
3 Not even his mother could bear to look at him: Leroux, op.cit., p.263.
4 The Phantom, Phantom of the Opera, Act 2 sc 9.
5 This would explain why he is tender towards Peri, yet turns on her when she brings up the subject of his mask. She has reminded him of his belief that he is unlovable, and so he becomes angry in his despair.
6 In the musical this occurs while the Phantom sings "Music of the Night."
7 The Phantom, Phantom of the Opera Act 2, sc 9.
8 Christine kisses the Phantom: his first kiss; Ann sees that George will not hurt her: at this stage she does not realise who he is (Black Orchid, p.87); and although terrified, just before the end of a scene Peri makes a move towards a distraught Jek, I believe to comfort him.
9 Leroux, op.

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