Ballard 1
Cayddrick Ballard
Mrs. Treadwell
English 1302.460
24 April 2017
Only Mask Deep
All is silent and still on a foggy Parisian night, when suddenly a single rapport of pistol fire
breaks the calm. Most people associated gunfire to that of an ominous sound, but for Gaston
Leroux it was reason for celebration. Night air gunfire meant that Leroux had completed another
novel. Every novel he wrote ended with a single shot (V. Leroux). Welcoming a novel in this way
was classic Leroux; big, bold, audacious, with a touch of the flamboyant (Mackintosh 6).
In 1889, Leroux graduated from law school in Paris and started working as a law clerk.
However, after his years of study, Leroux would grow weary of practicing law, using this training,
Leroux began writing short stories (“Gaston”). Within the same year, Leroux’s father died, leaving
him with over one-hundred million francs which he promptly spent (Leone). Leroux would also
marry his first wife Marie LeFranc, a marriage, he would believe to be a mistake (Deschanel).
Leroux, who loved the high life of good food and good drink would (V. Leroux), within six
months, gamble or drink his inheritance away; and was in search of a new job (Merriman). Leroux
would obtain a position at the newspapers Le Martin and the L’Echo de Paris. In 1902, On assignment
as a foreign correspondent in Switzerland, Leroux would meet the love of his life, Jeanne Cayette
(Deschanel). Together they would have two children; his son Alfred Gaston and his daughter
Madaline, who would become a French actress. Although he and his wife had separated, LeFranc
refused to grant him a divorce. Leroux and Jeanne would not wed until after Lefranc’s death in 1917.
Leroux would work for the newspapers for thirteen years, becoming one of the most
successful journalists (Benton) however, by 1907, with his taste for writing in his early years working
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as a law clerk he would be forever “tormented by this demon literature.” (Mackintosh 6). After
reporting on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and dodge falling lava, preparing for a rest, he received
an orders correspondence. Gaston would tell the bearer, “Shit. Go tell [Maurice] Bunau-Varilla, shit”
(Deshanel), thus effectively ending his career in journalism (Riley) .
From that moment forward, Leroux would immerse himself in his work; he would just
“…write another novel” (Deschanel). In 1910 Leroux would write The Phantom of the Opera serially,
unfortunately its initial reception only received moderate sales and poor reviews (“Gaston”). He
would publish thirty-three novels, screenplays, and write countless short stories. On 27 April 1927,
Gaston Alfred Louis Leroux, the novelist that one scholar noted had brought “the locked-room
mystery genre to its apotheosis” (Changnam) would die unexpectedly due to urinemic poisoning. He
would be laid to rest at the Cimetiére du Château in Nice, France.
Gaston Leroux’s famed novel The Phantom of the Opera revolves around the mystery of the
phantom, who haunts the Paris Opera House. Leroux has set out to prove that the opera ghost
really exists. The narrative follows a follows a sinuous triangular love affair between three major
characters: The opera ghost; Erik, Christine Daae and Raoul.
The Phantom of the Opera presents an obscure truth in which all that society perceives is, to one
degree or another, all an illusion. He uses the setting of the Paris Opera House, with all of its
glittering facades and hidden passageways, as an allegory of society through which sacrifice, jealousy
and love manifests itself differently in all of cast of characters.
The most obscure character in The Phantom of the Opera, is the Paris Opera House. Working in
duality, the opera house not only provides the setting, but it also shines a light on the hypocrisy and
social ills French society at the time. The Opera House was built during the Beautiful season what is
known as the Belle Epogue, or the Third empire. This period was known as such, because during
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this period the standards of living were increased for the middle and upper-class. The upper-class
would come to call “The Golden Age”.
The Belle Époque, period that was supposed to be one of joy and peace, however, if we look
deeper into the novel we understand that that is not the case. Leroux claims that “None will ever be
a true Parisian who has not learned to wear a mask of gaiety over his sorrows and one of sadness,
boredom or indifference over his inward joy” (L. Gaston 35). Leroux emphasizes that even though
the Parisian society is to be one of a gilded age, but a facade for of what was really happening.
Even more complexly, Leroux has split the opera house into two distinguishable layers; the
luxurious upper-class and the dark lower-class. The Opera House’s upper layer is luxurious building,
which represents the wealth and social status of the upper-class members that attended Opera.
Leroux’s descriptions of the opera’s backstage life draw a realistic view of how society worked at the
