#...unless i have to

does anyone else think about the parallels between Erik and Christine’s father?  They’re both depressed musical men, both idealized their not-so-great homelands (erik’s questionable parents, Daae’s terrible poverty)

Neither made it as musicians and encourage their Christine to pursue her talent. 

Both are shut-ins, inviting ONLY Christine to their private quarters to play music for her. When it says Erik played her music until she fell asleep, I imagine her father did that as well (at least once). 

And Christine had to deal with her father’s curious nature, as he wasn’t always happy, he could be visibly depressed, in a mood, and they were never all-consuming or frightening, but it got Christine used to being the light of someone’s life..

and maybe that role she took with her father, made her a. very comfortable with being needed, and b. made her crave that role after her father’s passing, like she just wanted to relive it and never let go. 

also

There’s an interesting part in the book when Erik’s singing Othello and Christine says she doesn’t try to escape, instead she found it charming to die at the center of such passion. I’m not certain why, but I felt she was trying to reclaim the passion she’s lost. I imagined her curling over a red backdrop, she’s laying her head on the piano as the music syncs up with the music of her past; she remembers when her father expressed all of his pain with his music... And for a moment, she’s living two timelines at once, content to die right there.

EXCEPT, in the book, the only thing stopping her from ‘dying right there’ is the Voice’s face still covered by a mask! Could it be, the moment synchronized so intensely with her past that she subconsciously thought her father was behind the mask and she had to check!? THAT’S why she tore off Erik’s mask!