F. de l'Opera, I love all your wonderful answers to the PotO questions! I have a follow-up question to your brilliant reply as to Erik's house and layout. Do you think it possible that Christine's bedroom was originally Erik's bedroom and that he just re-did it for her? And that maybe he made a music room (w/ organ) into a bedroom for himself? It never made sense to me that he'd have a 2nd bedroom. And why a torture chamber and the grasshopper/scorpion in a guest room instead of his own bedroom?
Hi Ara-Rose! Thanks for your question. Iām glad you enjoyed my post about the layout of Erikās house.
Iām actually pretty sure that Erik never used the Louis-Philippe room as his bedroom. For one, since the Louis-Philippe room was off of Erikās living room, it was in the position of the second/guest bedroom. Erikās room, which was off of the dining room, and thus in the back of the house, was in the position of the master bedroom. Erik is nothing if not a stickler for rules (at least the ones that he makes up). As he says, ājāai toujours eu la maladie du dĆ©corumā ā āI have always had an obsession with etiquette.ā
Also, the Persian remarks that the Louis-Philippe room (where he and Raoul recover after their ordeal in the torture chamber) is remarkable in its utter banality, again attesting that Erik had tried to set his house up just like any home (the torture chamber and coffin bed notwithstanding :P). I think that Erik created the Louis-Philippe as a second bedroom not because he thought that he would ever have guests, but because it was the right thing to do when building a proper apartment.
In a way, having such a seemingly ordinary layout to his house probably helped add a touch of concrete, normal reality to Erikās life. As Erik tells Christine:
"Moi, il māest impossible de continuer Ć vivre comme Ƨa, au fond de la terre, dans un trou, comme une taupe! [ā¦] Je veux avoir un appartement tranquille, avec des portes et des fenĆŖtres ordinaires et une honnĆŖte femme dedans, comme tout le monde!ā¦"
"Itās impossible for me to continue living like this, in the depths of the earth, in a hole, like a mole! [ā¦] I want to have a quiet apartment, with ordinary doors and windows, and a devoted wife inside, just like everyone!.."
Thereās also the matter than Erik keeps his motherās furniture and her possessions in the Louis-Philippe room, and I doubt that he would wish to sleep amongst relics with such memories attached to them.
Also, Erikās coffin bed surrounded by its funereal decor is fairly well established in the master bedroom, suggesting that when Erik sleeps (which seems sporadic at best), he sleeps there, and has done so for some time.
In terms of the torture chamber and the scorpion/grasshopper being associated with the Louis-Philippe room instead of Erikās room, I donāt consider that to be too odd. The torture chamber is, in its own way, a relic of Erikās past, and I donāt think that itās out of place to have it located with his other relics.
Finally, I donāt know if Erik would actually want a torture chamber off of his own room. He typically tries to keep a layer of buffering between himself and his crimes, such asĀ signing his name as āle fantĆ“meā when he extorts money from the managers, or blaming āla sirĆØneā for attacking people who try to cross the lake (and of course he flat out denies having caused the chandelier crash or Philippeās death). And when he first approaches Christine, instead of introducing himself honestly to her, he disguises himself as ālāAnge de la musique.ā Even his chosen name, āErik,ā serves as a buffer; he can think to himself that he (whatever his real name may be ā probably something rrreally Frrrrench, like Pierre :P) didnāt do a crime, Erik did it. This may be part of why he frequently refers to himself in the third person; he is trying to form some separation between himself and the monster that he has become.
