#lerouxnet

One of the things I love most about the novel and one of the best examples of how clever a writer Leroux is is the way Christine’s character is written. We’re expressly told that this is a girl who is grieving, who tries to kill herself, who is going through an extremely traumatic time in her life, yet whenever we see Christine and her interactions with others (with the exception of her conversations with Raoul at the masked ball and on the roof when she’s detailing to him the experiences she’s been through with Erik) she’s shown to be constantly laughing and playful, making fun of Raoul for not liking the cold, teasing him for being scared of heights, laughing when she first meets him again, suggesting playing engaged like it’s a game. All in all we’re shown a character acting very different to what the text is telling us about them which would normally be the mark of a bad writer. However, in the first few chapters of the novel Leroux writes the passage, “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...In Paris, our lives are one masked ball” and this is exactly how Christine behaves the entirety of the novel, acting playful to cover up the horrid circumstances of her life and idk it’s just a really clear instance of clever writing and I love it