On the surface, the tragic figure in the Phantom is Phantom Eric. Eric is hiding in the mysterious basement of the Opera House because of his ugly appearance, but he is a brilliant genius. In his long lonely life, he has cultivated himself into a "master" who integrates musicians, architects and magicians. Eric secretly taught the heroine Christie to sing drama. By chance, Christie, a dancer who has been unknown, sang instead of the company's chief soprano and achieved great success. Christie's angelic singing attracted the attention of her childhood playmate Raoul. Raoul recognized Christie and aroused their childhood relationship. When Raoul, the handsome and wealthy sponsor of the troupe, expressed his love to Christie, Christie had no reason to refuse. But Eric also fell in love with Christie. This led to a dramatic conflict, and Raoul finally defeated Eric. On the surface, this is a conflict caused by a love triangle, weakened by a happy ending. But this is not the case, because another clue in the film suggests that perhaps Raoul rowed the boat and took Christie out of Eric's underground maze, which was the beginning of the tragedy and didn't end until Christie died. Perhaps the real tragic figure is not Eric, but Raoul, Christie and all our lovers.
The film can be clearly divided into two levels or two clues, which embodies a series of opposites, such as the opposition between the earth and the earth, the opposition between beauty and ugliness, the opposition between consciousness and subconscious, the opposition between images and music, the opposition between color and black and white, the opposition between Apollo and Dionysus, the opposition between life and death, and so on. This series of opposites is the real source of tragic conflict in the film. On the surface, Raoul and Eric represent the two poles of the conflict, and Christie is the focus or battlefield of this conflict, but in fact, this conflict is implicit in their personalities, so the tragic figure is not just Christie, but all of us.
The underground maze is a metaphor of the subconscious, and the best manifestation of the subconscious is music, which is the indulgence and madness of Dionysus. The ugliness hidden in the depths of human nature is released through drunkenness. The ground theater is a metaphor of consciousness, and the best form of consciousness is image, the beauty and tranquility of the sun god, and the restraint and dream of reason. Christie loves Raoul consciously and Eric subconsciously. The conflict between two men is actually the conflict between Christie's consciousness and subconscious, and it is the conflict between each of us. Consciousness defeated unconsciousness in a melee, and Eric went underground forever. Raoul led Christie to the ground. However, the unconscious overcame the consciousness in the form of conquering the enemy without fighting. When Raoul placed Eric's toys in front of Christie's grave trembling, Raoul accepted defeat as a representative of consciousness, while the bright red rose next to him silently declared Eric's victory as a subconscious. Raoul can beat Eric in a duel, which shows that our consciousness can beat our subconscious at a critical moment; The ultimate winner is Eric, which shows that the subconscious is a deeper force than consciousness, and consciousness can't beat the subconscious just like we can't leave the earth with our hair.
The complex relationship of struggle and admiration between consciousness and subconscious is fully expressed in the film. As the representative of Apollo, Raoul was infatuated with Dionysian music and became the patron of the troupe. It was through music that he met his lover Christie. Raul prefers Christie's ghostly voice to her angelic beauty. Consciousness rejects the subconscious, but at the same time loves it. Maybe that's why Raoul didn't kill Eric in the duel. On the contrary, Eric, as a representative of Dionysian music, was obsessed with the image of Apollo. He didn't teach other dancers music. The only reason is that Christie's angelic beauty lures Eric out of the underground palace. At the same time, Eric put on a mask for himself and installed various mirrors in the underground palace, which also showed his fascination with images. Eric smashed all the mirrors crazily when he failed, indicating that music failed in trying to express himself with images, Dionysus failed in making peace with Apollo, and the subconscious was sublimated into consciousness. However, the fascination of music with images, Dionysus' concern for Apollo and subconscious's tolerance for consciousness are the fundamental reasons for Eric to let Raoul and Christie go. This complex entanglement between consciousness and subconscious makes the relationship between the characters in the film profound and intriguing.
Eric went underground in the chase of the crowd, which was the end of one tragedy and the beginning of another. We need to face the ancient Greek Oracle excavated by Nietzsche: it is best not to be born, and the next best thing is to die immediately. This desperate attitude will not make us pessimistic, on the contrary, it will inspire our tenacious will to life and arouse our infinite respect and cherish for life.