my_daroga | The Siren of the Opera: a mystery never fully explained

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The Siren of the Opera: a mystery never fully explained

One of the minor characters in Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera is at the center of a small, but important, debate: was the Siren a separate character from Erik?

Leonard Wolf's translation of the text raises this question by pointing out Erik's confused grammar. Here is the relevant passage, from the Persian's narrative after Erik returns to the house, dripping wet:
"There was a heavy sigh followed by a cry of horror from Christine. Then we heard Erik's voice speaking to Christine in the personal form of address. 'I beg your pardon for showing you a face like mine. What a state I'm in. It's the other one's fault. Why did he ring the bell? Do I ask passersby what time it is? He won't ask that of anyone anymore. It's the siren's fault." (p. 280)

Wolf's footnote reads, "First Erik blames the other one, then the siren. Since Erik is the siren, we are left in some perplexity. Whom is Erik blaming?"

I never considered the implication that the siren is a separate entity, and I don't think Wolf's reading this correctly. For me, Erik's "other one" is Philippe--it's his fault. He's the one who rang the bell, after all. Later, blaming the siren, he is pushing the responsibility off on his other self, as a child might blame an imaginary friend. After all, when the Persian is almost ensnared by the siren's voice, it is Erik who emerges from the water: "'All of a sudden, two monstrous arms emerged form the water and grasped my throat and dragged me irresistibly down into the gulf. Certainly I would have been done for had I not had time to utter a cry that allowed Erik to recognize me." (p. 263) Erik then goes on to proudly demonstrate his trick of breathing through a reed--a trick the Persian calls "the trick of the siren."

If anything, I would venture that the siren--apart from being yet another shadowy figure of the Opera's underground--is Erik's feminine half, his anima (thank you,

tkp). He is constantly referred to as having the voice of an "angel," though Raoul notes at the dressing room that it "did not belong to a woman." (142 p.) This doesn't entirely leave out the possibility that Erik can sound enough like a woman to warrant the siren description--especially when singing through a tube.

It has been argued that the Andrew Lloyd Webber version includes the siren(s) in the title song, the voices who sing "He's there, the Phantom of the Opera" as the Phantom takes Christine across the lake. However, in the libretto in my possession (the one in the George Perry book), these singers are merely listed as "Offstage Voices."

Like the shade, I believe there's room for interpretation of everything we see in the Phantom's domain. But I believe that as written, the siren and Erik are one and the same. For me, Erik's appropriation of a dangerously seductive mythical creature is even more interesting as an aspect of his own character, rather than a separate one. But I will open the floor now to your own observations and theories.

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I agree... as does Jerry. ;)

For me the Siren was Erik's "other" side... a more feminine self and a way of further blurring the lines of sexuality in Leroux's phantom. (Which you have read about on my blogger). So I too think they are one in the same and a way of Erik detaching himself from right vs. wrong. "Blame the Siren... I didn't do it." His perceptions of such are off throughout the novel, much like a child who cannot understand the consequences of his actions at times.

I cannot speak of the Shade and my theories on that as that character plays a major role in the forthcoming series. But that is by far one of my favorite mysteries in Leroux. I took that plot hole and ran with it...

Great blog, Daroga!

;) Mav

Thanks for reading, Mav. I was having a discussion about this in someone else's LJ and decided to move my thoughts over here.

I can't wait to see what you do with the Shade. Maybe someday you'll take a look at what I did in my story called... uh... "Shades." But I know you won't want to while in the midst of your own work.

The Siren is such a great alternative character to use. I reference the imagery of the Siren's seduction in Madrigal, because I found it to be and extension of that element of Erik's personality.(in addition to being a bit of a vendictive persona as well) I go into more detail in book two with the Orpheus element.

I am thrilled to meet another person with different views on the shade! I will most likely get lynched---but like I was told this weekend at the conference by some bigwig authors: duck and cover the fans that might disagree and allow them their opinions. We write fiction and are permitted our imaginations. That is what makes the power of writing so great.

I'd love to read your work--as you know and promise to do so once this is off my plate. Fall deadline.

All these tidbits would be GREAT for your phantom book... ;)

The first time I read Leroux's novel, it was under combat conditions (small children, homeschooling), and it didn't get very careful attention from me. As a result, I had a vague memory that the siren was real. I re-read the novel thoroughly in late 2004, though. Upon discovering that the siren was actually Erik, I was crushed. I so wanted the story to have elements of magical realism, yet everything - the siren, the mysterious flame-lit troglodytes - all had "reasonable" explanations. Not implying it was a "bad" story, or anything, of course.

Yes, I think "the other" here who rang the doorbell (i.e. tripped the alarm) was the hapless Philippe.

Personally, Erik reminds me a great deal of Gollum in LOTR, someone who also had a subterranean life filled with loneliness, and who thus "split" his personality and talked to himself, used the third person about himself, and attributed his actions to "others." (Not suggesting there was any influence of Leroux on Tolkien, just that these kinds of characters probably arise from similar psychic "geographies.")

So I agree, Erik has definitely taken on a female persona. As I understand Jungian psychology (and this is only from hanging out w/ Metafizzypop on the Jung thread on poto.com, and a little reading), the anima is never directly visible to the man (nor the animus to the woman.) Jungian therapy is full of all kinds of warnings against trying to directly "see" your anima or animus. All the person can "see" is his anima *projection* - and the man will definitely "project" his anima onto living people. So it's possible that Erik is projecting his anima onto this imaginary creature (like we might make a shadow puppet on the wall) whom he calls "the siren," and whom he uses as an excuse to kill people.

Perhaps Erik's madness is due to his actually trying to see, or "incarnate" his anima, not so much from his ugliness or loneliness? (Just a wild thought here.) It's like someone who falls head over heels in love with an actor or actress - the actor or actress is just a shining reflection of the person's own animus/anima. Like that quote from Man of LaMancha: "There is no Dulcinea / She's only flame and air..." The anima is like moonlight; never to be incarnated or grasped. Try, and that way lies madness.

If the siren is Erik's anima, she's a somewhat malevolent one - which is perfectly characteristic. In "Man and His Symbols," the chapter on the anima shows that men tend to have a LOT of negative anima images which they project onto women (Medusa, the sphinx, Lilith, the succubus, etc.)

I am very interested in sea-nymphs, naiads, sirens, mermaids etc. right now, and it's interesting how many of these negative anima portrayals involve the sea, snakes, slithery scaly appendages that are at the same time highly sexualized. Some people even classify split-tailed mermaids as "sirens" (not always, though.) That's a really uncanny image, of the sea-serpent-like "legs" but with genitals. I can see (in the subtext) how Erik could even work that into sexual fantasies.

There's also something very powerful in that image, from that section which you quoted, of the Persian being gripped by powerful arms and dragged under the water. The mermaid or siren drowning the sailor is IMO a powerful archetypal metaphor for the man losing sexual control, "drowning in the sea of love," to quote Fleetwood Mac.

That Erik takes on an uncanny female persona to do that is pretty interesting, and also interesting that to my knowledge, the siren gets left out of pretty much every version.

I would have to agree. I think that the siren is another side of Erik, representing the mythical part of him. I do remember pondering that passage during my last reading, but nearly forgot about it until I read your lovely entry. I think it's about time to open up the Leroux again.

Isn't it always? Glad to make you think.

It never occured to me that the siren was, you know, an actual siren. That's just a little too much, uh, magical realism for Leroux. I figured that at the very least Erik had multiple personalities.

So, no, I always saw the siren as Erik, and his references to the siren in the third person- well, he's got a reputation to keep up. He's deliberately pretending to be the Opera Ghost in order to terrorize the populace, so he probably also pretends that there's a siren out there, for much the same reasons.

I agree; I think one of the charms of the novel is that it starts out as a supernatural sort of gothic story, but ends up locating all that magic in a single man--which is its own kind of thrill.

Actually, now that I think about it, I did think that the siren was some mechanized thing that Erik had stuck beneath the lake. Mannequin from hell, or something like.

And then I decided that no, it was Erik.

I can definitely see the possibility. I think Leroux wanted us to, too.

I hesitate to share my thoughts on this since its really be a long time since I really focused on PotO. I guess the last time was when that godsawful movie came out and before that I hadn't read Leroux for a good few years. For me the Leroux book has always been rather like Dracula, not particularly good (and downright bad in places) but it spawned sometime much greater than itself over the years. I love the concept of Dracula and many of the movies, I hate the book. I don't really hate the Leroux book, I'm just not engaged by it enough to read it more than once every 5 years or so. When I've run out of anything else to read (except Frankenstein which I've never been able to finish at all *yawn*).

I guess I'm saying I'm not really 'in' the phandom anymore and can no longer quote chapter and verse like i could when I was fourteen and could sing the whole score through in a single sitting.

Obviously the siren means a lot to me and I've always had a link with water and evil creatures so the reference really jumped out at me when I first read it (in a translation that definitely supported the 'its a real character' theory). I would say I always considered the Other One to be Philippe, him being the other Chagny brother and all. And I understand the whole point of the siren possibly meaning alarm and 'it' being incorrectly translated as 'she'. I also get (to a point) the idea of the siren being an split personality thing. It makes sense in that Erik is clearly barking mad he has mentioned the siren's trick before. On the whole anima thing I'll say I think psychology is universally shit and I hate interpreting books in such a way*. I don't hold with that kind of stuff, especially with pulp penny dreadful horror books**.

So yes I see the validity of all the other interpretations of the character. My position is that no one in the book ever proves she's NOT there. In much the same way that I won't accept that theres not something wierd living in Loch Ness until someone drains that whole lake, I choose to believe the siren is there until someone proves to me she's not. Erik could have just been in the water at the same time as her. Just cos he can sing through a reed (is that actually possible?) and sneaks up on Daroga, how does that prove theres not something else in the water with him? How did he learn the reed trick in the first place?

*shrug*

I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe.

* especially when books have been written solely for their 'deeper' meaning, like Remains of the Day which everyone interprets so deeply as being meaningful and touching whilst missing the most obvious interpretation of them all - that it is the single most boring and pointless book ever written. I really want that whole term and a half of my life back. I'd also like some kind of operation so I can un-read that book and cleanse it from my brain.

** I also don't hold with maths using letters. I am a philistine :p

Also I agree with all of

stefanie_bean's first paragraph.

And i missed out the steampunk mechanical siren concept which I think is also valid and awesome. Though whenever I think of it I end up thinking of the wierd thing in the pit in that movie Toys.

For me the Leroux book has always been rather like Dracula, not particularly good (and downright bad in places) but it spawned sometime much greater than itself over the years.

I agree. It may not seem like it, since I'm "researching" and writing about it, but my interest lies is what came out of it. and I don't think "perfect" or even great works spawn quite the need to revise and revisit that flawed ones do.

And I understand the whole point of the siren possibly meaning alarm and 'it' being incorrectly translated as 'she'.

I still haven't found a "she" in the text. In the scene I quoted, I even went to the French version. Needs more study. Even if it was translated as she, I can still see that as being interpretable as Erik playing with reality--or, as he mentions later, hallucinating.

On the whole anima thing I'll say I think psychology is universally shit and I hate interpreting books in such a way*.

I don't either--except to the extent that psychology is sometimes deliberately used in fiction. It also gives people a convenient name/handle for certain common concepts, which is why I mentioned it. It's shorthand.

I choose to believe the siren is there until someone proves to me she's not.

It seems to me that you should just go ahead and believe; as far as I'm concerned, it has been proven for the reasons below, but my intent was never to convince you otherwise. The discussion is interesting, and I don't think there's anything wrong with maintaining your belief. I'm not the type of person who would choose to believe in Nessie, either. But I'm sure I have other things I cling to.

Erik could have just been in the water at the same time as her. Just cos he can sing through a reed (is that actually possible?) and sneaks up on Daroga, how does that prove theres not something else in the water with him?

The fact that he explained it, and that in leaning towards the sound the Daroga's grabbed by Erik.

How did he learn the reed trick in the first place?

From the Tonkin pirates, he says, who taught him to breath through it and inspired what he called "the siren trick."

So maybe it's not proven for you, but for me it appears conclusive. But like I said, it's just an abstract argument, and I think the range of possibilities is interesting. I said elsewhere, I think, that for me it is more interesting to believe that Erik has created this being in his mind and acts out her role than to think there's an actual thing--but that's just a difference in psychology and what we're looking for.

Oooooh, even more insightful interpretations to take with me next time I read Leroux.... Lovely, thanks for this. The Greek sirens are female, and their song lure humans to their death. Erik is male, and his voice is his instrument that enthrals and enchants. The Swedish water spirit "Näcken" is male, but needs a violin to lure and seduce his victims. But these destructive and seductive creatures have music in common.

My avvie is a Swedish stamp showing a stylized "Näcken" and "Bäckahästen", the river horse, another dangerous watery mythological creature.

You're welcome! Thanks for visiting. I will definitely be looking into the mythology of the Näcken, now that you mention them. Because yes, there is a connection here between music, seduction and water. Not to mention death.

I've posted about Näcken at phantomoftheopera.com, in the thread about Folk music connections to Leroux and the diabolical properties of violins, starting at post #7 here:

http://www.phantomoftheopera.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4516&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

Also check post #67, about the annual Näcken contest in Sweden, an annual competition in the province of Jämtland. You have to sit naked in a stream and play a selected tune on a violin. Here's a site about it. More info here, too: http://www.xn--nck-qla.nu/historik.htm

In post #73 I give an account of a midnight performance by "Näcken" at a music festival a couple of years ago.

Last but not least, I shall shamelessly plug my fan fic where ALW Christine meets Näcken....
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3246286/1/A_Midsummer_Nights_Dream

Happy reading...

Lovely! Thank you. I do mean to go through all those threads; this is really useful!

Please do.

This avvie is a waterlily, "näckros" or Näcken's rose in Swedish. People believed he could hide under the leaves. The pink waterlilies in Monet's paintings actually come from a plant from a lake in Sweden.

That is fascinating. It's amazing where names come from. I know you've got a lot of this knowledge from reading Stef's journal; don't be surprised sometime if I hit you up for some sources or info, if that's all right.

If "hit you up" means "Ask", just fire away. You don't mean "beat up" do you? ;-)

As for the information sources, I think in some cases where Swedish mythology, folk traditions etc are concerned, then I might be Stef's original source for some of the things she's posted about on these subjects. I'm Swedish, and have posted about Swedish folk music, traditions, mythology etc mostly at poto, and have used some of this background (including Christine Daaé's Swedish background based on Kristina Nilsson) in my fan fics.

Anyway, if you have any questions, do feel free to ask.

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The Siren of the Opera: a mystery never fully explained

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