The Phantom of the Opera: Chapters 5 & 6

Storytime for Grownups

Faith Moore continues her audio reading of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, focusing on Chapters 5 and 6. She sets a cozy, immersiv

Key takeaways

• The Phantom's presence is increasingly psychological and theatrical, blending menace with performative elegance.
• Madame Giry's belief in the ghost adds credibility to his existence despite her exaggerated demeanor.

Main topics

• The Phantom's psychological manipulation
• Madame Giry's role as gatekeeper to the supernatural

Notable quotes

"It will be Faust on Saturday. Let us both see the performance from Box 5 on the Grand Tier."

Conclusion

As the managers confront their own fears in Box 5, they realize their experien

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hello, and welcome to Storytime for Grownups. I'm Faith Moore, and this season we're reading The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. Each episode, I'll read a few chapters from the book, pausing from time to time to give brief explanations so it's easier to follow along. It's like an audiobook with built-in notes. So brew a pot of tea, find a cozy chair, and settle in. It's storytime! Hello, welcome back. I don't know about where you are, but where I am, we had our first fall day today. It's not going to last. It's going to go back to being warm, but we got a little taste of what's coming and I loved it. It was so wonderful. It was wonderful to walk around in the cool weather. My cup of tea tasted better. I always drink hot tea, even in the summer. I just love. tea that much, but when it starts to get cool, then my tea feels so cozy and warm, and I love it, and that's how it should feel right now reading this book. And I hope that wherever you are, even if it's hot, there is that, just that little feeling of fall, that feeling of being wrapped up in your blanket, sitting in your cozy chair, that pot of tea steaming on the little table next to you, that Cup and saucer waiting, the fire crackling in the fireplace, all of that is what I imagine when I think about this book and this fall. And I imagine that we're all there together. I imagine being there with you. And so even if that is only in my mind, and even if it's only in your mind, if we just imagine it together, then maybe we're kind of there together somehow. I don't know. Maybe that's crazy, but that's how I feel. That's what I think. So that's what I hope is going on. for you right now. It's certainly what's going on for me. So welcome. Today we are going to continue The Phantom of the Opera. We are going to be reading chapters five and six today. I'm really excited. And I don't really have any new announcements today. All the usual things apply. If you've been enjoying the show, please tap the five stars. If you have an extra second, please leave a positive review in your podcast player. Tell everyone you know about this show and this book so that you can have lots of people to talk to about this crazy wild ride that we're on. If you'd like an automatic kind of built-in group of people to talk to, you should definitely scroll into the show notes and click the link about the drawing room, our online community. join up and there will be all kinds of friends waiting for you to talk about this book and all the books we've done and books in general. And if you are available on September 30th, that's a Wednesday at 8pm Eastern, you can join us over in the drawing room for Tea Time, which is like a voice chat where we talk together and talk about the book, talk about your questions, whatever you want, we chat. I think it's a... bunch of fun. I always have a great time. So that's September 30th at 8pm Eastern over in our online community, The Drawing Room. Speaking of places that you can go to get to chat with each other and with me, if you happen to be in the Nashville, Tennessee or Franklin, Tennessee area. On October 3rd at 5pm, you will find me if you wander into the landmark booksellers. I will be there with my brother Spencer Clavin, and we will be discussing my new novel, which is called Wooing Jane. There is a link about that in the show notes, and there is a link to pre-order the book. So if you are not able to join us in Nashville, I would still love it if you would pick up a copy of the book, pre-order it. It comes out in October, so we're getting there. So I would love it if you would pre-order a copy of the book that is... is in the show notes as well. Okay, let's get right into this episode now. So last time we read chapter four, as I say today, we're going to read chapters five and six. So let's begin by reminding ourselves what happened in chapter four. Then I've got some comments and questions to read, and we'll talk for a bit, and then we'll get into the chapters. So here is the recap. Okay, so where we left off, we began by learning more about the new managers of the opera house. We have Montcharmain, who is friendly but doesn't know anything about music, and we have Richard, who is a little surlier, but he is a musician and a composer. One morning, Richard receives a letter in his office, which is written in the same weird red ink as the memorandum that the old manager showed them. It talks about the opera, and it says that Christine Daae is a much better singer than La Carlotta. Then he reminds them that box five is supposed to be kept empty for him, and he requests that they don't sell it anymore. And he threatens that something bad will happen if they don't do what he says. The note is signed by the opera ghost. Montcharmain and Richard think that the old managers are still joking with them, and they reserve the box for the old managers. They don't pay attention to whether or not the old managers showed up, but the next day they get another note from the opera ghost saying that he very much enjoyed the performance, and he asks for his salary. They also get a letter from the old managers saying that they don't want the box, and also that they shouldn't sell it because it belongs to the ghost. Montcharmain and Richard are very annoyed by what they believe to be a prolonged joke, and they sell the box again. that night. The next morning, Montchemin and Richard receive a report that the people in Box 5 had to be asked to leave because they kept talking and laughing. The managers ask to speak to the house manager, who tells them that the people in Box 5 heard a voice inside telling them that the box was occupied. The managers then ask to speak to Madame Giry, the box attendant, who is also Meg Giry's mother. She arrives and seems to have a very high opinion of herself and her place in the opera, and she explains that the ghost is real. He often comes to Box 5 and... and she hands him his program. She says that sometimes there's a lady with him, which she knows because he asks for a footstool, and usually he leaves Madame Giry a tip and sometimes a present. But she never sees him. She only hears his voice, which she says is kind and masculine. Mon Chemin and Richard decide to fire Madame Giry because she's obviously crazy, and they make a plan to spend the next performance in box five themselves. All right, so I'm going to read three comments today. The first one comes from our online community, The Drawing Room. This person goes by the handle at... Acher. He says, I'm liking Faith's reading of the ghost. I got the sense of someone putting on airs and trying to be civilized, though lacking if the handwriting is any indication, but barely containing his anger. And at least for the box, it seems very spoiled. The second one comes from Peter. He says, I wonder if the new managers are starting to think that something more is going on than just the old managers playing a practical joke, because now all these things are escalating and getting much weirder. And the last one comes from Ellen. She says, I enjoyed chapter four. The red writing from the opera ghost reminds me of blood. It's so spooky and wonderful. Also, the over-the-top Madame Giry was a silly contrast. I liked the image of the feathers on her hat waving in indignation. Right. So, yes, exactly. Ellen is completely correct here. This is a really important element of the book, I think. We talked about it a bit in the introduction episode, but now we are actually witnessing it firsthand in a variety of ways. This book is both really spooky, really creepy. and really funny. We saw this in the first chapter as well with the opera dancers and the guy falling down the stairs and everything, but also the ghost really showing up and Joseph Bouquet ending up dead. And we saw it again here in chapter four. But it's not just the contrast between the ghost's letters and Madame Jury's ridiculous bonnet, although it is that, but the ghost himself. is actually funny and spooky at the same time, I think. So let's take another look now at the ghost because we get a lot more of him in chapter four. There's still just glimpses. I mean, most of it is from Madame Giry's perspective. Some of it comes from the letters that he sent. He doesn't actually appear in this chapter at all, but we do get more of a sense of him here. And as Acher says, there's a kind of... strange gentility to him, a kind of narcissism, a sort of spoiled child quality. It's not necessarily the sort of persona you would expect from a ghost. It's sort of... too human, I think. There's too much nuance and eccentricity to it to be a ghost, except that in so many ways, he behaves like a ghost. He appears out of nowhere. He doesn't appear, but he's clearly there since people hear his voice. He has the power to control the people in box five. So what is going on? We don't know yet, but we do get these additional glimpses of the ghost. And I don't know about you, but I actually really love them. There's a kind of like almost chattiness to the ghost. He's making these really kind of audacious demands, right? This salary and the private box for free. But he's writing to the managers as if he is this kind of cultured, somewhat sardonic, very nonchalant Paris gentleman. Here's what he says. I should like to take advantage of the fact that you have not yet turned Christine Daae out of doors by hearing her this evening in the part of Sybil, as that of Margarita has been forbidden her since her triumph of the other evening. And I will ask you not to dispose of my box today, nor on the following days, for I cannot end this letter without telling you how disagreeably surprised I have been once or twice to hear on arriving at the opera that my box had been sold at the box office by your orders. So it's... It's sort of like this very upper class, sophisticated, jaded sort of voice, the voice of a man who's kind of bored with the world, but also wants things done exactly his way and expects them to be done simply because he asks them to be done. But like Acker says, this tone of the sophisticated, entitled Paris gentleman, it doesn't quite hold because there's also a sort of petty sarcasm to him, which is really very funny, but it's also, it also kind of sounds like a petulant child or something. He says, of course, when I use these words, I do not mean to imply them to La Carlotta, who sings like a squirt and who ought never to have been allowed to leave the Ambassadors and the Café Jacquin, nor to La Sorelli, who owes her success mainly to the coach builders, nor to little Jean, who dances like a calf in a field. And in another letter, he says, Thanks. Charming evening. Die exquisite. Choruses want waking up. Carlotta a splendid commonplace instrument. I mean, it's funny, right? The ghost is funny. But also, we know that he's dangerous. We believe that he killed Joseph Bouquet or had something to do with his death. We feel that he's capable of retaliating against the managers if they don't give him box five. So these really very funny sort of sarcastic barbs about the various performers, they have this undertone of menace, which is kind of thrilling. So it's the humor and the danger all at once. And there is definitely a childish quality to him as well. For those of you who have or have had a toddler, this line from The Ghost ought to sound very familiar. He says, if you wish to live in peace, you must not begin by taking away my private box, right? It's written in all caps in the book. And it's kind of like a temper tantrum, right? He's like, no, don't take away my box. You can kind of imagine him like throwing his food splattered spoon across the room or something like that. Except that while a toddler's threat is idle. We get the sense that the ghost threats are not. Because when the box is sold, the people in it end up being so unruly that they have to be kicked out. Here's what the inspector tells the managers. The moment they entered the box, they came out again and called the box keeper who asked them what they wanted. They said, look in the box. There's no one there. Is there? No, said the woman. Well, said they, when we went in, we heard a voice saying that the box was taken. Okay, so not... in itself very scary. And actually, again, it's kind of funny. These people like running out of the box because they thought they heard a voice and these other people not believing them and everyone sort of running around in confusion. But also, remember, the ghost seems to have killed someone, or at least that's the implication. So this isn't actually a toddler throwing a tantrum because he has real power. But he sounds like a toddler when he yells like he did in the letter and when he's like, this box is taken. Whatever. And The other funny thing is the kind of juxtaposition of all of this talk of ghosts and the things the ghost does in box five with the incredibly practical and material characters of Richard and Montcharmin, the managers. And to Peter's point, I think the managers are still very much attributing a corporeal cause to all of these shenanigans. But I think by the end of the chapter, they do think that there may be more to it than simply a joke from the former managers. But I think they definitely don't think all this stuff has a supernatural origin, because I think they are the least likely