zellephantom

{Raoul leaned against the panel to ease his pain. His heart, which had seemed gone for ever, returned to his breast and was throbbing loudly. The whole passage echoed with its beating and Raoul's ears were deafened. Surely, if his heart continued to make such a noise, they would hear it inside, they would open the door and the young man would be turned away in disgrace.}

Poor heartbroken Raoul. Feelings can be intense, especially young love. One minute, you're on cloud nine and the next you're down in the dumps. His current feelings remind me of this line from Charles Dance's Phantom in the 90s miniseries: "When you sing, I live in the Heavens. When you do not, down below."

I really want to know why his heart (presumably referring to romantic feelings?) had seemed "gone forever". Did he catch feelings for a nice foreign girl on his trip around the world, only to be rejected and forever parted from her? Is he just numb from Philippe's attempts to find him a girl in Paris? Had he buried his feelings in pursuit of a Navy career?

{What a position for a Chagny! To be caught listening behind a door!}

And yet he's not leaving... And he eavesdrops even more later in the novel, if I'm not mistaken...
Maybe this is just his mental interjection of 'What would Philippe do?', the answer being 'find a nice girl to flirt with while you're on furlough but don't marry her if she's not of high enough social status ALSO DON'T EAVESDROP AND SHAME THE FAMILY NAME'.

{The man's voice spoke again: "Are you very tired?"

"Oh, to-night I gave you my soul and I am dead!" Christine replied.

"Your soul is a beautiful thing, child," replied the grave man's voice, "and I thank you. No emperor ever received so fair a gift. THE ANGELS WEPT TONIGHT."}

Oh, my E/C shipper heart is bursting with feels!

But I'm still wondering if Raoul, due to his worries about his heartbeat being too loud, missed part of the conversation after "I sing only for you". Or maybe the Phantom is just trying to segue away from a topic that is clearly making Christine upset. (Now I have the mental image of the Phantom riding around on a Segway. Enjoy!)

Oooh, change in descriptions. First, he was masterful, and now he is merely grave (and probably feeling old and solemn and tired and reverent all at once).

I should also write a meta about the Phantom calling Christine 'Angel' in ALW, despite him being the one in the Angel role.