Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings! Today I am doing a bonus continuation of my Phantom of the Opera Gothic Romance Week, with a post about why everyone in the Phantom Fandom (or more appropriately Phandom) hates Raoul.
Raoul is the Viscount de Chagny and he is introduced alongside his brother, the Count. It is quite obvious from his first interactions that Raoul is not taken very seriously. He also is quickly shown to be very whiny and entitled, wanting what he wants when he wants it. I get the sense that before the events of the plot no one had ever told this man no and that he never had to try at anything, with everything handed to him on a golden platter due to his having been born with that silver spoon in his mouth.
Essentially, Raoul is everything that Erik is not. He was born wealthy and titled. His whole life path was laid out before him from a young age. The most interesting thing that likely happened during his childhood was meeting Christine. That is my theory as to why her memory has stuck with him so deeply. While everything in his life was sunshine and roses, it did lead to boredom and longing in the young Raoul. When he met a young and sweet girl, the daughter of a musician who lived as a starving artist with his patrons, he saw a different side of life. He desperately wanted Christine’s attention and her love, even though he believed that marriage to a poor girl with aspirations of fame on the Opera stage was far beneath him!
When he saw Christine on the stage, he knew that his childhood feelings for her had never faded. When he finally gets up the courage to go to her dressing room and speak to her, she chooses to pretend to not remember him. This was an act of not wanting to anger Erik or make him jealous of this good-looking and wealthy, but utterly vapid and useless boy! It is after this that they eventually reconnect, and when he follows her to the town where they had met (when she was on a short holiday there) they begin to rekindle their romance. Even here, Raoul is shown as a simpering puppy dog, willing to follow Christine anywhere, but with the childlike and immature need to be the only thing that mattered to her! Raoul would not have even been able to help himself or Christine in the Phantom situation if it were not for the Persian, a truly underrated and often forgotten character (who appears in almost none of the adaptations). The Persian is the true hero in helping to rescue Christine, although she does more of the rescuing in choosing to stay with Erik before Erik lets everyone go, and Raoul is merely the spoiled child who follows the Persian in searching for his lost love!
I think we all loathe Raoul because he is immature and unwilling to grow up. Beyond that, we loathe him because he is whiny and so entitled that he believes the world should revolve around him. Finally, we loathe him because he does not know the value of work or putting any effort into anything! All of these things make him unworthy of Christine and a terrible romantic hero. I hope you have enjoyed reading my post describing why I hate Raoul so much as a character, and why Erik was so much better. Did you like Raoul? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services! I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon! Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/
Further Reading
- The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux