Wednesday, January 23, 2008

The Compare and Contrast essay of The Phantom of the Opera

There were a few differences between the movie and the book The Phantom of the Opera. The first distinction was at the beginning. The second was the characteristics of some of the characters. The last discrepancy was the story behind the “Angel of Music”. While those were different, there were some similar things such as the Phantom. The book and the movie of The Phantom of the Opera contained many differences and similarities, but because of those dissimilarities and comparisons, both the movie and the novel were a success.
At the beginning of the book, it started with researches and the author’s notes on the Phantom of the Opera and legends of the Phantom Ghost. On the other hand, the movie started with an auction making the whole movie like a flashback. Since the book started with the explanations and the legends on the Phantom, it was easy to pick up what was happening in the novel quickly. Knowing a little about the character drastically helped to understand what the phantom was going through and what was happening at the Opera House. The movie started out in a confusing way at first, but as the story goes on and after learning about the characters, it because easy to follow just like the novel.
The second differences are in the characters. In the book, Christine had confidence and self-esteem. However, in the movie, she was shy around Raoul when he first showed up at the Opera House to introduce himself and she admitted to her friend, that Raoul and she were childhood sweethearts; while in the book, their childhood contained one sided love on Raoul. Furthermore, when the new managers got the letter from the Phantom, they did not regard the letter as a joke like in the book. In the movie, unlike in the book, they immediately became ferocious and ripped the letter. These actions were shocking and every unusual from the book to the film.
The last difference was the narrative of “Angel of Music”. The book almost had a whole chapter to explain the Angel of Music, but in the movie, it was barely stated. The movie briefly said who the Angel of Music is. Yet in the book, it told us about Christine’s father and along with more insights on Raoul and Christine’s childhood. Because of this, the value of the Angel of Music dropped a little. Unlike in the movie, in the novel the Angel of Music was described with Christine’s deceased father who increased the significance of the Angel of Music.
Even though there were some differences there were some similarities. One of the similarities was felling around the phantom. In both the movie and the novel, the phantom symbolized the reality to what is not. By wearing the mask, the phantom was able to get sympathy from Christine, but without the mask, he was just a horribly deformed man. With the mask, the movie and the novel were able to put an illusion on him as a dark and mysterious man. The movie did an excellent work on making the aura around the Phantom so similar to the book and that brought out some of the feelings you get by reading the novel. The movie was able to bring out the theme of theme of the book which was appearance versus the reality.
The differences and the similarities of the book to the novel of The Phantom of the Opera made both of them a success. Some of the differences were the beginning, characters and the tale of Angel of Music. One of the similarities was the phantom and what he represents.

3 comments:

brave new world reader said...

4.5/6
I really like your ideas which show the you have a good understanding of the novel. However some of your points were all over the place and not concise which took away from the overall impact of the book.

Micah Schroeder

Unknown said...

You included some great details! If you extended your vocabulary throughout the essay, perhaps use some synonyms, your essay would settle better in the mind of the reader. For example, you repeated the words: similarities & differences a lot in your essay. You could exchange those words with synonyms or reword some parts to use those words less.

4/6
-Shadi S.

Anonymous said...

Although you recognize what is and isn't necessarily important and describe these points well, I feel like you could have definitely gone deeper. Why was the feeling around the phantom more important to preserve in the movie than the basic personality of Christine? How do the differences between the book and movie make them both better? I'd recommend redoing the conclusion, and possibly the intro.
Mark: 4.5/6
Carolyn
PS. "Discrepancy" - nice word!