Siege of Paris

The Siege of Paris, which took place during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871, is a historical event that Gaston Leroux weaves into the background of The Phantom of the Opera. The novel explicitly states that the events of 1870 interrupted work on the Paris Opera House just as it was about to be prosecuted most vigorously. This interruption was not merely a delay in construction; it transformed the unfinished building into a vast military storehouse, filled with a heterogeneous mass of goods. After the siege, the building fell into the hands of the Commune, and its roof was turned into a balloon station. The damage done, however, was slight, allowing the building to be completed later. This historical interlude is crucial to the novel's geography, as it explains why the cellars of the Opera contain the remnants of a state prison and the secret passage known as the Communists' Road, which Erik later uses to move unseen and to imprison his victims.

Historical Background and the Opera's Construction

The novel provides a detailed account of the Opera's construction, which began in 1861 under the Second French Empire and was finished under the French Third Republic. The foundation was laid exceptionally deep and strong because it was well known that water would be met with, and the stage arrangements required a scene fifty feet high to be lowered on its frame. To keep the excavation dry, eight steam-powered pumps worked day and night from March 2 to October 13. The floor of the cellar was covered with layers of concrete, cement, and bitumen, and the wall included an outer coffer-dam, a brick wall, a coat of cement, and a wall proper over a yard thick. After this, the whole was filled with water so that sediment would close any interstices. Twelve years elapsed before the completion of the building, and during that time it was demonstrated that the precautions taken secured absolute impermeability and solidity. This engineering feat is what allowed the underground lake to exist beneath the Opera, a space that Erik would later claim as his own.

The Siege and the Commune

The events of 1870 interrupted work on the Opera just as it was about to be prosecuted most vigorously. During the siege, the new Opera House was converted into a vast military storehouse and filled with a heterogeneous mass of goods. After the siege, the building fell into the hands of the Commune, and the roof was turned into a balloon station. The damage done, however, was slight. This period of upheaval is directly linked to the novel's secret passages. The Persian's narrative reveals that Erik found, all prepared for him, a secret passage long known to himself alone and contrived at the time of the Paris Commune to allow the jailers to convey their prisoners straight to the dungeons that had been constructed for them in the cellars. The Federates had occupied the opera-house immediately after the 18 March and had made a starting-place right at the top for their Mongolfier balloons, which carried their incendiary proclamations to the departments, and a state prison right at the bottom. This historical layer explains why the cellars contain the Communists' Road and the dungeon where Erik later locks Raoul de Chagny.

Narrative Significance

The Siege of Paris and the Commune are not merely historical footnotes; they are essential to the novel's plot and atmosphere. The underground lake, which is a central location in the story, was left by the engineers who had to exhaust the water during construction. The novel notes that all the water had to be exhausted, and the amount pumped up represented the area of the courtyard of the Louvre and a height half as deep again as the towers of Notre Dame. Nevertheless, the engineers had to leave a lake. This lake becomes the setting for Erik's house, the House on the Lake, where he imprisons Christine Daae and where the final confrontation takes place. The Communists' Road and the dungeon are also products of this historical period, and they serve as the route by which Raoul and the Persian attempt to rescue Christine. The novel's epilogue confirms that the secret passage of the Communists, the planking of which is falling to pieces in parts, and the trap-door through which Raoul and the Persian penetrated into the cellars of the opera-house were discovered by the narrator. In the Communists' dungeon, the narrator noticed numbers of initials traced on the walls by the unfortunate people confined in it, including an "R" and a "C," which stand for Raoul de Chagny. Thus, the Siege of Paris and the Commune provide the historical foundation for the novel's most dramatic and secret spaces, making the ghost's domain a product of real historical events.