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"12. This last one is an aspect that I had problems with in the play also. Christine is in love with the phantom and all that he's done for her. But that stops as soon as she sees he has a scarred face. What a shallow creature she is. The truth of not liking him should come after he does horrid things to others. Not because of his looks. She does come around to tell him she doesn't mind his face after all by kissing him, but she only does that to save Raoul."
You and I feel wildly different about the movie, and I'm not up for debating it 'cause I can easily understand why a person wouldn't like it. But I'll only take issue with this particular comment because I think, even in the film, her character is far more sympathetic, and less shallow, than you think she is. Especially since, in the book, it's very very clear that this is a man who has manipulated her for months (in the movie - years - which was just ridiculous). She truly believed he was another being. And from her perspective, at least in the book, when she saw he had physical form, was expecting him to have a face to match. Shallow? Maybe. But when you expect one thing and what you get is a man in his 50's with sunken in eyes, no nose, and a horribly deformed mouth, reacting with a bit of shock and revulsion just makes sense to me.
She rapidly recovers herself enough to care about the pain he's in. And she proceeds to stay in his lair with him for *2 weeks*.
Shallowness is an issue, but I also think it's just human nature to react violently to that kind of shock or difference in appearance.
I believe she remains sympathetic towards him througout her ordeeal, though. And does love both him and Raoul for different reasons. One of my favorite moments in the book is when Raoul basically asks her whether she'd care for him (Raoul) if the Phantom was handsome? And she basically asks him not to ask her something she's not willing to ask herself.
The actual writing was *far* better than my paraphrasing.
As for the play, I really didn't think she behaved so superficially. I really felt that aside from her initial revulsion and disappointment, she was just painfully hurt by the fact that her Angel turned out to be some talented, manipulative man, flawed man.
Kinda like finding out the Wizard of Oz is just some crackpot from your home town, yo'.
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