Later in the story Christine learns to value Erik as a person. The Phantom of the Opera is a French novel by the writer Gaston Leroux that was originally published in 1909 as a serialization in a magazine called Le. An example is the character of Madame Giry, who refuses to mistreat the Phantom and instead befriends him. Some of the characters come to recognize this fact and sympathize with his plight. Although Erik has a facial deformity that caused him to be cast out by his parents, he is a highly intelligent and highly emotional being. The "Phantom of the Opera" encourages people to refrain from judging others based on their appearance. The Phantom of the Opera is the story of a deformed musical composer who is shunned by society and haunts the Paris Opera House. For example, he says: "Know that I am built up of death from head to foot and that this is a corpse that loves you and adores you and will never, never leave you!" Erik's form of love is contrasted with the mutually reciprocated love between Christine and Raoul. Based on Gaston Lerouxs horror novel, it tells the enticing story of The Phantom, who haunts the stage of the Paris Opera and subsequently falls in love with a. These two concepts meet in the form of Erik (the Phantom), who has a fierce, one-sided and possessive love for Christine. It also highlights the need for every human to be loved. Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel, The Phantom of the Opera, follows a narrator’s investigation into the actions and identity of the mysterious Phantom of the Opera. One of the main moral teachings of the story is that love between two people cannot be forced.