Woo-ie, there’s a lot going on here! As you can tell by the four videos for this text (Phantom and Hannibal the Carthaginian, Phantom and Faust, Phantom and Hannibal the Cannibal, Phantom and Beauty and the Beast), there’s a lot you can say about allusions with Phantom of the Opera. For a novel that’s seemingly only popular because of its musical, it really is a great starting place for diving into how an allusion can be utilized or understood in a text.

1. Analysis: Can you think of another text that combines a variety of allusions and weaves them together? What is the text, and what are the allusions? Are they working in unison or are they conflicting? Either way, do the allusions add nuance to the text or muddle its messages and themes?

2. Composition: Pretty straight forward - write a short story (or a few paragraphs, for the comments section) or a poem in which you pull two (or more, but don’t make it unwieldy) different allusions together. Have them conflict, have them align, have them challenge and develop each other, have at it!