A small brass wire cage with its door open and a paper bird perched outside it on a gray table.

Original artwork, not a still

Gaston Leroux

I was much too unsophisticated to give the devil a hold on me. The Phantom of the Opera

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker says that a lack of sophistication kept the devil from gaining a hold. This is the passage’s account of being beyond a particular influence, not proof of a supernatural cause. The final line retains the title.

Context reviewed

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