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The chief machinist Joseph Buquet is the Phantom’s first fatal victim. Although not much is known about Buquet’s life, it is likely that, after describing the Phantom’s appearance in detail, he discovered Erik’s secret passageway behind the Roi de Lahore scenery. After entering it, Buquet must have fallen in the torture room, where Erik then killed him with a Punjab cord, later trying to make this death seem like a suicide. The strange circumstances surrounding Buquet’s death—since he dies by hanging yet no cord can be found—convinces the narrator that it is not a natural death, but must be related to the other strange events taking place at the Opera.
Joseph Buquet Quotes in The Phantom of the Opera
The The Phantom of the Opera quotes below are all either spoken by Joseph Buquet or refer to Joseph Buquet. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
“He is extraordinarily thin and his black coat hangs loosely off his skeletal frame. His eyes are so deep-set that you cannot make out his pupils: all you can see are two big black holes, as in a skull. His skin is stretched over his bone structure like a drumhead, and is not white but an ugly yellow. His nose is almost non-existent when seen sideways; and this absence is a horrible thing to behold. As for his hair, it consists of no more than three or four long dark strands on his forehead and behind his ears.”
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Joseph Buquet is one of the early witnesses to describe the Phantom of the Opera’s appearance. Although his testimony differs from that of Papin, the fireman, it is later proven to be a correct depiction of Erik’s body. Buquet’s description is particularly terrifying not only because it portrays a body at the limit between life and death, incomparable with any other human face, but also because Buquet has not fallen prey to the general paranoia at the Opera. Rather, the narrator describes Buquet as a serious, practical man, unlikely to let his imagination roam. Therefore, his testimony is particularly credible Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia
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Joseph Buquet Character Timeline in The Phantom of the Opera
The timeline below shows where the character Joseph Buquet appears in The Phantom of the Opera. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
The narrator notes that this description fits the one that Joseph Buquet, the chief stage machinist, shared. According to Buquet, the ghost is skeletal, has neither eyes...
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...usually scared of fire. Although this description did not necessarily conform to the ballerinas’ and Buquet’s depiction of the ghost, people concluded that the ghost might have several heads.
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Little Meg Giry then notes that Joseph Buquet should keep quiet, because her mother, Mme Giry, says the ghost should be left in...
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...calls her daughter, wild with fear and excitement. To everyone’s horror, she announces that Joseph Buquet has been found hanging down the stage in the cellar. The machinists who found the...
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Chapter 2
...performance, while warning the excited ballerinas not to tell the outgoing Opera directors about Joseph Buquet’s death, which would agitate them too much on their last night. The narrator notes that...
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...workmen carrying a stretcher. He then discovers that the man underneath the stretcher is Joseph Buquet, who was found hanging below the stage, between elements of stage scenery, by a scene...
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Chapter 3
...once the strange man speaks that Debienne and Poligny notice him. The man says that Buquet’s death is not natural. Shocked to learn about Buquet’s death, the two ex-directors turn pale...
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Chapter 21
...mezzanine, through a secret passage behind the Le Roi de Lahore cloth—the very spot where Buquet was found hanging. As Raoul and the Persian keep on moving, the Persian taps a...
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...and exclaims in horror that this is a Punjab cord—the instrument that must have killed Buquet. The two men then begin to examine the walls around them and, as they realize...
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Chapter 25
...someone must have already undergone this ordeal, and assumes that it must have been Joseph Buquet. The Persian tries to reassure Raoul, so that he might stay calm and search for...
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