When I tell people that my favorite character in Phantom is Meg Giry, they laugh at me, but I think Meg is a more complex and important character than people give her credit for. I hope this essay will show her true depth and help her become a character fans appreciate and love, as well as explaining why she is my role model. We first see Meg dancing in the Hannibal ballet. She must be the best dancer because she is instantly noticed by the managers, who ask who she is. Yet even though she is the best and her friend Christine isn't such a good dancer, forgeting her steps, Meg has no hesitation in putting Christine forward for the lead role. She is not at all jealous, even though she could be. She volunteers Christine because she knows her friend can sing the lead but it shy. If it wasn't for Meg at that point, Christine might have kept quiet and not have got the part. After Christine's success Meg goes straight to her friend to congratulate her, but also because she is worried about her. She skips ballet practise to stay with Christine even though her mother Mme. Giry is strict and she knows she will get told off. She is concerned for Christine. She is a true friend. She has also probably not had an easy life. She is being brought up by her mother but she has no father. Mme. Giry is a dominating and shady figure and it can't have been easy for Meg to grow up with a mother like her. I admire her for that, and for the strong friendship she shows Christine. Later in the Managers scenes again she is worried about her friend again, and she talks to Raoul and tells him all she can to help him about Christine. I think Meg's costumes say a lot about her. In the first act when we see her she is nearly always in white contrasting with her mother in black. She is the youthful, innocent side of the Giry pair. Then in Masquerade we see she has been forced to grow up a bit as she shares in Christine's trials, as her costume is bright pink and black. Pink is innocent but not like white, it shows the beginnings of adult knowledge, and of course black is the color of her mother Mme. Giry. Meg is shown as growing as a character through this. In Point of No Return Meg's turn to adulthood is shown fully. She is cast as a rustic wench who goes to bed with Piangi's character for money, and she dances and flirts naturally. Then she is the one who pulls back the curtain and reveals the corpse of the dead Piangi for all the world to see, thus revealing also the mortal danger her best friend Christine has been plunged into with the Phantom's descent. She does not fear for her life as she tells her mother that she will accompany her and Raoul to the lair to help her friend. Then although Mme. Giry tells her it is too dangerous and to remain, she makes her bid for freedom and individuality, breaking away from the teenagehood bond she has to her mother, descending into the lair against commands. Notice that her mother points the way to Raoul but says it is as far as she can go and runs away, but the intrepid traveler through life Meg is not afraid, she makes it all the way to the lair, and ahead of the mob too. It is she who pulls the Phantom's cloak off his throne and reveals the white mask to the audience. The importance of this cannot be stressed too much. Meg (now in pants not a skirt) has grown to full adulthood and even more than Christine, she has uncovered the myseteries of the darkness and holds up the mask. The symbolism of this is obvious. We know that Meg is the true heroine.
