🕯 Madame Giry and the Monkey Music Box — A Silent Gesture of Loyalty

In the opening auction scene of The Phantom of the Opera, Madame Giry quietly bids 25 pounds for the monkey music box with cymbals. The script never explains her motive, but her determination is widely interpreted as an act of personal significance. Many believe it reflects a wish to return the cherished object to the Phantom, who kept it in his lair as a symbol of memory and loss.

This interpretation fits her role throughout the story: Madame Giry is one of the few who aided and protected the Phantom during his years beneath the opera house. Her bid suggests a lingering loyalty — perhaps even the knowledge that he survived — though the production leaves this deliberately ambiguous.

🎭 Extended Canon: Love Never Dies

In Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel Love Never Dies (2010), Madame Giry and her daughter Meg flee with the Phantom to Coney Island. While the monkey music box does not appear in that story, this continuity strengthens the idea that she remained emotionally and practically invested in the Phantom’s life. Her auction bid in Phantom can thus be read as consistent with her later devotion — a small but telling gesture of care.

📌 Note

This remains speculative. No official script, score, or stage direction confirms Madame Giry’s exact motivation in the auction. The interpretation is supported by character consistency and later canon, but left unresolved in the original musical.