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No.

She loved Raoul. She did not love Erik. She may have felt bad for him, but she did not love him.

And I have my doubts that Erik would have complemented her more than Raoul.

I know we all wish that Christine had regretted her decision on going with Raoul, but Thorn is right. She loved Raoul, and she pitied Erik.

Regret?

Wait, so, she'd regret going with a guy who risked his life and his title and money for her and instead want to go to a mentally insane, quite ugly and deformed man who killed and manipulated people for his own selfish purposes?

I love Erik as much as the next fangirl, but that still makes no sense to me as to why she'd regret being with Raoul.

You have to keep in mind, I base my opinions of the truth behind the characters' actions on the Leroux novel. It, being the original, seems to me like the place to base the facts on.

But seriously. Christine was very afraid of Erik. She tried to kill herself to avoid being with him. Would you call that love? I think not.

She plead with Erik to let her go, and when he did, there was no indication of her looking back. She did pity Erik, as we saw in the last scene in the novel, but she did not love him. Love and pity are two very different things.

At first, when she knew nothing about him, everything was fine, but when he kidnapped her, that was when she began to fear him. Never, after that point in time, does she actually show affection and love directed at Erik. Pity, yes. Fear, yes. But not love. She loved Raoul, and was willing to do anything to save him. I cannot see her doing the same for Erik.

As for her being childish...she was scared. Everybody reverts to a childish nature when scared. We all simply want to get away from the fear and be loved when we're scared, especially scaredfor our lives, as she had been. I have to say, though, I give Christine from the Leroux novel a decent amout of credit, since she's considerably tougher and more wily than the other versions.

By the references to movies in your post, I assume we're talking on completely different levels, Taisa.

Yeah... I've considered this, actually, when I was supposed to be watching dance class (infernal knee injury!) and I realized that I was depending too much upon the movie, which is nice, but not true to the book.

Mm, yeah, I believe so. I actually haven't read the Leroux novel in a while -- I've lent it to a friend who has only ever seen the '04 movie (poor thing). I actually got it back this afternoon, so I'll re-read it -- But now that you bring that up, yes, I agree.

This, I must agree, is likely true. She could have grown accustomed to him after a while, if he took it slow, and maybe even liked him. But he let his temper get in the way of what could have been between them, and this subsequently resulted in her fearing him. All the same, she had liked Raoul since they were children, and something like that seems to be pretty solid. Especially as of when they came together and truly fell in love (as opposed to puppy love). The relationship between Christine and the one between Raoul and Christine and Raoul were quite different. Erik was more of a beloved teacher and mentor (at least, in the beginning), while Raoul was the one she would chose as a consort.

She had always wanted to be a singer, though, and she believed Erik had some connection to her father. It was more like she wanted to learn from him simply because she wanted to. She and Raoul, you must remember, were always close, ever since childhood. And anyway, she took up study with Erik before she knew that she'd see Raoul again. It seems like more a coincidence, in my mind. I can't see the sense in calling her a user.