Raoul (the Vicomte)



Raoul, the Vicomite de Changey, is Christine's love intrest and the parton of the Opera Populaire.

the 2004 Movie
Raoul enters by arriving at the Opera Populaire during a rehearsal. He was introduced to the cast by the retiring manager, and Christine recognizes him, though at first he doesn't notice that she is in the room. When Christine sings "Think of Me", he suddenly remembers his childhood sweetheart, and after the performance, he goes to find her room. The managers offer to present her to him and he declines, stating that his visit to Christine was one he would prefer to be unaccompanied. He slips quietly into the room while Christine is sitting in front of a mirror, studying a rose with the black ribbon on it (courtesy of the Phantom, Erik). He starts to recite lines from a story that Christine's father had told about little Lottie and an Angel of music. After congratulating Christine on her singing, he departs against her wishes, promising to return in a few moments. When he does return, he hears the Phantom singing in Christine's now-locked room, and tries desperately to enter, calling her name, but fails.

The next day, he is confronting the managers, asking if they sent the note he had received regarding Christine's disappearance, and denies sending La Carlotta a note. He seems to be rather disapproving when the managers ignoring the Phantom's wishes that Christine be the star of the opera instead of La Carlotta. When Madame Giry and Meg Giry bring the news that Christine has returned and was resting, he asks if he could see her, but was told she would see no one because as she needed rest. He is present at that night's opera.

When, partway through the performance, a man is hung, he goes to find Christine, and she insists that they are not safe there and takes him up to the rooftop. He tells her that there is no Phantom of the Opera, and Christine confesses that that was where she had vanished to the previous night; the catacombs of the Opera Populaire where Erik dwelled. He calms her, promises that he will always love her and protect her, and she, too, admits that she loves him. The two kiss and return to the inside of the Opera Populaire, unaware that Erik had been eavesdropping.

The next time he appears is at a New Years Eve ball at the Opera Populaire, engaged to Christine. When the Phantom appears, he quietly disappears, fetching his sword. When the Phantom vanishes through the floor, Raoul leaps down after him, and lands in a hall of mirrors. He attempts to fight Erik, but because of all the mirrors, cannot find Erik's true position. He was taken by Madame Giry back upstairs, where he demands to hear all that Madame Giry knew of Erik. She tells him the story, and they move on.

Christine had been trying to sleep, but woke up. Raoul was sleeping in a chair outside the door, and she looks at him before fetching a costume of a black dress and veil, asking to be taken to the cemetery to her father's grave. Raoul wakes as she is leaving, and chases after her on his horse. He catches up to her as she is about to enter her father's grave in pursuit of the "Angel of Music", the Phantom. He warns her that it was not her father, and Erik leaps from hiding. The two of them duel, and Raoul disarms Erik. As he is about to kill him, Christine asks Raoul not to kill him, so Raoul backs off. He mounts his horse with Christine, and they ride back to the Opera Populaire.

Raoul comes up with the plan to capture the Phantom, and consoles Christine who dislikes betraying her former teacher. He watches the opera the Phantom wrote, in which Erik and Christine were the stars, and doesn't take his eyes away from the two performers. When the Erik kidnaps Christine during the performance, Raoul asks Madame Giry to show him where Erik took Christine. He falls into water, and a metal gate descends. Had Raoul not stopped the gate, he would have drowned.

He finds Erik and Christine. He begs Erik to set Christine free, declaring that he loved her. Erik ties him to a metal gate and places a noose around his neck. Erik forces Christine to choose: either she declared her love for the Phantom to allow Raoul live and go free, or remain true to Raoul and watch Raoul die. Raoul tells Christine not to throw her life away for his life and to let him die, but instead she kissed Erik. Erik understands how much she must love Raoul, and allows them both to go free.

Throughout the movie, there are clips of black and white film, that tells the story in 1919. Raoul is elderly and in a wheel chair, Christine is dead. He is at an auction and purchases thePhantom's monkey music box, and goes to Christine's grave and places it there. He notices a rose with a black ribbon tied around it with a ring on it and is shocked- the rose being the mark of Erik, and the ring was the engagement ring he had given to Christine, who in turn had given to Erik upon their departure from the catacombs.

Relationships
Christine

Raoul and Christine were childhood sweethearts, and when later introduced after Christine sang as the star of an opera, they fell in love once more. They later married.

Erik
Erik, being the Phantom of the Opera, was Raoul's rival for Christine's affections. Raoul despised Erik, and on several occasions during the movie, attempted to fight him. Also in the movie, Raoul was about to kill Erik, and would have succeeded had Christine not asked him to stop.

Portrayal of the Character
In the 2004 film, Raoul was played by actor Patrick Wilson.