Christine Stuart

Christine Stuart is a music student whose connection to Gilbert Blythe briefly becomes a source of painful uncertainty for Anne Shirley. Though college gossip casts Christine and Gilbert as a couple, their association is practical and friendly: Christine is engaged to someone at home, while Gilbert’s enduring love is for Anne.

Identity and Circumstances

Christine is the sister of a graduating student who expects her to come to Kingsport the following winter to study music. Because she will know no one there and may be lonely, her brother asks Gilbert to look after her. Christine is already engaged to someone in her hometown, a fact known both to her and to Gilbert. The evidence identifies her through these circumstances rather than giving a fuller account of her background or life beyond Kingsport.

Friendship and Rumor

Gilbert agrees to keep Christine company and comes to like her for her own sake, describing her as one of the nicest girls he has known. Their ease together gives college gossip enough to credit them with being in love. Gilbert does not correct the rumor, but says that he did not care about it: after Anne had told him she could never love him, little seemed to matter to him for a time. His indifference to the gossip is not evidence of a courtship; the explanation makes clear that Christine’s engagement was known to both of them and that Gilbert’s regard for her was friendly.

Anne’s Misunderstanding and Christine’s Role

After Gilbert’s recovery from fever, he visits Green Gables often, and some of the old companionship between him and Anne returns. Anne finds friendship inadequate now that she recognizes her love for him, but doubts her own understanding of his feelings. She fears that Gilbert may love Christine after all, perhaps even be engaged to her, and tries to resign herself to a future shaped by work and ambition instead of love.

When Anne and Gilbert finally speak openly, she reproaches him for what she believes was his love for Christine. Gilbert explains that Christine was engaged at home and that her brother had asked him to make her feel welcome in Kingsport. He also tells Anne that, although he liked Christine, there could never have been anyone else for him but Anne. Christine therefore matters to the plot chiefly through the contrast between public assumption and private attachment: the rumor deepens Anne’s uncertainty, while Gilbert’s account removes it and confirms that his bond with Christine was not romantic.