Even though Rostand’s Cyrano has faced many misfortunes, his worst moment comes right before his death, where instead of accepting it, he faces it optimistically, making his tale seem more like a heroic comedy. In the final act, Cyrano has been mortally wounded by a log of wood that fell on his head. When he is laid down, due to his wound, Cyrano decides to stand up, grab his sword, and pretend to fight. He claims, “I know them now, my ancient enemies, falsehood… prejudice, compromise, cowardice… What’s that?
“Studying a work’s major themes helps develop understanding of an author’s intent and the quality of the work” (Beauty and the Beast 59). The author clearly portrays full understanding of the play, Cyrano de Bergerac, by studying the work’s major themes. Cyrano de Bergerac, a play by Edmond Rostand, reveals the struggles that Cyrano, the renowned poet, confronts in order to receive love from his beloved one, Roxane. Unfortunately, Cyrano’s hideous appearance discourages him from expressing his true feelings to Roxane. Charles Marowitz, the author of the literary criticism, depicts his thoughts on countless aspects of the story, from romance to uniqueness.
Roxane’s desire for beautiful language and exquisite confessions of love heavily affect the behavior of Christian and Cyrano. When Christian attempts to tell Roxane that he loves her, Roxane, angered, pouts, “You offer skimmed milk when I ask for cream. Tell me how you love me” (76). While, for many people, a simple declaration of love is more than sufficient, Roxane expects her love to come in the form of exquisite, extravagant, and embellished poetry. Her demands for flowery language place an immense, stressful burden on Christian, who struggles to please her.
This is surprising because of Cyrano possesses a passionate love for Roxane, yet has an extreme willingness to help Christian anyway. Though Cyrano knows Roxane well, he does not believe they can be together because he is not as handsome as Christian. When Christian melodramatically exclaims “Please! I must find some way of meeting her. I am dying of love,” Cyrano agrees to help, because he does not see a relationship between Roxane and himself to be likely anyway.
Cyrano and Christian are contrasting characters, but their traits together make the perfect man. Cyrano is unable to confess his love to Roxanne because his nose makes him insecure about his looks. Believing Roxane will never love a stupid person, Christian comes to Cyrano for help when she expects a letter from him. Cyrano comes up with the plan that he will write the letters to Roxane, and Christian will give them to her as letters written from himself. Christian is able to be the face of the plan because of his handsome outer appearance, while Cyrano is the brains.
Cyrano is brave when it comes to fighting and competition, but not when it comes to love because he is afraid of rejection. In the book it says, “Madly. More. Tell her. No.
Fifteen years after Christian is killed in battle, Cyrano decides to tell Roxanne the truth about the letters as he is dying. Christian dies without receiving true love from Roxanne, Roxanne falls in love with a man who never
Cyrano has confidence in executing his grand gestures, one of them including his high standards in art and theatre. At the Hotel de Bourgogne, the play La Clorise has just started. Montfleury, an actor, enters the stage when suddenly Cyrano, who is not part of the play interrupts him. Cyrano demands Montfleury to “leave the stage—at once!” (20).
Cyrano is in a terrible accident when a large piece of wood is dropped on his head, giving him a life-threatening injury. Bed ridden, Cyrano still meets with Roxane at his usual time that day without speaking of his current condition. As Mathieu 4 darkness begins to fall, Cyrano reads one of his letters to Roxane. Once the sky is completely dark, Roxane begins to recognize his voice. The same voice that spoke to her that night under her balcony.
Cyrano de Bergerac, written by Edmond Rostand in the 1800s, is a play about the adventurous life of Cyrano de Bergerac. The presentations of Julia, who spoke about the notable styles during this time and how Rostand fit into this, and Jeni, who spoke about who the real Cyrano was, helped me understand Rostand’s play more thoroughly. One thing about Rostand that I learned was the fact that he wrote out of his time period. Julia talked about the different types of literature that were common during the late 19th century, and how rather than taking a romantic approach which most authors were Rostand was a realist. He depicted society as it was but also added a small romantic approach to his plays.
Christian loves Roxane, but in order to make her fall in love with him for sure, he needs the help of Cyrano. Cyrano agrees and helps Christian, because he feels Roxane will never love him, because he is ugly. The theme of Edmond Rostand’s
Cyrano despises most people in his society for being so obsequious. He wants only to state the bold, insulting truth; this kind of openness is a reflection of his boldness and courage. A final example of Cyrano’s courage is when Cyrano describes the way he wants to die to the cadets. His reply to them, “‘Always the answer, yes! Let me die so, under some
In the story, the protagonist Winifred explains about her past experiences with her elder brother Zachary from her early years of admiration to her later years facing the similar circumstances of her brother with her youngest daughter Stephanie. During her younger years, Winifred admired her eldest brother and appeared as an obedient slave to him. Later on, however, she then faces with the disillusionment as her brother’s habits are warped to extreme measures such as smoking and drinking which later accumulates to the sorrow that she and her family faced from losing their youngest daughter Lizzie to leukemia. The death also strikes a permanent blow on Zachary, who later leaves the family due to his strained relationship with his
This is most evident when Cyrano seemingly insults De Guiche’s integrity by picking up the white scarf De Guiche dropped in fear from behind him in the midst of danger. This not only showed Cyrano’s courage, but it also makes him endearing because of his clever
Roxanne the movie adaptation of the play Cyrano de Bergerac the story starts with the gorgeous astronomy student, Roxanne, who visits a small town to study a newly found comet she might have discovered. There she meets C.D. “Charlie” Bales, the highly charismatic Fire department chief, whom she quickly befriends. C.D. immediately falls for Roxanne, but firmly believes that Roxanne will not view him more than a good friend, due to his huge nose which he feels insecure about. Roxanne shows interest in Chris the newly hired handsome fireman under the impression that he is secretly brilliant.
