Analysis of Cyrano de Bergerac, A Play by Edmond Rostand

The book, Cyrano de Bergerac and the movie, Roxanne have many similarities and differences. This includes the plot, characterization, setting, conflict, and irony.

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand is about two men named Cyrano and Christian. Cyrano is a gallant soldier, brilliant, witty, poet with many tragedies, lover with a face that does not match his personality. Christian is the opposite of Cyrano. Christian has really good looks, however he lacks intelligence and wit. Cyrano and Christian are both in love with Cyrano’s cousin, Roxane. Roxane is a very beautiful and smart woman. Cyrano and Christian worked together to try to get Roxane to love Christian. Cyrano and Christian both went to war with the Cadets. Christian unfortunately dies after getting shot. Cyrano comforted Roxane and acted like her “gazette” when Christian died. Even though Cyrano is in love with Roxane he still mourns Christian’s

From the play Cyrano de Bergerac, two of the main characters are at odds fighting to win the heart of the same girl. Cyrano and Christian play as competing romantic heroes in their story, both hopeless dreamers of love and lust, both bold in their own aspects as well as incredibly insecure all at once. They also share the quality of great loyalty, and willingness to drop anything to come to the rescue of a friend. Physically, they are opposites; Christian is beautiful, and Cyrano thinks himself an atrocity. Their intellectual capabilities are also at completely different ends of the spectrum; Christian is a bumbling fool, and Cyrano can become a master at whatever task he chooses. In the aspect of poetry and the art of words, Cyrano is a true Shakespeare, and Christian is the equivalent of a second grader at best. These characters seem to be foils and, at the same time, they are wildly alike.

You ask me whom I love? The answer should be clear to you! Whom else would I love but the most beautiful woman in the world?” (Act one, Scene V, Page 49) Cyrano feels that Roxane is one of a kind and like a god to him. His insecurity plays a big part on him feeling she’s too good for him, and that he dreams and can only dream of being with her. The Duenna tells Cyrano that Roxane wants to speak with him about something in private. Cyrano agrees to meet Roxane at Ragueneau’s shop, knowing all of this is about to happen Cyrano becomes worried and over whelmed. “The Duenna: My lady wishes me to ask her valiant cousin where she can see him in private. Cyrano: see me? The Duenna: Yes. She has things to tell you. When she leaves the church, where can she go to talk with you? Cyrano: Where? . . . I . . . My God! . . . Where? Cyrano: At . . . at Ragueneau’s shop Ragueneau, the pastry cook . . . . Cyrano: Me! She wants to see me! Le Bret: I see your sadness has vanished! Cyrano: Ah, for whatever reason, she knows I exist! Le Bret: Please be calm. Cyrano: No! I’m going to be frenzied and turbulent! I need a whole army to vanish! I have ten hearts , twenty arms! It’s no longer enough for me to cut down dwarfs . . .I need giants!” (Act one, Scene VI, page(s) 52-54) Le Bret tries to calm down Cyrano. Cyrano’s insecurity gets in the way once again & he is frightened to speak to Roxane. He finally

Society tends to misjudge people base on their appearances instead of their personality. This can be seen in the play Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. In which Roxane represents that vile aspect of society. Roxane is attracted to Christian based on his looks, and under minds Cyrano because of his appearance. Society misjudgment of people cause oppression on an individual and it is from oppression and misjudgment f character that causes self consciousness to be born. Cyrano exhibits this self consciousness by helping Christian. Such oppression or self conscious aids to form magnificent characteristics attributes such as the ones portrayed by Cyrano throughout the novel. After all of its societies misjudgment that causes Cyrano to be

As a society, we are educated about appearance. About makeup and hair styling products and other things that enhance your looks. Through these things, the message that is portrayed is that unless you are attractive, you are not valuable as those who are. In my photography, I wanted to depict that even though you may be attractive, that attractiveness does not make you happy or fulfilled. Through reading Cyrano De Bergerac, I realized that your worth is determined by your values, Morales, and most importantly, you! If you believe that you do good things and are a good person then you should be truly happy with yourself and not worry about how you look on the outside. In Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Cyrano is so distraught over his

The movie, Roxanne, based off the classical play Cyrano de Bergerac is a hysterical comedy about a man named C.D who falls in love with a girl named Roxanne. Roxanne falls in love with C.D’s personality, but another man’s appearance. To make this movie comedic, the director, Fred Schepisi, modernized the movie and incorporated famous actors and actresses in it, such as Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah. Overall, I like the movie because it took a classical play with a well-developed plot and made an amusing movie out of it.

In this day in age, classics range from movies such as Titanic, to books such as Moby Dick, or even television shows such as I Love Lucy. But what does that mean? What even makes something “classic”? The definition of classic includes descriptions like “traditional”, “enduring quality”, “literary work of the first rank”. So what makes these works of art timeless or classic? Herman Melville, a classic author himself, stated that “To produce a mighty book you must choose a mighty theme.” Theme, in literature, is the main idea or underlying message of the book. The reason why theme is, in my opinion, the quality that makes a story classic is because it reaches the reader intellectually and emotionally. Good themes, more often than not, churn

Occasionally, Cyrano unintentionally uses his wit to expose his own insecurities when he feels offended. At the beginning of the play, Cyrano confronted the Meddler when he was staring at his nose, the Meddler said Cyrano’s nose was “small, very small, infinitesimal”. Then, Cyrano uses hit wit to reply, “For a great nose indicates a great man,/ Genial, courteous, intellectual,/ Virile, courageous --- as I am --- and such/ As you ---poor wretch ---will never dare to be / Even in imagination. For that face --- / That blank, inglourious concavity / Which my right-hand finds” (Rostand I, 34). First, the meddler is an irrelevant person who stares at Cyrano’s nose because it is an abnormally large one. Due to Cyrano’s sensitive personality, he believes that the meddler is condescending him. Therefore, Cyrano pressures the Meddler and forces him to say his opinion on Cyrano’s nose. The meddler, knowing that Cyrano is ashamed of his large nose, says he has a small nose. Cyrano strangely took that as an insult and started saying fine values of himself. Here, the language of Cyrano depicts insecurity because insecure people are the ones who constantly search to boost self-esteem. Telling this to Roxane or other important people is understandable, but to make these remarks to the Meddler proves that his insecurities are at another level. Then, Cyrano describes the Meddler’s face as a “blank, inglorious concavity”, which means a plain, pointless face with a huge chin(I, 34). Here, Cyrano desperately tries to hide his insecurity by using his wit to degrade the Meddler. This makes the Meddler feel insecure because Cyrano called him ugly. According to Psychology Today, “The insecure person makes you feel

The word “love” is a powerful one, both in real life, and in Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It is often a confusing concept, made even harder to grasp when one of the lovers repeatedly changes his/her mind (Hanson, 16). In Hamlet's case, his feelings towards Ophelia veer from love, to never loved, to always love. This cycle of emotions is due to Hamlet feigning

The very influential writer Edmond Rostand in his play, Cyrano De Bergerac, writes the dramatic play which pushes the character to become their true selves and teach moral lessons on true beauty. Rostand’s purpose is to enhance his readers experience and draw the reader closer to deeper moral lessons within the play. Rostand creates dramatic symbols to entice his readers to truly understand his characters he has created and how they impact the narrative. This symbolism is very predominant within Rostand’s Cyrano De Bergerac. One symbol in particular is set apart from the rest. Cyrano’s nose is a prime example of Rostand’s rich use of symbolism within his drama. Rostand uses his knowledge of symbolism to draw his readers closer to the story

In addition, Shakespeare intermingles the play with the idea of appearance versus reality, highlighting how truelove can exist within even the curst and is absent amongst even the most attractive. As the play progresses, we see how true this is, as Bianca and Katherina contrast one another on the interior as well, yet Katherina?s true love underneath, allows her to dwell in an effective relationship. As we know, Petruchio?s love is obvious yet Katherina?s shrewish nature masks her true love for Petruchio - proving the deceptiveness of appearances. On the other hand, even though Bianca has many desperate suitors we see how shrewish she really is as she questions, ?Am I your bird? (5.1)?. Bianca?s rhetorical question and indignant tone towards Petruchio highlights her lack of respect and her internal shrewish personality. Moreover, Bianca?s interior personality

First and foremost is the appeal to emotions. All of the other facets of romanticism can be related to the emotional appeal in Cyrano de Bergerac. Because strong emotional appeal is perhaps the most important method used by the author to create identity with the reader, especially in romantic works, the actions which elicit the emotional responses must, then, show a great deal about the character. The character's motives and philosophies can be determined

Edmond Rostand 's Cyrano de Bergerac is considered to be a Chivalric Romance but it also contains humor throughout. The play uses comedy throughout all of the acts for a variety of reasons. Cyrano who is the main character of the play is also the largest comic influence. With Cyrano, we see him develop through comedy and learn more about his character with it, and it is not only used by Cyrano but also many other characters. Comedy is used in a variety of ways throughout Cyrano de Bergerac such as wordplay and sarcasm. The comedy is all used for different reasons, nevertheless, the humor in Cyrano plays an important role in the play.

In Cyrano de Bergerac, the complexity of love is displayed through Roxane, Christian, and Cyrano’s characters. Cyrano loves Roxane more than anyone else in the world, but he’s too shy to tell her, due to feeling so ugly because of his very large, very long nose. At first, Cyrano has Eros for Roxane, or sexual attraction.