Dr Mark’s The Meaning in a Nutshell
Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac (1897)
Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) sensitively explores the emotional complexity of men through the story of a man, Cyrano de Bergerac, a French soldier in a regiment of the royal guards in the seventeenth century who is fearless in battle but cannot face the possibility of rejection by the woman he loves. The play conveys a fascination with the paradox that this impressive man can be so talented, brave and accomplished in so many challenging or dangerous dimensions of life but so fearful in his relationships with women.
In the context of the play’s representation of competing men seeking the love of a beautiful woman, Roxane, the play pits the attractiveness of good looks against the attractiveness of romantic language and argues that while a woman may be initially attracted to good looks, it is through hearing or reading beautiful, passionate words that a woman falls deeply in love. Cyrano has the power to move a woman emotionally through his poetic talent with words, and this is profoundly romantic. But he suffers due to his unfortunate looks ̶ his large nose ̶ which holds him back from directly expressing his feelings to the woman he loves, Roxane. By contrast, Christian de Neuvillette has the power to attract women with his good looks. He attracts the woman whom Cyrano desires, Roxane, just by being seen by her from a distance. His good looks are initially effective but, as the play argues, a woman initially attracted by good looks will soon want more. Christian is good looking but, unfortunately, he suffers because he is clumsy with words. This means that he can lose a woman he has attracted. He almost loses Roxane until Cyrano comes to his rescue by providing him with romantic language.
The play toys with the idea that the perfect man would be a combination of Christian’s good looks and Cyrano’s talent with words. This is conveyed in the way that both men team up to romance Roxane: Christian providing the good looks while Cyrano, behind the scenes, provides Christian with the words that make Roxane swoon. Roxane falls deeply in love with Christian’s good looks and Cyrano’s fine words expressed, so she believes, by Christian in love letters or when calling out to her in the darkness under her balcony. Soon the play makes it clear that it is the romantic words more than anything else that profoundly touches Roxane’s soul, so the man who composed those words (Cyrano) is the man Roxane truly loves.
The play also makes the case that, after a while, the value of good looks fades and it is the connection of two souls that matters in love and this is mostly achieved through expressing the words of love. By Act IV, Christian’s good looks have become almost an irrelevancy as far as Roxane is concerned. For Roxane, it is a beautiful soul revealed through passionate words that is more worthy of a woman’s love and lasting love. For Roxane, it is a connection of souls that produces a love eternal and inspires her willingness to put herself in harm’s way, if necessary, to be with the man she loves. In Act IV, when Roxane puts herself in danger by cleverly and daringly crossing the Spanish lines to reach the French lines at the siege of Arras to see the man she loves, she is shown to have been motivated by the love letters written and sent daily by Cyrano but under Christian’s name. When Roxane declares she is primarily moved by the poetic sentiments in the love letters and would love Christian even if he was ugly, it means that she could love Cyrano, the man behind the love letters and the beautiful words that she believes were composed by Christian.
In this context, Edmond Rostand also puts forward the view that men want to be loved for their true selves. Roxane initially loved Christian’s good looks, but later loved what she believed were his romantic words, only they were not his words but those of another man, Cyrano. This meant that Christian, upon discovering Roxane’s sentiments, felt he was not being loved for his true self and this troubled him. Christian wanted to be loved for his true self. Meanwhile, since Roxane is in love with the words she read in the love letters sent under Christian’s name, she is in love with Cyrano’s true self, the beautiful man behind the ugly visage.
While philosophising about love, the play also celebrates the arts, especially literature and poetry. The play celebrates poetry as able to move individuals emotionally and touch their soul. The favoured characters in the play ̶ most notably Roxane, Cyrano, and Cyrano’s best friend Ragueneau ̶ are lovers of literature and their attitudes probably convey Edmond Rostand’s appreciation of the value of the arts in life.
Ragueneau, for example, values writing and the company of writers more than running his lucrative bakery. Ragueneau’s wife, Lise, does not share his love of poetry and instead values money. She has no respect for great literature and tears pages from Ragueneau’s library of classics to use as wrapping paper for cakes sold in the shop. She also disrespects her husband by having an affair with a musketeer. Later, she will leave her husband and break his heart.
The play also celebrates the notion of ‘panache’, which means showing dash and flamboyant courage, especially in the face of formidable odds. Cyrano is not only a capable poet, he exhibits panache. He is the most formidable duellist and an inspiringly brave soldier. Men look up to him, admire his exploits, and are willing to follow him into battle. Notably, he is a lover of the bold gesture, such as in Act 1 when he interrupts and shuts down the performance of a play because he resents the substandard acting ability of the lead actor, after which he compensates the fee-paying audience with a bag of gold even though it represented a month’s pay and left him starving. This would have been an impressive gesture had Cyrano been rich, but it is more impressive since Cyrano could not afford to do such a thing. In Act V, the play concludes with the dying Cyrano’s last words declaring that his panache is his most valued quality.
Cyrano’s great flaw is his compromised looks due to his large nose. Cyrano will challenge a man to a duel if the man insults his nose or he perceives him to insult his nose. In addition, Cyrano is unable to approach the woman he loves due to his concern about his looks and fear of rejection. Cyrano will make jokes about his own nose but others do so at their own risk. Cyrano will sport with and tease a fearful or modest man who mentions his nose, having no intention of harming him, only wanting to unnerve him a little. But Cyrano will put an arrogant man or bully who insults him in his place by fighting a duel. In Act I, Cyrano puts an aristocratic snob and bully in his place who mocks him about his nose. In the duel, Cyrano toys with his opponent by composing verse during the swordfight, choosing to defeat his foe only when he has concluded the poem. Those gathered see it is an impressive performance. Most are too fearful to mock Cyrano’s nose. But Cyrano is not a bully. When Christian meets Cyrano in Act II and comments on Cyrano’s nose in a way that appears to be inadvertently mocking him, the scene is played for laughs, since Cyrano has already promised Roxane to be Christian’s protector, so Christian gets away with apparent mockery that in Act I saw a man taste Cyrano’s sword.
Through its depiction of Cyrano, the play also celebrates individualism and individuality. It presents a man with a free spirit who frequently gives expression to it, a man who cannot be bought or subordinated. Cyrano is resolutely his own agent, a free man who does not want to have a rich nobleman as a protector, even though, at times, it looks as if he needs one. Instead, he protects himself with his sword. He is a masterful swordsman but, most importantly, his skill with a sword is backed by his panache. Through Cyrano, the play celebrates a free man who lives according to his own creed, regardless of the opinions of others or the consequences, which include the many enemies he makes. Cyrano is a man who stands for something, and that kind of man will make enemies, yet he carries on regardless. This is a measure of his greatness. Cyrano defines his own existence, and this includes his creativity. His art, his composition of poetic prose and verse, is not for sale if there is a risk that it may be censored or compromised. He would rather give his art away (to Christian) than compromise its integrity.
The play also has a clear concept of the kind of woman deserving of great love, which is represented in Roxane. She is beautiful and virtuous, a virgin bride and a one-man woman who is not only loyal to her chosen man in life, but loyal to his memory after he is deceased. After her husband Christian dies in the war, she decides to live in a convent. Throughout her life, Roxane has been noticed by men wherever she goes, and she has had many men pursue her, notably the solders in the royal guard, Cyrano and Christian, and also the nobleman who commanded their regiment, Compte de Guiche, who wanted Roxane to be his mistress. From Act I, men who see her, even from a distance, are struck by her good looks yet she saves herself for the man she loves.
Cyrano’s panache does attract the attention of some women, but not the woman he loves, Roxane. It tends to attract the admiration of women of loose morals (actresses) or paupers (the orange-girl), but not virtuous women, the marrying kind, like Roxane.
The play also celebrates the notion of having one true love. Act V presents Roxane as loyal to the memory of her late husband, Christian, fifteen years after his death. This is a notion attractive to many men. Act V also presents Cyrano as devoted to Roxane, regardless of the many frustrations he endured pursuing her. For Cyrano, there is only one woman he loves, and that is Roxane, and he is committed to her for life, even though he only managed to be her friend for most of the play. Roxane only discovered at the end of Cyrano’s life that he was the author of the love letters, and that it was Cyrano who romanced her with passionate words spoken at night from the shadows while she was on her balcony. Even though Cyrano had to endure seeing Christian benefit from the words of love he composed for Roxane, he never strayed from loving her and having her in his life in whatever way he could.
The play also celebrates the nobility of unrequited love by presenting Cyrano as loving Roxane forever, despite her interest in his rival, Christian, and despite her later marrying Christian after being inspired by the words of love Cyrano fed to Christian for him to say. Cyrano continued to love Roxane despite having never made her his girlfriend or wife.
Cyrano accepted Roxane’s request in Act II that he protect Christian, the man she desires, from potential duellists in the regiment in which both men serve. Cyrano accepts this role because, as a man in love, he will accept any way to be in Roxane’s life in some capacity. Cyrano goes further. He takes on the role of writing love letters to Roxane on behalf of Christian, who does not have a way with words and is severely lacking in that regard. Here, Cyrano, who is deeply in love, can express his love for Roxane via proxy. It is the closest he can get to loving her. His acceptance of this role also carries the implication that he can keep his hope alive of one day being with Roxane. If that does not eventuate, he can love Roxane vicariously through Christian’s romance with her.
Other dimensions of Cyrano’s character include his reluctance to take charity, even when he needs it badly, preferring instead to make the most of very little, as would a soldier on campaign. He is also a proud man from Gascony who has an affinity with other men from Gascony, and he values serving in an elite regiment that includes many of these rugged men from that region in south-western France. As a lover of the arts, he values fine examples and has little time for the rest. As a poet, he understands grammar and can argue its finer points with the best. He also understands music and can discuss it impressively with musicians. He is well-read, both in classical literature (Homer’s Iliad) and in contemporary works on rational philosophy (such as those by René Descartes). He is a man who values reason and science, making him a religious sceptic, yet he respects and charms the nuns who love his roguish manner and sense of humour.
In Act III, scene 7, the balcony scene at night in the dark, Cyrano’s lack of physical beauty is concealed by shadows so the beauty of his words can shine. He can use his words to give Roxane a view into his true self and give her a romantic experience that inspires her to marry the man she thinks is talking to her from the darkness, Christian, when it is actually Cyrano.
Cyrano seems to speak for men denied the affection of women due to their looks, poignantly articulating and expressing their suffering. This is evident when Cyrano is shown to be vulnerable to the logical fallacy of wishful thinking. This is when one overvalues positive evidence that affirms the possibility of achieving one’s desire and undervalues negative evidence that goes against achieving one’s desire. Cyrano does this in Act II regarding his misinterpretation of the meaning of Roxane’s initial request to meet with him. He hoped it meant that she loved him when what she wanted was for Cyrano to protect Christian, the man she had fallen in love with on the basis of his looks.
Men in love can feel invincible and be inspired to bold acts of courage, as shown by Cyrano in Act I. For Cyrano the possibility that the woman he loves may love him back inspired him to perform a great feat of courage. Combined with his love of the grand gesture, Cyrano’s belief that Roxane may love him inspired him to take on incredible odds that would make almost all others retreat, as is evident when he decides to defend a man he likes but hardly knows, Lignière, who is threatened by an ambush of a hundred assailants. Cyrano takes them on and defeats them, killing eight and the rest taking flight.
The love of a woman can consume a man, becoming virtually all that a man can think about or care about. To Cyrano, in Act II, the possibility that Roxane loves him and wants to meet with him consumes his thoughts, so he is uninterested in praise for his bravery the previous night when he fought a duel at the theatre and fended off a hundred violent assailants who threatened Lignière. Cyrano was the talk of the town but what really mattered to him was the love of Roxane. When Cyrano realised that Roxane only wanted to meet with him to ask him to be the protector of the man she loves, Christian, he becomes quiet and introspective, stunned with disappointment and trying to conceal his emotional pain. In this hurt and reflective state, he is indifferent to the praise of other men regarding what were widely perceived as legendary feats of bravery.
Student resources by Dr Mark Lopez
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The purpose of the concise notes of Dr Mark’s The Meaning in a Nutshell is to provide much needed help to students seeking to unlock the meaning of the texts with which they have to deal. (More elaborate notes are provided in lessons as part of my private tutoring business.)
Subject: Cyrano de Bergerac meaning, Cyrano de Bergerac themes, Cyrano de Bergerac analysis, Cyrano de Bergerac notes