Cyrano De Bergerac Essay, Research Paper
“Aggressive: I, sir, if that nose were mine, I’d have it amputated-on the spot! Friendly: How do you drink with such a nose? You ought to have a cup made specially. Descriptive: ?Tis a rock-a crag-a cape- A cape? Say rather, a peninsula!”
Cyrano de Bergerac is a heroic comedy, a play which is light and humorous and is
composed of jokes, satire, and humorous performance. In this play, Cyrano humors the audience
by making jokes about his own physical appearance.
This play comes very close to being a tragedy, a work in which the main character is
brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, a moral
weakness, or an inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. In this play Cyrano suffers the
consequence of a tragic flaw. Cyrano speaks with Roxane after speaking with Christian and
finding out that Roxane has really fallen in love with him and not with Christian. While talking
with Roxane, Christian sets out on a mission and dies. Cyrano never gets to tell her that it is
really him that she has fallen in love with and it was he who wrote the letters because their
conversation was interrupted when Christian is brought back dead. Not telling Roxane that it
was him and not proclaiming his love to her then was Cyrano’s tragic flaw and he suffered
tremendously because of it.
In this play Cyrano is also a hero. He is a hero because he helps many people including
the baker and Christian. He helps the baker fight one hundred men in order to get into his
house and he helps Christian by writing letters to Roxane and talking to Roxane for him. Cyrano
also takes very little credit for the deeds he has done and this is another thing that makes him a
hero.
“I Know that it will to today,
My own dearly beloved and my heart
Still so heavy with love I have not told,
And I die without telling you! No more
Shall my eyes drink the sight of you like wine,
Never more, with a look that is a kiss,
Follow the sweet grace of you. I remember now the way
You have, of pushing back a lock of hair
With one hand, from your forehead and my heart Cries out
Cries out and keeps crying : Farewell, my dear, My dearest.
My own heart’s own, My own treasure
My love
I am never away from you. Even now,
I shall not leave you. In another world,
I shall be still that one who loves you, loves you
Beyond measure, beyond”
In the end, because of this letter, the play ends up not being a tragedy. Cyrano begins to
read this letter before he dies and Roxane figures out that it was he who wrote the letters and he
she had spoken to that night on the balcony even thought Cyrano still denies it and his love for
her.