Cyrano de Bergerac Analysis Essay Example

As Dave Meurer once said, “A great marriage is not when the ‘perfect couple’ comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.” The contents of this quote strictly relates to Edmond Rostand’s play “Cyrano de Bergerac”. This play is about a love triangle between Cyrano, Roxane, and Christian. In the beginning, Christian and Cyrano think they aren’t good enough for Roxane but later in the play, Cyrano finds out that Roxane is in love with Christian. Cyrano is sent off with a mission from Roxane, which is to protect Christian for her, even from himself. When Christian came on as a Cadet in the Guards, Christian was starting to throw insults to Cyrano about his big nose, but Cyrano controlled his anger because Roxane asked him to protect him. Cyrano and Christian decide to form an alliance so Christian can marry Roxane. Cyrano and Christian are sent off to war and Christian ends up dying. 15 years later, Roxane goes to a nun home and Cyrano ends up getting hurt and dies as well after Roxane realizes that Christian’s “soul” was actually Cyrano. This play makes people wanna ask “Who was the better person for Roxane?”. So who was the better person for Roxane, Cyrano or Christian?

While Cyrano may be the better fit for Roxane, Christian and Cyrano both demonstrate the quality of the bravery which Roxane values. For example, Christian exemplifies bravery when he tells Cyrano, “I’m going to speak for myself” (Rostand 118). Christian believes that he can speak for himself to Roxane, who loves the love of language, and that it would take bravery to think you can speak to a woman you love. He ends up becoming overconfident and failing to speak love to Roxane. Even though Christian demonstrates bravery throughout the play, Cyrano takes the light with his bravery during the war when Le Bret, shocked, questioned, “Don’t you think it’s going a little too far to risk your life every day to send a letter?” (Rostand 152). Cyrano sacrifices his life twice everyday to just fulfill Roxane’s promise that Christian will write everyday. It shows bravery because it shows he’s willing to sacrifice his life to write letters for someone else for someone he indeed loves himself and goes to enemy lines to just send some letters off. Cyrano takes the stage in this category of bravery.

Roxane values love of language for someone she would like to love, Christian and Cyrano both exemplifies that characteristic. For example, Christian attempts to use the love of language when he desperately tells Roxane, “Your neck! I’d like to kiss it…” (Rostand 120). After Roxane asks him to elaborate on how Christian loves her, he doesn’t have anything to say. Well mainly because Christian started getting nervous and didn’t know what to say without Cyrano helping him. However, Cyrano demonstrates love of language better than Christian, because when he helps Christian talk to Roxane using his words of, ““Impossible!. . . I  could no more . . . stop loving you . . . than I could stop . . . The rising of the sun! (Rostand 125).” Cyrano saves Christian from Roxane being able to stop loving Christian using his love of language. Cyrano has the great love of language. Roxane would value Cyrano more because of his love of language.

Maturity is a must for Roxane when looking for a loved one and both Christian and Cyrano acquire this trait. For example, Christian decides it’s time to tell Roxane the truth by asking Cyrano, “Let her choose! I want you to tell her everything!” (Rostand 189). He’s willing to risk Roxane and his marriage because he realizes that it’s wrong to love someone based on deception. Problem is, he’s too scared to tell her everything so he has Cyrano do the dirty work for him. However, Cyrano keeps in his anger when Christian insults his nose by demanding him, “ Embrace me!” (Rostand 99). He shows maturity because typically he will battle them or mentally embarrass them also, he shows maturity by managing his anger towards Christian. When he could easily kill or embarrass him, he actually praises him for being a brave man. This third quality proves that Cyrano is the better fit for Roxane.