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.