Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
love in literature essay
love in literature essay
love in literature essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: love in literature essay
The phrase “you win some, you lose some” can pertain true to many different situations including love. In the novels, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, the respective characters Sydney Carton and Cyrano de Bergerac experience a loss. This loss comes in a form of unrequited love, where they are both unable to be loved by the one they recognize as their true loves. Due to their experiences with unrequited love, both Sydney Carton and Cyrano are led to the discovery of their own inner strengths as well as self-sacrifice.
Both Sydney and Cyrano are very smart and talented characters. Despite being smart and talented, they are still able to learn additional things about themselves through their experiences with unreturned love. Sydney, while in England, is a sad, depressed but none the less talented man. According to Dickens, “If Sydney Carton ever shone anywhere, he certainly never shone in the house of Doctor Manette…When he cared to talk, he talked well; but, the cloud of caring for nothing, which overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light within him” (Dickens 198). Mr. Dickens describes Sydney as a smart man, who could “talk well”, but is overshadowed by a dark cloud of ideal laziness and disregard. He is not a confident man and does not believe he can do anything the right way. After an encounter with Lucie Manette, the woman whom Sydney loves and as the setting shifts to France, he experiences change. Carton gains that confidence and strength to become himself – a smart, worthy and confident man. Carton shows this by saying, “Shall I do well, in the mean time, to show myself? I think so. It is best that these people should know there is such a...
... middle of paper ...
...some couple you – and God – have joined [t]ogether!
[De Guiche]: (Regarding him with a frosty eye.) Quite so” (Rostand 146). Cyrano stalls De Guiche by pretending he is a drunk scientist as he talks about the moon while Roxane and Christian are being married. These examples show how Cyrano and Sydney are committed to their loves and they do keep their word by only allowing the man their woman loves to the right path.
Both Sydney and Cyrano are still able to gain a lot despite being on the wrong side of the love story. Because of unreturned love, they learn a variety of characteristics both personal and involving love, which enable them to grow as characters in their novels.
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Lodi: Everbind Anthologies, 2002. Print.
Rostand, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac. Trans. Brian Hooker. New York: Bantam Classic, 2004. Print
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” (Confucius) Cyrano’s insecurity of his nose effects his relationship with Roxane. In Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano De Bergerac, Cyrano’s insecure and eloquent self-perception results in Cyrano’s companionship & loving in his relationship with both Christian & Roxane. Cyrano’s level of eloquence helps him combat the insults of his nose. Cyrano is a poetic, witty, & eloquent man who is insecure & has trouble showing his true feelings for Roxane .Cyrano and Christian work together to win Roxane’s heart, and at the end Cyrano allows love to kill him, even after Roxane discovers & reciprocates his feelings.
As popular author Nicole Yatsonsky says, “Your truest friends are the ones who will stand by you in your darkest moments – Because they're willing to brave the shadows with you – and in your greatest moments – because they're not afraid to let you shine.” Similarly, in the heroic, romantic comedy, Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, Cyrano, a passionate and talented poet cursed with an exceedingly long nose, helps Christian, a handsome yet dim-witted man, win the love of Roxane, the girl both have pined after for years. Through a series of correspondences between Cyrano (posing as Christian), and Roxane, Roxane falls deeply in love with Christian. In turn, Cyrano falls for Roxane. Despite his feelings for Roxane, Cyrano backs off and allows, even helps, the two lovers get married. In Cyrano de Bergerac, playwright Edmond Rostand uses Cyrano’s relationship with Roxane as well as his friendship with Christian to prove the theme that loyalty forms a bond stronger than love.
Love, Betrayal, Hubris, and Relationships in Cyrano de Bergerac. French authors and playwrights have been acclaimed worldwide for their dynamic prose, complex situations, and unpredictable endings. The same praise holds true for Edmond Eugene Alexis Rostand. Born of Provencal ancestry on April 1, 1868, Rostand was well-learned, as evidenced by his extensive childhood education as a student of the lycee of Marseille.
One of Cyrano’s most significant traits as a friend was his loyalty. He would always look out for friends in their time of need, which makes the audience feel sympathetic towards him. Because Cyrano is such a loyal friend, the audience feels angry with Roxane for manipulating him, and taking advantage of his loyalty. An example of Cyrano’s loyalty was when Ragueneau’s wife was having an affair with a musketeer, Cyrano confronted her, “Make sure you do./I like your husband, and I don’t intend/To see him made a fool of./Is that clear?”(II.iv.115-118). He stood up for his dear friend, and did not want him be made a joke of. I believe this is important because it shows that he is not only loyal to his friend, but also caring and has strong moral principles. What Lise was doing was wrong, and the author put this part in to emphasize the reader’s sympathy for Cyrano. Later when Ragueneau’s wife left him, Cyrano did not hesitate to support Ragueneau by talking him out of killing himself and providing him with a proper job. Furthermore, as everyone must be aware of, Cyrano was in love with Roxane. But because he was such a trustworthy friend, he agreed to protect Christian...
Few words can be more humorous, or more upsetting, than a well thought out and witty phrase. The only skill that matches Cyrano’s skill with a sword, is his skill with his tongue. With a wit unmatched by any poet, Cyrano made enemies wherever he went, simply by out-smarting all who came against him. In the first act of the play, Cyrano crashes a performance of the well-known actor Montfluery. After many insults, Cyrano heaps upon them by saying, “I would never venture out in public with a soiled conscience, a tarnished honor, or scruples grimy and dull. I do not adorn myself with gems and ribbons, like you. Instead, I decorate myself with truth, independence, and a clean soul.”
This is also a way to contrast Christian and Cyrano through the use of deception. Rostand uses this to further Cyrano’s stance as a tragic hero. This is done to contrast the different motives of the two characters. Christian is shown as using deception as a way to fool Roxanne in believing he is something he is not. This shows his vain character and need to appear as a perfect man. Cyrano, however, is shown to have compassion by assisting Christian and putting himself aside to find a way to express his love to Roxanne. It’s is noted in “Debating Deception,” how it is evident that Cyrano seems “heroic and selfless” due to his sacrifice for the
Cyrano is a very loyal person. An act where he showed that is when he fought one hundred men in order to protect his friend, Ragueneau. Cyrano's loyalty is demonstrated again by his keeping his promises to his “secret love” Roxane that h...
...es Apollo left” (89). Poetry destroyed the marriage of Lise and Ragueneau; she didn’t value art as much as he did. Conversely Christian decides to talk to Roxane without any of the poetic letters that Cyrano has been giving him. Christian has no other words to say than, “ I love you” (102). Christian does not have the same ability to woo her as Cyrano has. So then come Cyrano for the rescue and he says, “ Let us try what can be done; It is more than you deserve—stand over there, Idiot—there! —before the balcony—Let me stand underneath. I’ll whisper you what to say” (104). Cyrano helps Christian, being useful the setting in the Balcony, the darkness and Cyrano hiding and telling Christian what to say sets up the appearance for Christian. Cyrano’s poetic language saves Christian from getting rejected from Roxane; Cyrano saved their relationship.
Cyrano has unknowingly created a sort of psychological trap in which women are kept on the outside and men are free to roam within. Lacking confidence around women, he is forced to pour his heart out on to letters and is deprived of any kind of physical contact with the opposite gender. Without confidence, a man's attempts at any kind of a relationship with a woman are almost always thwarted because in order for a woman to be attracted to a man, she must first see confidence in him. Since Cyrano has no confidence in his ability with women, he is stuck in a never-ending cycle of rejection and loneliness.
Cyrano confides with his friend Le Bret that he is in love with his cousin Roxane. Le Bret advises Cyrano that he should tell Roxane his feelings because there was no better time than now to tell her his feelings after she witness...
After reading the entire play, the reader can safely say that fate works in mysterious ways. To love and be loved in return is considered by many to be one of the greatest gifts a human being can receive. At the same time, it is thought of as unbearable to love someone you cannot be with. Especially when the reasoning behind limitations is cau...
The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
There are many stories about a guy with the name, Cyrano. Each story is interesting in its own way. One version of the story is the movie, Roxanne. The director of Roxanne is Fred Schepsi. The original play is written by Edmond Rostand in 1897. The two stories shares similarities, but also there are differences. Each version has its pros and cons. They are both about men who are not very good looking, but they are full of “inner beauty.” There is a very pretty woman that they fall in love with, but the woman falls in love with a very handsome guy. The woman has to choose between either “inner beauty” or “outer beauty.” In the beginning the woman chooses physical attractiveness, but later on the woman chooses “inner beauty.”
Extreme passion results in irrational actions with horrifying consequences. The indecisive and fervent whims regarding love and the human heart are often selfish and fickle. For the victims of love, destruction is often inevitable. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, unrequited love forces both Romeo and Juliet to commit suicide, as neither one believes it is possible to continue life without the other. Both, through mere days of desperation, elation, deception, and grief, were ultimately cheated out of their lives by their love. Shakespeare develops a similar opinion through Helena in A Midsummers Night’s Dream. Helena is able to recognize love as a volatile creature, yet with uncontrollable power over the heart.The transient nature of love is channeled through deception and clouded judgement.
...he will do anything for her, even die for someone she loves. Lucie recalls Sydney by opening him up to doing something with his life. He later uses this new mindset to save Charles’s life. After Sydney is inspired to make something of his life he vows to do something good. To do this, he dies for Charles Darnay to show his love for Lucie. This is how Sydney Carton is recalled to life.