Cyrano De Bergerac Deception Essay

Edmond Rostand, a very distinguished and illustrious French author, is renowned to be an accomplished writer on culture and society, particularly the way culture plays a key role in how characters live their lives, and how society and societal ideals ultimately determine the fate of the characters. An audience can best observe Rostand’s abilities in his most famous play, Cyrano de Bergerac, written in 1897. Through the characters and their interactions in this play, Rostand sheds light on the realities of love, the dangers of deception, and the perception of inner and outer beauty. Love is a powerful word, deception is a quick way to gain little things and lose big things, and beauty is not always something the is visible to the eyes.

After deciding to befriend the man that Roxane loves, Cyrano tells Christian “I'll lend you my eloquence! If you’ll lend me your handsome face! Blended together, we’ll make one romantic hero!”(II. Rostand 61). The two of them team up and pretend to be an imaginary person with Christian’s physical beauty and Cyrano’s intelligence. Cyrano’s willingness to deceive Roxane in order to help Christian, and perhaps win her love for himself, is what ultimately prevents him from having her at all. Rostand makes Christian relatable because of his want to be loved for who he really is, instead of his looks. He may not be the most intelligent man in the world, but he still displays love through his words. Christian wants to feel as though he is good enough for Roxane, even though he knows he truly isn't. Nevertheless, when Cyrano asks and says “Do you think you can repeat whatever I may tell you? Roxane will not be disillusioned if the two of us woo her as one! Let my words speak through your lips. Let my soul pass from this leather jacket to your embroidered coat. We will win her together!”(II. Rostand 61-62), Christian doesn't hesitate to go along with the plan and calls Cyrano “my friend!”(II. Rostand 62). Even though they win Roxane's love through a lie, they both actually do get a ‘piece’ of Roxane’s love, one physically, and the other intellectually. I understand why Christian and Cyrano did what they did. They had great intentions,

Cyrano is depicted as an ugly man simply because of his nose. When he insulted about his nose by Valvert, a man that also has eyes for Roxane, Cyrano calmly asks and says “is that all? That was trifle short! You might have said at least a hundred things by varying the tone”(I.Rostand 28), and cyrano evens give Valvert more and better insults that he could have said. Cyrano himself makes slight remarks about himself and is surprisingly confident and comfortable with his nose, but when others insult it, he shows that he is not as comfortable as he seems, and ties into the fact that his appearance is an insecurity. Although Cyrano is not considered beautiful in the outside, he is beyond beautiful in the inside. His ability to write poems passionately and beautifully goes beyond his nose and in this case, his words spoke louder than his actions. In fact, his internal beauty is what Roxane is honestly in love with. Cyrano’s nose shows his uniqueness and sets him apart from the rest. Roxane refused to look past his ‘ugliness’, therefore she never got to find out who her true love was until it was too late. She saw Christian’s beauty and instantly fell in love. Inner and outer beauty also comes to okay, when Roxane finally says that she “began to love Christian not only for his beauty, but for also his soul”(IV. Rostand 108). Roxane has finally