Cyrano De Bergerac Research Paper

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Mia Eckstein Mrs. Morav Great Literature 14 May 2024

Qualifications for a Romantic Play Romance was a controversial genre at the time that Cyrano de Bergerac was published. Avid readers considered romance scandalous and inappropriate. I believe that because of romance’s reputation, Edmond Rostand tried his best to disguise the book as a story with a different genre. However, because of this disguise, many literary critics now debate over whether or not the play is actually a romantic one. In this paper, I am going to prove that Cyrano de Bergerac is a romantic play. In order to do so, I will outline the four qualities of a romantic play: a protagonist who is noble in spirit, a protagonist who is timelessly relatable, an unrealistic plot …show more content…
Since our introduction to Cyrano, he has outwardly displayed himself as an individual with almost overwhelming strength and nobility. Although my example could be from the very first scene with him in it, I believe that it does not do him justice. Although Cyrano is a man who is sensitive to remarks made about his appearance, I believe that his resistance and fighting against these insensitive insults do not do him justice. I believe that Cyrano demonstrates his best, noble self when he is fighting for others. In the first act, Ligniere is threatened by Comte de Guiche after he writes a song about De Guiche’s intentions to sleep with Roxane. After De Guiche threatens Ligniere with a hundred men set on killing him, Cyrano steps in. Cyrano is moved by Ligniere’s passion for a woman he met at church, and decides to protect Ligniere against De Guiche’s attack. This instance clearly demonstrates Cyrano’s nobility because he is fighting for what he believes is virtuous. Lignieres' good-natured intentions set a flame in Cyrano to defend him against an army hired by a man corrupted by power. In order to deem a play a romance, the reader must be able to connect to the protagonist. Cyrano is a relatable character, not for his specific …show more content…
For one, I find it extremely improbable that a man who has dealt with unrequited love since childhood would team up with his crush’s love interest in order to grant him the woman that he has been longing for his entire life. Not to mention the fact that after the handsome love interest gives authority to tell the truth of the situation, he lies again and waits until his painful death to explain to the woman of his dreams that the letters and words spoken were actually his own. As unrealistic as the plotline is, it tells a story of unrequited love and the lengths that one would go for love. Finally, a romantic play must have poetic language. The best poetic, lyrical works from Cyrano de Bergerac come from Cyrano’s words and letters that he has recited over the years in hopes of presenting these works to Roxane one day. The immense utilization of literary devices speaks for themselves in his words, so I am going to provide just a singular example directly from the book. “Because. what am I. What is any man, That he dare ask for you? Therefore my heart hides behind these phrases. There’s a modesty in these things too– I come here to pluck down out of the sky the evening star– then
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