Play Analysis Prolect

Analyze a play chosen from a list of approved plays below:
4 – Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, Peer Gynt; A Doll’s House
-a- Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author
-3- Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesmfil; The Crucible
wt. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun
a – (- Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac
r2 – August Strindberg’s Miss Julie; A Dream Play
a- A.R. Gurney’s The Dining Room
3- Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs
a a- Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie;
w- David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly;
n – Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive
n,- Any work by William Shakespeare (except Much Ado About Nothing)
1’}- Suzan-Lori Parks’ TopDong lnderDog, The America Play
You will analyze the:
structure of the play (stasis, conflict, climax, dénouement)
0 Genre or genres the play fits into
Character
0 Theme/ message (how it talks about our humanity)
0 History of production (what was done before)
Citing at least two reviews of major productions of the play.
As well as take the helm of a fantasy production of the text you chose, vividly
describing how you would direct and design the piece.

CYRANO DE BERGERAC
Edmond Rostand

Act I, scenes i–iii
Summary — Act I, scene i
In the year 1640, the Hall of the Hotel de Bourgogne—a large, crowded Parisian theater—buzzes with activity in the minutes before a performance of the play La Clorise. People mill about and converse, divided according to their social class. A citizen guides his son through the room, impressing upon him the intellectual magnitude of the performance. A thief moves through the crowd, stealing handkerchiefs and purses. A group of pages runs about firing peashooters at one another. Two elegant marquises, with swords strapped to their waists, tread through the crowd, aloof and condescending. The lamps are lit, and the crowd cheers, knowing the performance will commence soon.
Summary — Act I, scene ii
The audience waits for the play to begin. The disheveled satirist Ligniere enters, arm in arm, with the handsome young nobleman Baron Christian de Neuvillette, who tells a group of admiring marquises that he has been in Paris only two or three weeks and that he will join the guards tomorrow. Ligniere has come to report to Christian about the woman with whom Christian has fallen in love. Christian says she is always at the plays. But she has not arrived yet, and Ligniere prepares to leave—he says he needs to find a tavern. When a refreshment girl passes by with wine, Ligniere agrees to stay. Ragueneau, a baker who caters to and idolizes poets, enters, looking for Cyrano de Bergerac. He says he expects trouble because an actor named Montfleury is performing in the play. He knows Cyrano hates Montfleury and has banned him from performing onstage for a month.
Christian has never heard of Cyrano de Bergerac, but Ragueneau and Ligniere seem to be almost in awe of him. Christian asks who Cyrano is, and his friend Le Bret says that Cyrano is the “most delightful man under the sun.” The others describe him as a poet, swordsman, scientist, musician, and “wild swashbuckler” with a long sword. They also say he has an unbelievably long and imposing nose. But he is a formidable figure, and Le Bret, who serves with Cyrano in the guards, says he too expects trouble.
Suddenly, Christian spies the woman with whom he has fallen in love. Ligniere tells him that she is Roxane, a brilliant, young heiress and intellectual. She sits in a box with a somewhat older man—the Comte de Guiche, who is also in love with her. Ligniere says the Comte is married and hopes to marry Roxane to his lackey, the Vicomte de Valvert. Christian is most upset to learn that Roxane is an intellectual. Ligniere leaves to find a tavern, and there is still no sign of Cyrano. The crowd grows anxious for the play to begin.
Summary — Act I, scene iii
The two marquises discuss de Guiche distastefully as he walks toward them. Christian observes their exchange. Christian decides to challenge de Guiche’s lackey, Valvert, to a duel; as he reaches for his glove, with which he plans to challenge Valvert by slapping him in the face with it, he catches the hand of a pickpocket. In exchange for his release, the thief tells Christian that Ligniere’s latest satire has offended a powerful man, who has arranged for Ligniere to be ambushed by a hundred men later that night on his way home. Christian leaves to save Ligniere.
The crowd begins to chant for the play. Three raps sound from the stage, and the crowd becomes quiet. The curtains open. The violins play. Le Bret and Ragueneau decide that Cyrano must not be in the audience since Montfleury, the actor whom Cyrano detests, is about to make his entrance. Dressed as a shepherd, the pudgy actor walks onto the stage and begins to deliver a speech. Suddenly, a voice from the crowd cries out, “Haven’t I ordered you off the stage for a month, you wretched scoundrel?” The speaker is hidden, but Le Bret knows it must be Cyrano. Montfleury makes several attempts to begin his lines, but the heckling speaker continues to interrupt him. Cyrano finally stands upon his chair, and his appearance creates a stir throughout the audience.
Act I, scenes i–iii (page 2)
Analysis — Act I, scenes i–iii
This long scene introduces a host of important characters, the main facts of the story, and a suspenseful, miniature story line designed to demonstrate the overwhelming character of Cyrano de Bergerac. The exchanges between the characters in the first two scenes provide the ground for the subsequent action of the play, heightening the suspense surrounding Cyrano’s character by keeping him physically absent until just after the performance begins. Cyrano stands apart from the rest of the characters, who appear to be somewhat dull and predictable.
Rostand’s play romanticizes an era that was looked upon nostalgically by some nineteenth-century writers. Written around 1897, Cyrano de Bergerac is set in 1640. The play is not a realistic interpretation of the time it describes, but rather a historical romance, designed to evoke the glory of France during the age of Louis XIII and to provide an entertaining escape for its audience. The play takes many of its stereotypical representations from Dumas’s popular novel The Three Musketeers. Several references to Dumas’s work appear in the play. In Act I, scene iv, after Cyrano fights in a dramatic duel, his friend Cuigy wittily claims that Cyrano’s name is Dartagnan. (D’Artagnan is the hero of Dumas’s novel, written 200 years after the time in which Cyrano de Bergerac is set.) Later, Le Bret admonishes Cyrano to “stop trying to be Three Musketeers in one!”
The opening scenes emphasize the importance of the theater in seventeenth-century France. The theater patrons include thieves, lackeys, pages, and cavaliers—a veritable cross section of French society at the time. Several patrons come to the theater to do everything but watch the play. Some pick pockets, others play cards, others want to be seen and improve their social status. Rostand parodies inattentive audiences and supposedly bad actors like Montfleury to provide a critique of the theater of his era. By opening the play with such a critical portrayal, Rostand captures the audience’s attention and subtly encourages them to listen up and behave appropriately.
Summary — Act I, scene iv
Montfleury cries out to the group of marquises for help, and several respond. They try to quiet Cyrano, who invokes several poetic metaphors as he threatens to kill them all: “Please have pity on my sword: if you don’t stop shouting you’ll frighten it out of its scabbard.” As the crowd gasps and strains to see, Cyrano offers a universal challenge to the marquises, saying he will take their names and fight them each in turn. None of the marquises take his challenge. He gives Montfleury to the count of three to leave the stage, and the actor flees.
The crowd is in a tumult. Cyrano proclaims that Montfleury is a horrible actor and that the play is wretched. Moreover, Cyrano says he has personal reasons for forbidding Montfleury to perform. The manager of the stage indignantly asks about the money he will lose from the performance, and Cyrano dramatically tosses him a purse full of gold. A meddler storms up to Cyrano and declares that Montfleury has a powerful patron. Cyrano exclaims that he himself has no patron or any need for one because he can protect himself with his sword. He accuses the meddler of staring at his nose, and he bullies him about the room. Cowed, the meddler insists that he was not staring and suggests that Cyrano’s nose is small. Cyrano angrily exclaims that his nose is magnificent.
De Guiche declares to Valvert that Cyrano is tiresome. Valvert agrees to put him in his place and, approaching Cyrano, tries to goad him by saying that Cyrano has a “very big” nose. Affecting astonishment at the man’s lack of wit, Cyrano offers a long list of better insults that he himself might have used in Valvert’s situation. He continues to mock Valvert, who challenges him to a duel. Cyrano declares that as he fights Valvert, he will speak an extemporaneous poem and kill Valvert on the last line.
Act I, scenes i–iii (page 3)
Enthralled, the crowd forms a ring around the combatants. Cyrano and Valvert draw their swords and begin to fight. As they fight, Cyrano invents a poem that matches exactly the action of the duel. As promised, on the last line of the refrain, he thrusts, and Valvert falls backward, beaten and badly wounded. The crowd cheers ecstatically. Gradually, the crowd disperses for dinner. Le Bret asks Cyrano why he does not go to eat and Cyrano replies that he has no money. Le Bret asks about the purse of gold Cyrano threw to the stage manager, Bellerose, and Cyrano reveals that it was all the money he had and that it should have lasted him for a month. The refreshment girl offers him food. Eager not to injure his pride or betray a lack of respect for the girl’s offer, he accepts only one grape, a half of a macaroon, and a glass of water.
Summary — Act I, scene v
Le Bret reminds Cyrano that his extravagant behavior is making him enemies. Cyrano says that the thought of having so many enemies makes him happy. Cyrano confides in Le Bret that he has insecurities concerning his nose and his romantic failures. He also reveals to Le Bret that he hates Montfleury because one day Montfleury glanced flirtatiously at the woman whom Cyrano loves. Le Bret asks about the woman but quickly realizes that the only woman beautiful and brilliant enough for Cyrano to love must be Roxane. Cyrano says that given his appearance, he can never reveal his love.
Summary — Act I, scene vi
Roxane’s duenna appears and interrupts their conversation. She has a message for Cyrano: Roxane wants to see him. Tremendously excited, and perhaps a bit nervous, he agrees to meet her at Ragueneau’s shop at seven o’clock the next morning.
Summary — Act I, scene vii
Ligniere rushes in. He tells Cyrano about the hundred men waiting at the Porte de Nesle to kill him and announces that he is too afraid to go home. He asks if Cyrano can host him for the evening, but Cyrano scoffs: “A hundred men, you say?—You’ll sleep at home tonight!” He declares that he will fight all hundred men and escort Ligniere safely home. Le Bret asks why Cyrano would want to help a drunkard, and Cyrano says that he once saw Ligniere drink a whole font of holy water dry after a beautiful woman had blessed herself with it. For a gesture like that, he says, he will -protect Ligniere.
The actors and musicians rehearsing in the theater buzz about Cyrano’s behavior. He tells them that he wants an audience and that they can follow him. But he warns them that he wants no protection. As he strides boldly out of the theater, the crowd forms a procession to follow him to the Porte de Nestle.
Analysis — Act I, scenes iv–vii
In these scenes, Cyrano appears almost superhuman in his grace, agility, and wit. He demonstrates his uncanny sense of humor and his willingness to laugh at himself and his nose. In standing up to Valvert, he shows off his unparalleled wit, as well as his courage and strength. His ability to compose a ballad while simultaneously displaying his talent for swordfighting is remarkable. His display of modesty and humility toward the theater patrons and the refreshment girl shows his gentlemanly nature. Cyrano’s unsightly nose becomes only one of many characteristics that distinguish him from everyone else in the play. This first act establishes Cyrano as uniquely gifted and heroic. More than merely a central character, he is a living legend.
Cyrano also shows his humble side in these scenes. He presents his heroism and eclectic skills to the public, and shows his emotional turmoil and self-doubt to his closest friends. He explains to Le Bret that he sometimes becomes depressed because of his nose and because he is not like the other lovers he sees. In some ways, his sense of alienation seems to prompt Cyrano to search for love even more ardently. But he is also unreasonably tough on himself, focusing only on his failures, imperfections, and weaknesses.
Rostand subtitles Cyrano de Bergerac a “heroic comedy,” a description that applies perfectly to the first act. Cyrano’s brash, arrogant behavior is so astonishing that his ridiculously long nose, which might otherwise be the defining feature of his character, is humorous only for a moment. The nose becomes another extraordinary feature of this extraordinary character, and we are moved to laugh with Cyrano rather than at him. Rostand successfully diverts the tendency to fixate on Cyrano’s odd appearance by emphasizing his extraordinary character instead. Cyrano’s countless displays of wit, valor, and heroism—most notably his resolve to defend Ligniere from a hundred men—make him into an exaggerated stereotype of the swashbuckling, seventeenth-century poet-cavalier.
There is an inherent parallel between the audience in the Hotel de Bourgogne and the audience watching (or reading) Rostand’s play. The reactions of the crowd enable us to sense the scope and magnitude of Cyrano’s feats. They shout platitudes and celebratory adjectives that help put Cyrano’s feats into perspective, evoking a sense of immediacy and presence.
Act II, scenes i–vi
Summary — Act II, scene i
The next morning dawns. The scene is Ragueneau’s bakery. The bakery bustles with activity as Ragueneau and his pastry cooks prepare the day’s wares. Obsessed with poetry, Ragueneau has written all of his recipes in the form of poems. One of the cooks delights him with a pastry lyre.
Ragueneau’s wife, Lise, enters furiously, angry with Ragueneau for yet again giving away baked goods to poets in return for their verses. She shows him a new batch of paper bags she has made for the shop, shocking her husband because the bags are made from poet’s manuscripts.
Summary — Act II, scene ii
Two children enter the shop and order three small pies. Ragueneau struggles to find a bag, and a poem, with which he can part. After Lise is out of sight, Ragueneau brings the children back and offers to give them more pastries if they will return the bags that have poetry written on them.
Summary — Act II, scene iii
Cyrano appears and tells Ragueneau he is meeting someone. Noticeably nervous and jumpy, Cyrano constantly asks what time it is and cannot sit still. Lise asks Cyrano how he cut his hand, but he refuses to talk about it. A musketeer arrives and Ragueneau says the man is his wife’s friend.
Summary — Act II, scene iv
Some poets arrive and begin eating Ragueneau’s wares, describing the food poetically and thereby delighting the baker. Cyrano tries to write something to Roxane. When Ragueneau leaves, Cyrano warns Lise that Ragueneau is his friend and that he will not tolerate her having an affair with the musketeer. The musketeer hears what he says but does not dare to challenge Cyrano.
Summary — Act II, scene v
Roxane arrives. Overcome with love, Cyrano sends everyone else away. He gives the duenna pastries to distract her while he and Roxane spend time together.
Act II, scenes i–vi (page 2)
Summary — Act II, scene vi
Cyrano and Roxane begin to talk alone. Cyrano anxiously asks Roxane to state why she has come to talk to him. She shrugs off his insistence, and they reminisce about the childhood summers they spent together. She tends to his wounded hand, and Cyrano tells her he injured it in a fight the night before in which he defeated a hundred men. Roxane confesses to Cyrano that she is in love with someone, a man who does not know she loves him. Cyrano thinks she means him, but when she describes the man as “handsome,” he knows that she means someone else. She tells him that she is in love with Christian, the new member of Cyrano’s company of guards. She says that she is afraid for Christian because Cyrano’s company is composed of hot-blooded Gascons who pick fights with anyone foreign. Christian is not a Gascon. Roxane asks Cyrano to protect him, and Cyrano agrees. She also asks Cyrano to have Christian write to her. Professing friendly love and admiration for Cyrano, she leaves.
Analysis — Act II, scenes i–vi
In Cyrano de Bergerac, poetry either splits lovers apart or binds them together. Poetry divides Ragueneau and Lise, providing the main conflict in their marriage. Whereas Ragueneau is a caring, compassionate individual with a weakness for poets and poetry, Lise, his domineering wife, disparages poetry, pasting old pages of poems together to make bags for the shop. Her disgust becomes even more obvious when her affair with the musketeer becomes apparent. Ragueneau risks his business and his marriage by constantly giving out large amounts of pastries in return for poems. Meanwhile, the power of poetry will soon begin to bring other lovers together, and Ragueneau’s poetic shop will play an important role in that process. In this scene, the sequence of letter-writing that continues through the rest of the play begins when Roxane and Cyrano meet in Ragueneau’s shop.
Cyrano once again exhibits his greatest strengths and weaknesses within the same scene. He stands up for Ragueneau’s honor by threatening Lise and the musketeer. Cyrano will not allow them to deceive Ragueneau while they continue their dishonorable affair. Cyrano may not cherish Ragueneau’s poems, but he respects his character and the goodwill he shows to him and to the other poets. Cyrano’s fragility comes across in his nervousness during his meeting with Roxane. Cyrano is often courageous and fearless, but not when it comes to love. Despite his remarkable talents and abilities, he has the self-doubt and sense of vulnerability common to almost everyone.
When Roxane arrives, it seems as though Cyrano’s dream has come true. She begins to talk about a love interest of hers, and throughout her lengthy and somewhat stealthy description of the man, Cyrano appears to believe that she is talking about him. When she says that this man is “handsome,” Cyrano concludes that the man cannot be him, highlighting one of his most profound and destructive flaws—lack of self-esteem. Cyrano soon convinces himself that Roxane will never reciprocate his love. Sad and despondent, Cyrano resolves to help Christian win her heart. Cyrano’s resolve, as well as his promise to protect Christian, demonstrates his essential heroic qualities. He combats rejection and dejection with selfless love—perhaps Cyrano’s most impressive quality displayed thus far.
Act II, scenes vii–xi
Summary — Act II, scene vii
Cyrano’s company of guards tumbles into the shop, ecstatic over Cyrano’s triumphs the night before. The whole city is in a tumult over the sensation he created. Carbon, the captain of the guards, tries to lead Cyrano out into the adoring throng, but Cyrano refuses to go. People begin rushing into the store, doting on Cyrano. Prominent men ask for the details of the night before; Cyrano’s friends see an opportunity for him to help his career, but he refuses to provide any details. De Guiche enters with a message of admiration, and Cyrano presents to him the song of the Cadets of Gascoyne. De Guiche suggests that his uncle, Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful man in France, might be willing to help Cyrano. But again Cyrano refuses. During the hubbub, a cadet appears with a set of hats belonging to the men Cyrano defeated the previous night. De Guiche reveals that he hired the hundred men, and he angrily storms out of the store. The crowd dissipates, and only the guards remain.
Summary — Act II, scene viii
Le Bret argues that Cyrano is ruining his chances of becoming a successful man or a famous poet. Cyrano says he will live according to his ideals and that he has no interest in making friends with unworthy men. Suddenly, Christian enters.
Summary — Act II, scene ix
The other guardsmen, not privy to Cyrano’s vow to Roxane, tease Christian and warn him never to mention Cyrano’s nose. Christian, upset that he is being teased, asks Carbon what to do when Gascons grow too boastful. Carbon replies that he must prove a man can be a Norman and still have courage. So when Cyrano begins to tell the story of his fight with the hundred men, Christian repeatedly interrupts him with references to his nose. Cyrano fills with anger, and the cadets expect him to attack Christian. Remembering his promise to protect Christian, however, Cyrano controls himself. Christian’s insults continue until at last Cyrano angrily sends away the cadets. Expecting him to kill Christian, they hasten from the room.
Summary — Act II, scene x
Rather than killing Christian, Cyrano embraces him and reveals that he is Roxane’s cousin. Christian proclaims that he simply cannot write to Roxane because he is too stupid—he thinks she will lose all feeling for him the moment she reads his words. Struck by a powerful idea, Cyrano offers to write letters for Christian—though he says he is only interested in practicing his comic poetry, inwardly, he burns for the opportunity to express his feelings to Roxane. Christian agrees, and they embrace again.
Summary — Act II, scene xi
The cadets return to the room, stunned to see that not only is Christian still alive, but that he is embracing Cyrano. Lise’s musketeer decides to follow Christian’s lead and insults Cyrano’s nose. Cyrano knocks him over a bench. The cadets, pleased to have their old Cyrano back, rejoice.
Analysis — Act II, scenes vii–xi
The structure of Act II is important for several reasons. It introduces the plot’s main event: Cyrano’s plan to woo Roxane for Christian by writing the letters himself. It shows Cyrano at the peak of his sensational popularity following his triumph at the theater and in the duel against a hundred men. It also shows how his pride and virtue compel him to shun his popularity.
Act II, scenes vii–xi (page 2)
Rostand expresses in words the code of behavior to which Cyrano swears. Cyrano’s refusal of Richelieu’s patronage is significant. Rather than pander to money and power by taking a great offer to become financially and politically backed by the most powerful man in France, Cyrano prefers to live by the ideals and values that he holds dear. Moreover, Cyrano’s argument with Le Bret over Cyrano’s rash behavior shows his allegiance to integrity, impetuousness, bravery, wit, the pursuit of glory, and the idealization of love and women—all in the face of great enmity. These connote the most important, recurring themes of the play.
Another important theme ofCyrano de Bergerac is the traditional contrast between inner worth and outward appearance, embodied mainly in the opposing characters of Cyrano and Christian. Christian and Cyrano are opposites in several ways. One is ugly, the other handsome. One is smart and artistic, the other simple. One is confident, the other noticeably shy but effectively charming. Cyrano, despite his awkward physical appearance, is the “most delightful man under the sun,” a consistently brilliant and soulful man. Christian is beautiful to look at, but he lacks wit, poetry, and fire. By working together to woo Roxane, they form a more powerful single character, a “romantic hero.” This romantic hero has the best of both worlds: Cyrano’s inner beauty and Christian’s outer beauty. Though together they form a romantic hero, Cyrano and Christian also risk becoming perceived as part fraud and part coward.
Act III, scenes i–iv
Summary — Act III, scene i
Ragueneau sits outside Roxane’s house conversing with her duenna. He tells the duenna that his wife, Lise, ran off with a musketeer and that his bakery is ruined. He says that he tried to hang himself but that Cyrano found him, cut him down, and made him Roxane’s steward. The duenna calls up to Roxane, telling her to hurry. They are going to a discussion group on the tender passion. Cyrano strides into the scene followed by a pair of musicians, whose services he won in a bet over a fine point of grammar. The musicians are terrible, however, and Cyrano sends them off to play an out-of-tune serenade to Montfleury.
Roxane comes down, and she and Cyrano talk about Christian. Roxane says that Christian’s letters have been breathtaking—he is more intellectual than even Cyrano, she declares. Moreover, she says that she loves Christian. She recites passages of the letters to Cyrano, who makes a show of critiquing the poetry. Roxane says that Cyrano is jealous of Christian’s poetic talent. The duenna cries out that de Guiche is coming, and Cyrano, hastened by the duenna, hides inside the house.
Summary — Act III, scene iii
Roxane expects Christian to come visit her, and she tells the duenna to make him wait if he does. Cyrano presses Roxane to disclose that instead of questioning Christian on any particular subject, she plans to make Christian improvise about love. Cyrano agrees that he will not tell Christian the details of her plot, a gesture Roxane appreciates. She conjectures that Christian would prepare a speech to her if he knew. Roxane and the duenna leave, and Cyrano calls to Christian, who has been waiting nearby.
Summary — Act III, scene iv
Cyrano tries to help Christian prepare for his meeting with Roxane. He urges Christian to learn lines Cyrano has written. But Christian refuses. He says he wants to speak to Roxane in his own words, and Cyrano bows to Christian, saying, “Speak for yourself, sir.”
Analysis — Act III, scenes i–iv
Rostand’s play does not hold musketeers in high esteem. This dislike becomes immediately apparent when the distasteful Lise runs away with one. Many of the references to the musketeers and to Dumas’s The Three Musketeers are overwhelmingly negative. By this point, the musketeers have been developed as symbols of an antiquated and corrupt past. Rostand uses the musketeers as moral foils, contrasting them with more noble characters, such as Cyrano, Roxane, and even Christian. For instance, when Lise’s despicable actions with the musketeer drive Ragueneau to desperate measures, Cyrano saves Ragueneau’s life, consoles him, and finds him a job. Cyrano cleans up the mess made by the musketeers.
Act III, scenes i–iv (page 2)
Cyrano’s development as a heroic and moral character becomes even more remarkable in these scenes. He displays his knowledge of music, language, and mathematics. Despite his affection for Roxane, Cyrano enjoys helping Christian win her love, a fact that exemplifies Cyrano’s attraction to challenges of all kinds. But he also displays modesty: when Roxane praises the letters, which he secretly wrote, Cyrano does not believe that they have truly affected her. He realizes this impact, or allows himself to realize it, only when Roxane recites many of the lines back to him by heart. Cyrano may be proud, but he is also unbelievably humble.
These scenes present Roxane as an expert moderator who has powerful skills of persuasion. First, she convinces Cyrano about the beauty of the letters. But her most important achievement is persuading de Guiche to forgo taking vengeance upon Cyrano. Perhaps de Guiche’s reluctance can be attributed to his feelings for Roxane, but it is her persuasive flirting that clearly affects him.
The contrast between Cyrano and Christian intensifies in these scenes: Cyrano is humble and reserved, and Christian is proud and supremely confident, yet simple-minded. Given Cyrano’s incomparable love for Roxane, his ability to maintain a strong sense of reserve as she compliments the letters is remarkable. In comparison, Christian is more excited than Cyrano, though he did not even write the letters. At the end of scene iv, Christian seems somewhat unappreciative of Cyrano and believes the wooing is complete. Christian doesn’t understand that his decision to speak to Roxane without Cyrano’s help might lead him down a difficult and disastrous path.
Act III, scenes v–xiv
Summary — Act III, scene v
Roxane and the duenna return. Roxane and Christian sit outdoors, and Roxane asks Christian to tell her how he loves her. He tries, but all he can say is “I love you,” “I adore you,” “I love you very much,” and other simple variations. Angry, Roxane goes into the house. Cyrano returns, ironically congratulating Christian on his great success.
Summary — Act III, scene vi
Seeing a light in Roxane’s window, Christian asks Cyrano for help. In the dark, Cyrano hides underneath Roxane’s balcony while Christian stands in front of it. He throws gravel at Roxane’s window, and when she comes out, Cyrano whispers words for Christian to recite.
Summary — Act III, scene vii
Moved by Christian’s words, Roxane then asks why he speaks so haltingly. Impatient, Cyrano thrusts Christian under the balcony and takes his place, still hidden in darkness. Speaking in a low voice, he confides in Roxane the things he has always longed to tell her. As Roxane becomes more and more hypnotized by Cyrano’s poetry, Christian cries out from beneath the balcony that he wants one kiss. At first, Cyrano tries to dissuade him, but he decides that he cannot prevent the inevitable and that, at the very least, he would like to be the one to win the kiss. Thus, Cyrano stands beneath Roxane’s balcony and persuades her to kiss him. Christian climbs up to receive the kiss.
Summary — Act III, scene viii
A Capuchin priest enters, having found his way to Roxane’s house. He presents a letter from de Guiche. The letter says that de Guiche has escaped his military service by hiding in a convent. Pretending to read it aloud, Roxane says that de Guiche desires the Capuchin to marry Roxane and Christian on the spot. The Capuchin hesitates, but Roxane pretends to discover a postscript that promises a great deal of money to the convent in exchange. Suddenly, the Capuchin’s reservations evaporate, and he goes inside to marry them.
Summary — Act III, scene ix
Cyrano waits outside to prevent de Guiche from disrupting the impromptu wedding.
Summary — Act III, scene x
De Guiche appears. Covering his face with his hat, Cyrano leaps onto de Guiche from a tree. Pretending to be a person who has just fallen from the moon, he distracts de Guiche with an insane speech about his experiences in space. At last he removes his hat, reveals himself as Cyrano, and announces that Roxane and Christian are now married.
Act III, scenes v–xiv (page 2)
Summary — Act III, scene xi
The couple comes out of the house. De Guiche coldly congratulates them but orders Roxane to bid her husband farewell: the guards will go to the war after all, and they will depart immediately. De Guiche triumphantly tells Cyrano that the wedding night will have to wait. Under his breath, Cyrano remarks that the news fails to upset him.
Roxane, afraid for Christian, urges Cyrano to promise to keep him safe, to keep him out of dangerous situations, to keep him dry and warm, and to keep him faithful. Cyrano says that he will do what he can but that he cannot promise anything. Roxane begs Cyrano to promise to make Christian write to her every day. Brightening, Cyrano announces confidently that he can promise that.
Analysis — Act III, scenes v–xiv
The balcony scene is the most famous scene in Cyrano de Bergerac. It is at once brilliantly funny and genuinely touching. The humor of the play becomes more sophisticated in Act III. In the earlier parts of the play, most of the humor stems from Cyrano’s outrageous behavior. Here, the humor begins to take the form of elaborate dramatic irony. (Dramatic irony is a literary device that occurs when the audience knows or perceives more than the characters do.) For example, Roxane believes Cyrano to be Christian, and de Guiche doesn’t recognize Cyrano when he claims to have fallen from space. The comic timing in this act is flawless. Cyrano’s aside about how he secretly does not mind that the wedding night will be delayed comes at just the right moment. Another important source of humor in Act III is parody: the balcony scene derives a great deal of its humor by ridiculing the famous balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.
De Guiche, the play’s main antagonist, begins to influence the plot directly in this act. In Act I, de Guiche was in love with Roxane. Now, he takes steps to fulfill his love. At first, Roxane and Cyrano thwart those attempts. Roxane bribes the Capuchin, and Cyrano distracts de Guiche with his spaceman ploy. But de Guiche’s decision to send the cadets to war throws the whole plot into upheaval. De Guiche himself represents another reference to The Three Musketeers: in that play, Cardinal Richelieu is the principal villain, and here, the cardinal’s nephew turns into the primary antagonist.
Act IV, scenes i–v
Summary — Act IV, scene i
At the siege of Arras, the Cadets of Carbon de Castel-Jaloux languish, surrounded by the encamped Spaniards and lacking food and water. Le Bret keeps watch with Carbon early one morning, and they discuss the plight of the soldiers. They hear gunfire in the distance, and Cyrano runs in. Every morning he has been crossing enemy lines to post a daily letter to Roxane. Cyrano tells the startled guards that he promised Roxane that Christian would write her every single day. Cyrano looks at the sleeping Christian and says that Christian is dying of hunger but is still handsome.
Summary — Act IV, scene ii
Dawn breaks, drums sound, and Cyrano goes off to write another letter. The cadets awaken and complain about their hunger. There is talk of a mutiny, and Carbon asks Cyrano for his help.
Summary — Act IV, scene iii
Cyrano comes out and talks to the cadets, restoring morale with a clever speech and his passionate commitment to the cause. He implores a piper to play a song from Provence, and though the cadets become tearfully homesick, they do forget about their hunger. De Guiche enters, evoking a general murmur of resentment from the cadets. Cyrano tells the miserable cadets to stop moping and to look busy as de Guiche arrives.
Summary — Act IV, scene iv
Prompted by Cyrano, de Guiche boasts of his conduct in the previous day’s battle when, to confuse the Spaniards, he flung away the white plume that marked him as an officer. Cyrano then proclaims that a courageous man would never have flung away the white plume, and he offers to wear it in the next bout of fighting. De Guiche says Cyrano makes the pledge only because he knows the plume lies somewhere on the battlefield. To the cadets’ delight, Cyrano produces the plume from his pocket.
Furious, de Guiche seizes the plume and waves it to a sentry, who runs toward the Spanish encampments. De Guiche says that he has just given a signal and that the Spanish will attack in perhaps an hour. He says that the cadets will all die but that, in the process, they will buy the French forces as much time as possible. Cyrano thanks de Guiche solemnly for the opportunity to die with glory.
Christian tells Cyrano he wishes he could say farewell to Roxane, and Cyrano shows him the farewell letter he has just written. Christian notices the mark of a tear on the letter and nearly guesses Cyrano’s secret. He is interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious coach.
Act IV, scenes i–v (page 2)
Summary — Act IV, scene v
De Guiche thinks that the coach is from the king’s service. But Roxane delightfully surprises both him and the other men when she climbs down from the coach. She says that the war was lasting too long and that she had to see Christian. Cyrano, Christian, and de Guiche tell her she must leave immediately because the Spaniards will attack soon. She refuses to leave, saying that she is brave—after all, she is Cyrano’s cousin. De Guiche leaves angrily.
Analysis — Act IV, scenes i–v
The beginning of Act IV marks a severe shift in tone and sentiment. The cadets, at war, are starving. Their morale is low, and they yearn to return home. Cyrano is the only soldier in decent spirits: his daily writing to Roxane gives him a sense of purpose in the difficult time. De Guiche decides to have his sentry advise the Spanish to attack the cadets, partly in revenge for his humiliation at the hands of Cyrano, but mainly because he needs to buy time as part of a larger military maneuver. Pitted against the overwhelming Spanish force, the cadets will suffer almost certain death.
The jokes in these scenes, while present, add to this shift in tone, providing a sense of unease rather than delight. For instance, while the hungry cadets sleep, Carbon evokes the proverb, “He who sleeps dines.” Le Bret agrees, but adds, “That’s not much comfort when you have insomnia.” Similarly, Cyrano’s observation, that Christian might be dying of hunger but still has his good looks, exemplifies a sense of humor that simultaneously creates and stifles laughter.
Still, Cyrano never misses an opportunity to highlight de Guiche’s hypocrisy and ignorance, and thus continues to bring a sense of vibrancy and life to the outwardly hopeless situation. The ironic exchange between Cyrano and de Guiche regarding the white plume adds to the impression that de Guiche is an inferior coward and buffoon. Cyrano accomplishes this feat through his use of irony and surprise. Intending to attack de Guiche for his cowardliness eventually, Cyrano prompts de Guiche to begin bragging about how he strategically fooled the enemy in the previous battle. After setting him up, Cyrano can now tear him down, showing not only how de Guiche threw away the symbol of courage, but how Cyrano braved the battlefield to retrieve the white plume.
Indeed, the white plume begins to symbolize idealistic bravery, honor, and glory. Worn by colonels, it serves the practical purpose of signaling to a brigade the whereabouts of the troops’ leader. However, it also might leave the colonel vulnerable to personal attack from the opposition. Yet, while de Guiche sees the plume as a limitation and cleverly evades the Spanish threat by casting it aside, Cyrano illustrates that the plume serves a higher purpose, adding respectability and honor to battle, so much so that Cyrano risks his own life to retrieve and honor it. Perhaps more romantic than realistic in nature, the plume and the ideals associated with it serve as a beacon for Cyrano’s insurmountable, uncompromising spirit.
Summary — Act IV, scene vi
Carbon presents the company to Roxane, and, to their surprise and delight, she produces Ragueneau—and the feast that he has prepared for the cadets—from the coach. The men gorge themselves, but when de Guiche reappears, they hide the food.
Act IV, scenes i–v (page 3)
Summary — Act IV, scene vii
De Guiche announces that if Roxane stays for the battle, he will stay to fight as well. The men decide that he must be a Gascon after all, and they offer him some food. He refuses, and they are even more impressed. Cyrano tells Christian that he has written Roxane more often than Christian thought—in fact, every day. Christian again suspects Cyrano’s secret, but Roxane interrupts.
Summary — Act IV, scene viii
Christian asks why Roxane risked death to see him again, and she says that she was driven mad by his beautiful love letters. She says that, at first, she loved only his beauty, but now she has forgotten about his beauty and loves his inner self, the soul she felt in the letters. When Roxane says she would love him even if he were ugly, Christian is miserable. He sends her to go speak to the cadets and to smile at them because they are about to die.
Summary — Act IV, scene ix
Christian tells Cyrano that Roxane is no longer in love with him. Instead, he says, she loves his “soul” and that means she loves Cyrano. He accuses Cyrano of secretly returning her love. Cyrano cannot deny it. Christian says that Cyrano must tell Roxane and ask her to choose between them. Christian calls Roxane and runs off toward the other men. Cyrano asks Roxane if she could really love Christian if he were ugly. She says that she could. Cyrano feels ecstatic and is on the cusp of revealing his secret when suddenly they hear gunfire. Le Bret cries out for Cyrano. He whispers something in Cyrano’s ear, and Cyrano says that now he can never tell Roxane his feelings. A group of men comes into the camp, carrying something. Soon, we see it is Christian’s body. He is dying.
Summary — Act IV, scene x
The men run off to fight, and Roxane collapses over Christian’s body. Cyrano leans down and whispers into Christian’s ear that he told Roxane the secret, and that she chose Christian. The battle breaks out all around them and Christian closes his eyes, dead. Next to Christian’s heart, Roxane finds the farewell letter that Cyrano wrote for Christian to give her. She faints with grief, and Cyrano sends Ragueneau and de Guiche to take her away and protect her. Carbon emerges from the fighting, twice wounded. But the army has returned, and the men will win if they can hold out only a little longer. Cyrano tells Carbon not to worry. Now, he says, he has two deaths to avenge: Christian’s and his own. Cyrano charges into battle. When he hears a Spaniard ask, “Who are these men who are so eager for death?” he begins to sing the song of the Cadets of Gascoyne. Cyrano charges off into a hail of bullets, singing as he fights.
Analysis — Act IV, scenes vi–x
The theme of inner versus outer beauty escalates and comes to a climax during the battle scene. Even as Roxane reveals that she values inner beauty more than physical attractiveness, Cyrano has been forging letters to her. His actions call into question his own integrity and open up the possibility that ultimately, he has calculated to win Roxane himself. Cyrano’s character appears tarnished at the very moment his words move Roxane to honor inner goodness. Her announcement completes the dissection and destruction of the romantic hero that Cyrano and Christian together created. Playing different halves of the hero, both Cyrano and Christian have proven to be inadequate. Because Cyrano cannot take credit for winning Roxane’s love without revealing his duplicity, the play’s triumphant moment belongs to love and to poetry, not to Cyrano.
The irony of this scene is staggering. Roxane travels far and takes great risks to tell Christian her wonderful news, and it turns out to be the worst news that Christian, and even Cyrano, could possibly hear. Still, Cyrano commits another act of tremendous chivalry when he consoles Christian—and tells him that Roxane picked Christian—just before he dies. Christian dies an honorable and happy death, as a good soldier and a fulfilled lover. Cyrano would rather spend the rest of his life apart from the woman he loves than dishonor the memory of his friend.
Moreover, Christian’s death symbolizes the death of the superficial half of the romantic hero. By denouncing the value of outer beauty, Roxane renders Christian an unimportant and useless part of the composite romantic hero.Though she doesn’t know it, Roxane loves the other half, the soul of the hero, played by Cyrano. Christian quickly dies and disappears from the play. Yet his death also prevents Cyrano from telling Roxane the truth and perhaps from making a moral mistake—dishonestly winning her love.
The war parallels the emotional war between the main characters. The climax of the play occurs on the battlefield when Christian, Cyrano, and Roxane interact with startling dialogue and emotion. The tension between Christian and Cyrano eases, dissolving the fused romantic hero they had attempted to become.
As Cyrano’s duplicity intensifies, de Guiche begins to redeem himself. He turns out to be a Gascon under all his Parisian trappings. One of the soldiers reveals that de Guiche has a Gascon accent. Because the main conflict in Cyrano de Bergerac lies within Cyrano, Rostand transforms his rather superficial villain into a newly minted hero without sacrificing the play’s dramatic drive.
Act V, scenes i-vi
Summary — Act V, scene, i
Fifteen years later, in 1655, the nuns of the Convent of the Ladies of the Cross in Paris talk about Cyrano. They say he makes them laugh, and they remark how he has come every week for more than ten years to visit his cousin Roxane, who first came to live in the convent after the death of her husband.
Summary — Act V, scene ii
Roxane enters the park of the convent accompanied by de Guiche, who, now an old man, is still magnificent and one of the most powerful nobles in France. He asks Roxane if she is still faithful to Christian’s memory, and she says she is. He asks if she has forgiven him, and she replies, “I am here.” She says that she always wears Christian’s last letter next to her heart. She tells de Guiche that Cyrano comes to visit her every week and gives her an impromptu gazette, telling her all the news. Le Bret enters and tells Roxane and de Guiche that things are going badly for Cyrano—he is old, poor, and disliked by a host of enemies as a result of his constant satirical attacks on hypocrites in society. De Guiche says that they should not pity him, because Cyrano lives his life as he chooses. De Guiche says that he would be proud to shake Cyrano’s hand. Privately, de Guiche tells Le Bret that he has heard at court that some nobles are planning to kill Cyrano. Le Bret agrees to try to keep Cyrano at home.
Summary — Act V, scene iii
Ragueneau rushes in and appears upset. As Roxane leaves to talk with de Guiche, Ragueneau tells Le Bret that as Cyrano strolled beneath a high window, some lackeys pushed a massive log of wood down onto him, breaking his skull. He is barely alive. If he tries to raise his head, he may die. Le Bret and Ragueneau hasten to his side.
Summary — Act V, scene iv
After they leave, Roxane reemerges and sits down beneath an autumn tree to sew. A nun announces Cyrano’s arrival.
Summary — Act V, scene v
Cyrano enters. He is pale and seems to be suffering. But he talks happily to Roxane, becoming solemn only when he tells her that he must go before nightfall. Roxane protests, then reminds Cyrano to tease the nuns, and he stuns Sister Marthe by cheerfully declaring that he will let her pray for him that night at vespers. Cyrano gives Roxane a comical summary of the news of the court, but his face becomes more and more tortured, and he finally loses consciousness.
Roxane runs to his side, and he comes to, telling her his injury meant nothing and is merely an old wound. Roxane touches her heart and says they all have their old wounds. Cyrano asks about Christian’s letter and reminds Roxane that he would like to read it someday. She says it is stained with blood and tears and is therefore hard to read. But she gives it to him, and he begins to read the words he wrote for her so many years ago.
Act V, scenes i-vi (page 2)
Twilight begins to fall, and Roxane sits amazed by the voice with which Cyrano reads the letter. She gradually realizes that she remembers hearing that voice under her balcony. Meanwhile, as darkness falls, she realizes that Cyrano is still able to read the letter. Suddenly, it all becomes clear to her, and she exclaims that she has realized that it was Cyrano all along. He denies it, but she now knows the truth. She asks why he kept silent for so long, since the tears on the letter belonged to him. Cyrano replies that the blood belonged to Christian.
Summary — Act V, scene vi
Suddenly, Ragueneau and Le Bret rush in and announce with horror that Cyrano has come to the convent in a physically weakened state. Cyrano says he has not finished his gazette. He adds that on Saturday the 26th, an hour before dinner, Monsieur de Bergerac was murdered. He removes his hat and shows his head swathed in bandages. He says it is ironic that he, who longed to die laughing on the sword of a hero, took his mortal blow from someone who ambushed him with a log.
Ragueneau begins to cry and, outraged, tells Cyrano that Molière has stolen a scene of Ragueneau’s for his new play. Cyrano asks if the audience liked it, and Ragueneau says that they laughed and laughed. Cyrano says that his role in life has been to inspire others: Molière has genius, Christian had good looks, but he is doomed always to be hidden beneath the balcony while someone else receives the kiss. Roxane cries that Cyrano cannot die. She says she loves him. But realizing that he is dying, Roxane cries out that she loved only one man in her life, and now she has lost him—twice.
Cyrano becomes delirious. He recites a cheerful, jaunty poem about his life and subsequently falls back into a chair. Roxane breaks into sobs. Cyrano pushes himself up and says that he will not die lying down. He rises and, leaning against a tree, draws his sword. He says that he sees the skeleton of death “daring” to look at his nose. He begins to fight against invisible enemies, calling out their names: Lies, Prejudice, Cowardice, Stupidity, and Compromise.
Cyrano declares that his enemies have taken all his laurels, but that in spite of them, when he meets God that night, he will carry one thing that no one can take away from him. Suddenly, he drops his sword and falls into the arms of Le Bret and Ragueneau. Roxane kisses him on the forehead and asks what immaculate thing he will take to heaven with him. As he dies, Cyrano opens his eyes and looks at her. He replies, “My white plume.”
Analysis — Act V, scenes i-vi
Act V is the play’s dramatic epilogue. Set fifteen years after the main action, the poignant tragedy of this act ties up the story line following Christian’s death. The setting of this section of the play is important—it takes place at twilight on an autumn day. Both the hour and the season connote endings, changes, and death. The -setting also serves as a metaphor for Roxane’s changing view of physical beauty. Her realization that Cyrano wrote the letters occurs only when she notices Cyrano reading Christian’s farewell letter in the dark. Once the outward visual signs lose their importance, Roxane hears Cyrano’s true voice and words. The metaphorical setting creates a highly sentimental ending. Indeed, one common criticism of the play is that its final scenes become swooning and melodramatic.
Act V, scenes i-vi (page 3)
Cyrano’s death scene mimics his overall plight. Denied the chance to die in battle on the sword of a hero, he instead dies after being ambushed by a falling log . Cyrano’s death, like his character, is simultaneously tragic, ironic, and comedic. However, he always manages to elude his fated failure, and he dies fighting not against a mortal hero but against the specters of falsehood, cowardice, and compromise—all of his “old enemies.” Throughout the play, Cyrano suffers both because of his appearance and because of his unwillingness to sacrifice his principles. By this time, his long nose has become a symbol of his honorable nature and a reminder of its consequences. Cyrano dies fighting unconquerable vices but he knowing that Roxane loves him at last, despite his appearance. He says he will take his unstained white plume with him to heaven—the white plume is the mark of a leader on the battlefield and the symbol of courage. He may die, but his honor will remain pure and unstained.
Cyrano’s painful realization that his life has been a failure looms over the brief bits of humor. He argues that his life has been largely unfulfilling despite moments of fleeting success. Throughout the play, Cyrano has displayed courage and bravado, but he never attains his goals or realizes his dreams. Tragically, Roxane comes to know his secret and love him only after he has been dealt his final blow. For these reasons, some critics consider Cyrano de Bergerac a heroic tragedy rather than a heroic comedy.

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