Cyrano De Bergerac: Fought Between Inner And Outer Beauty

A girl with an unknown name covers her lover protectively while she cries her heart out. He lays stone cold on the dull dry dirt while she holds him praying that he will live. Her lover, Christian, whispers his last goodbye while she lays there helplessly alone. Tears run down her cheek as she cradles him in her lap waiting for a miracle that will never come. The short and few memories they shared pass through her mind as she remembers him for who he was. Each memory following the next cause her to feel more pain when she finds a letter near his wound stained with his blood. This, accompanied by her sudden loss, causes her to feel her heart break into a million pieces. Distressed, she resides in the comfort of her old friend Cyrano, standing by her side. In her anguish, she asks him if he was everything and more than what she thought he was; and if he was the loyal, brave and valiant soldier that she knew he was. Cyrano responds saying that was everything and more. Either way who is this girl? Her name is Roxane, and she is someone who goes through so much loss for love but ends up with a broken heart and untold feelings. In Cyrano de Bergerac, a play written by Edmond Rostand, the author illustrates how morals can lead to sacrifices and consequences can arise due to deception as conflicts with inner and outer beauty are fought.

Cyrano has loved Roxane since his childhood but has never had the courage to tell her. He is insecure about his physical features and does not believe he is worthy for Roxane. However, Cyrano is incredibly intelligent and witty. On the other hand, there is Christian, another male protagonist who is not the smartest intellectually but has good genetics and a handsome face. Both Cyrano and Christian love Roxane, but Roxane is too blind to see Cyrano’s affection—only noticing Christian for his handsome countenance.

On the surface, Cyrano can be seen as faultless and morally correct in most instances. His high ethical and moral standards are displayed throughout the play but can be seen especially when he is unable to express his feelings to Roxane because of his promise to Christian. Cyrano promised Christian before his death that he would not “ruin [Christian’s] happiness / [because he happens] to be born with the power / [to] say what [Christian feels]” (191). By sticking with his values, honoring Christian in his death, and keeping their secret a secret, the play suggests that Cyrano achieves an ideal of untainted morals which truly shows the type of person Cyrano is.

However, even though Cyrano is in some ways morally unblemished, the play, in a sense, follows an even more rigorous set of morals. As any human would, Cyrano is willing to sacrifice for love, and in this case, he sacrifices his strict morals. This minor flaw of leniency, which is only applied to Roxane, surfaces when he shows his willingness to deceive Roxane (and partly Christian as well) to possibly win her love. His well developed and rather cunning scheme to get Roxane to love him heavily relies on his cover: Christian. Unfortunately, Christian’s inopportune and unfortunate death accompanied by Cyrano’s unchanging morals prevent Cyrano from having her at all. After Christian’s death, Cyrano in a stunned state, says, “All gone. I cannot ever / [tell] her, now… ever” (194). In his shocked state towards Christian's death, he still decides against confessing. Cyrano’s loyalty to Christian’s promise causes him to continue deceiving her even after Christian’s death. The choice of confessing is improbable to him due to how it would mock Roxane’s loss and Christian’s death. After Christian's death, the play shows the consequences Cyrano must suffer through as a result of the promise. Cyrano is put through torture because of how he is forced to live with his love must but never speak of his feelings towards her for 15 years. Cyrano’s act of deception robs Roxane of true love as well. The character Cyrano and Christian present to Roxane is a grand collaboration of both Cyrano and Christian — not an actual being in reality.

However, indirectly one can say that Roxane truly does love Cyrano more than Christian because she says that she would love Christian even if he were “less charming—ugly even” (188). After taking out Christian’s good looks from the character Roxane is in love with, what is left is basically just Cyrano. However, due to bad timing and a flurry of other unfortunate events, Cyrano and Roxane are unable to share their feelings with one another.

This brings up the underlying idea of different types of beauty. Cyrano is the portrayal of inner beauty while Christian is the representation of outer beauty. In this play, Cyrano and Christian are constantly comparing and fighting each other for Roxane’s love. As a result, Roxane, in a broader perspective, is the defining factor and judge of which beauty is more highly valued. The play itself is centered in a world that prefers inner beauty, honesty, and intelligence over outer beauty and appearances. Despite this, Cyrano is so insecure about his image that he complains so much it draws more attention towards his so-called flawed areas. Cyrano battles with himself to accept both his intellect and appearance in the play as well. Because Roxane likes the handsome Christian, Cyrano believes that she is wooed by looks and not by intellect. During this time he fights with Christain through manipulation of him for Roxane’s love. Instead of Christian writing the letters, Cyrano is. And instead of Christian declaring his love for her through speech, Cyrano is. In these scenes not only is Cyrano wrestling against good looks for Roxane’s love, but he is also fighting an inner battle. Essentially turning the mirror on himself, he forces himself to go against appearances and also prove to himself that looks are not everything, despite thinking so.

Although none of this may seem obvious to the characters, Cyrano, or the audience, why else would Cyrano choose an opponent such as Christian? On the surface, it seems as if it is only because Roxane holds interest in Christian. However, upon further analysis, there is a high possibility that Cyrano, being as witty as he is, could easily distract Roxane from Christian so that she loses interest. Instead of doing so, Cyrano decides to essentially play Cupid and bring them together while convincing himself and Christian that he is doing it out of love for Roxane. And even though he does decide to help Roxane in the process due to her ever-growing interest in Christian, Cyrano also finds interest in this situation. Cyrano is interested in this love triangle because he can prove to himself that even if he is not the person directly receiving affection — intellect does play a significant role in Roxane’s interest. For example, Roxane “shuts the door in [Christian’s] face” when Christian talks instead of Cyrano(119). Roxane is completely uninterested when Christian does the talking instead of Cyrano because Christian is bad at expressing his feelings through words while Cyrano excels at it. This prompts Cyrano to take over and speak again. In this scene, Cyrano received a result that proves Roxane will not just love someone for their looks. Additionally, this scene harms Christian because it shows him that his looks are indeed not everything. This can cause Christian to feel insecure about his strongest attribute while boosting Cyrano’s confidence in himself as he comes to peace with his appearance.

Although Roxane is definitely played with until the end, she does acknowledge that she would love him even if he was “less charming [or] ugly even” (188). When Roxane says this Cyrano would have revealed the white lie, tell the truth, and most likely end up with Roxane in his arms. Of course, this obviously does not happen as Cyrano’s morals clash with his plan when Christian suddenly dies. However, Cyrano’s growth as a character and battle with intelligence against appearances is something he gains in the loss of love. He gains self-confidence and intelligence even though he pays the price of never truly admitting his love until his death.

Through all of this Roxane has had to sacrifice the most. She deals with heartbreak—not once, but twice—and has had a permanent impact on her life because of Cyrano and Christian's actions. On the bright side though, she learns the difference between loving someone truly and loving the idea of loving someone or being in love. In general, all of the characters recess and grow in their own ways as they deal with the consequences of learning those lessons. And sometimes, even if the journey may take two heartbreaks, two deaths, and fifteen years spent in an old nun’s church dressed in a widow’s gown like Roxane’s did, the lessons learned can still be worth learning. There are lots of reasons why they are worth learning but one important reason is that a person who never learns will make the same mistakes again and again, but a person who learns will stop making that mistake and start healing from old wounds.