Roxane: How she changes and why she deserves Cyrano In this play of romance and quick wit: Roxane plays a major role involving both love and poetry. Famous playwright, Edmond Rostand does an amazing job of allowing the characters to evolve and change in his famous play "ÃÂCYRANO DE BERGERAC'. Rostand not only gives great description and portraits of his characters, but he also does an excellent job to show how the characters change over time, for better or worse. Although Roxane is a vain and shallow young lady early in the play, she eventually develops into a mature women who is quite deserving of Cyrano's distinguished passion.
Early in the play, there are numerous examples and hints towards Roxane's shallow and vain behaviour. The clearest evidence of Roxane's shallowness is when she says, "Well I love him "ÃÂ That is all! I never saw him anywhere except the comadie."ÃÂ
English: Edmond Rostand, Aged Twenty-nine, at the ...
English: Benoît-Constant Coquelin (Coquelin aîn...
RoxaneShe is saying in this quote that she does not appreciate him for his personality, intelligence, mannerisms, or even kindness: it is only his good looks that attract her. In today's society, this type of love is considered irrational love, and somewhat inappropriate. Roxane's vain characteristic is clearly illustrated in the balcony scene when Christians offers her a kiss and she replies "Only one - Is that all?"ÃÂ This quote makes it very clear that Roxane knows she is "ÃÂthe object of all men's affections', and that she is very narcissistic.
Proof of Roxane's changes and sudden maturing are quite evident throughout scene four. She begins in this scene to see through Christians astonishing looks, and she now appreciates his soul and poetic feelings, which are really Cyrano's masked by Christian. The quote that best expresses this is when Christian and Roxane are speaking during The Siege of Arras, she says "-Les charming "ÃÂ ugly even "ÃÂ I should love you still."ÃÂ Christian is destroyed by this line because he knows it is no longer he whom she loves, but Cyrano. Furthermore, in the fifth act Roxane clearly shows how far she has matured and developed into an adult by joining a convent to protect her feelings and to show respect to her dead husband, something she would not have done when she was younger.
By the fifth act, it becomes very evident that Roxane and Cyrano are very deserving of each other. Cyrano the greatest swordsman in all of Paris and Roxane the object of all men's affections are a match made for each other. The two have many similar attributes that in today's society usually coincide with a successful relationship. The most evident similarity is both of their individual love for poetry. Roxane took so much pleasure from Cyrano's poetry that she "grew faint reading them"ÃÂ. Cyrano was so in love with Roxane that he wrote letters "every day... Every single day..."ÃÂ to Roxane expressing his true feelings for her, but he signed them as Christian to save the embarrassment of his nose.
Due to Roxane's changes throughout the play: she is in the end very worthy and deserving of Cyrano's delicate love. In today's society the two would "ÃÂcomplete' each other, and be considered a perfect match. Cyrano the hero of all men, with great sword fighting abilities and poetic gifts marrying the princess of the play, who is considered the greatest prize of all men, who also happens to enjoy poetry with a deep passion. This relationship parallels very well with today's common Hollywood relationship of high school valedictorian and the football captain.
Roxane Fréché
The balcony scene from Act 3 of Cyrano. Left to ri...
Caricature of Edmond Rostand. Caption read "Cyrano...