'twas whaaaat?

Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed reading Cyrano de Bergerac by Rostand. Cyrano was a very clever yet tragic character. Clever, obviously because of his swift comebacks to the remarks made by other characters like De Valvert and De Guiche. He also has a very refined, thoughtful, and thought-provoking way of speaking; words are DEFINITELY his strong-suit. However, he is tragic in the fact that he feels as if he does not deserve love, at least in the romantic sense, because he does not fit what society deems aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

At first, I thought that when Cyrano found out that Roxane loved Christian, and he her, that he would only pretend to help Christian pursue Roxane and really sabotage any chance at a relationship they had together. Obviously, he was a more good-hearted character than I gave him credit for. Cyrano actually aids Christian in charming Roxane, masking his heartache and remaining silent of his true love in the process. It has to be hard helping another man to "woo" the woman for whom you bear a love so strong that you would put aside your own happiness just to give her a chance at that same happiness. That's sweet and all, but am I the only one who finds it extremely weird that he is in love with his own cousin?!? Different time period or not, that's just not natural.

But any who,

Cyrano has a very definitive struggle, both internal and external, with his nose. He feels that no woman could ever truly love him because she would not be able to see past his nose, which is often the subject of ridicule. Though he is not traditionally good-looking, he has the gift of expressing what others can not. His heart bleeds from the tip of his pen and onto a page, every stroke saturated with a love unrequited. As opposed to Christian, who is very handsome, but essentially has no depth. I believe the message of the play is that when we know a person's heart/soul and the true beauty that lies within it, we can look past the physical, which is temporary and not indicative of the condition of a person's heart.

As much as I liked the play, I was completely lost at least twice during each scene. This is because like OLDER plays (Shakespeare, Rostrand, etc.), Cyrano de Bergerac contains a lot of "'twas", "'twill", "'faith", "fain", etc. and I personally have never been able to understand it. Maybe this type of language adds to the romanticism of the play, but it also adds to my frustration and confusion.