Edmond Rostand's Cyrano De Bergerac

The titular character of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac is a deeply complicated man, a hero with many insecurities and many desires he hides behind a facade of bravado. However, there are no soliloquies to help understand these motivations and personality. Instead, the audience learns this information through his interactions with several minor characters, with each showcasing a part of Cyrano’s personality that remains unseen when the bombastic polymath is on stage, challenging the rest of the world, helping Christian woo Roxanne, and showing off to his fellow cadets. The most prominent of these minor characters are Le Bret, whose interaction with Cyrano helps the audience understand the sensitive and insecure side of Cyrano,
The way Cyrano interacts with the world differs in comparison to the way he interacts with those he truly cares about, and this contrast is especially apparent in his scenes with Ragueneau. The Cyrano in Act I is a brash individual willing to challenge an entire audience to duels to the death. If that was the only way Cyrano acted throughout the entire play, the audience wouldn’t be cheering his exploits, but instead think of him as a selfish daredevil with a self-esteem problem. However, with his interactions with Ragueneau, the audience sees how kind and loyal Cyrano can be to his friends. Out of all of those in Ragueneau’s pastry shop, he is the only one who does not try to scam him: he even tries to convince the cook to not let the people around him (the soldiers, the poets, and his wife) to treat him in such a manner; he also is angered at Lise(Ragueneau wife) when he deduces that she has not been faithful to Ragueneau, warning her that he is “fond of Ragueneau; [he allows] noone...to take his name in vain!”(Act II, page 59). With this action the audience can see that Cyrano is not self-centered; when he sees his friend about to be hurt, he takes action, regardless of the consequences. This is also apparent when Ragueneau explains his suicide attempt to the Duenna. Ragueneau claims “ I decided to put an end to it all, so I hanged myself. Just as my last breath was drawn, in comes Monsieur de Bergerac! He cuts me down, and gets me a job as his cousin's steward.”(Rostand, Act III, Scene I). Rather than staying passive as his friend attempted suicide, Cyrano took the time to help Ragueneau build his life back together, showing the greatness Cyrano can achieve even when he does not have an audience at his side. Their interactions also show his generosity: when Ragueneau complains to Cyrano that Moliere stole his scene word for word, all Cyrano