Cyrano de Bergerac and Roxanne: Character comparison and dynamics

Cyrano v. Roxanne

Cyrano and Charlie -- Roxanne in the 20th century

Both the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" by Edmond Rostand and the movie "Roxanne" starring Steve Martin tell the tale of a witty man with an enormous nose who loves but fears to woo a beautiful woman. The 1897 play has retained its popularity even into the modern era, where Internet sites abound such as "The Cyrano de Bergerac Fan Site," in loving tribute to the thwarted poet and fighter. However, while Rostand's 19th century French play is essentially tragic in its architecture, albeit with many comic touches and funny lines, the 1987 America film starring Steve Martin offers a modern retelling that is much gentler and funnier in its construction. This shift in tone arises largely because of the increasingly intimate connections between the sexes in modern life -- an intimacy that exists on both a friendly as well as a sensual level.

In contrast to the play, the film "Roxanne" suggests that the most overwhelming obstacle that the large-nosed hero faces is not his face, but his own, internal self-consciousness. The original presents the hero's nose as a much greater obstacle (if not necessarily as great a facial protuberance) and suggests that true love in the absence of beauty can only be enjoyed upon the brink of death. Thus, the ending of the movie is the most fundamental shift in plot from the original play, and in examining this ending the difference of the tone of the movie throughout becomes clear. In the original play, Roxane's beloved Christian dies while he is fighting in a battle. The woman lives on, in a nunnery, forever mourning her idealized dead lover, almost as if it were her holy obligation to do so. She lives until Cyrano reveals to her upon his own deathbed that it was he who penned all of the letters she read over and over, for many years, thinking they were from Christian.

Roxane realizes that she has not been mourning the loss of a dead man, but mourning a good man who visited her every day -- until now. "How can you read now? it's dark. And for fourteen years you played the part of an old friend who came to be amusing!" (Rostand, Act V) Roxane observers that she has lost her own true love, twice, first in the form of Christian, now again, as Cyrano dies mortally wounded before her feet.

Roxane believed she had overcome physical assumptions, but she was wrong. In Act IV she made the admission to Christian that "Your handsomeness was what first attracted me, but now that my eyes are open I no longer see it!" Her eyes and mind are not truly opened until the end of her true beloved's last day on earth. The comedic film "Roxanne," does not require the woman to wait so long. Once the Cyrano character gains enough courage to 'come out' about his to Roxanne, the two are happily united. In fact, when Roxanne finally sees the inner beauty of Charlie, she expresses this to him in similar words as Rostand's Roxane did to the near-dead Cyrano. 20th century Roxanne says: "You know, I've been thinking about what attracted me to Chris. It wasn't the way he looked. Well, that's not true, at first it was the way he looked. But it was how he made me feel. He made me feel romantic, intelligent, and feminine. But it wasn't him doing that, was it? It was you. You and your nose. Charlie, you have a big nose! You have a beautiful, great big, flesh-and-bone nose! I love your nose! I love your nose, Charlie. I love you, Charlie."

The main reason for this quicker reversal in the big-nosed fighter's romantic fortunes is undoubtedly Hollywood's love for at least comedic happy endings. However, the addition of 20th century sexuality to the modern update is another reason for this plot twist as well. After all, the characters of Rostand's play adore one another from afar. This is why letter writing is such a vibrant and integral part of "Cyrano de Bergerac." Roxane is the lone woman, idolized as a beautiful creature of a courtly love scenario, little more. Her feelings for Christian, even before she receives letters she thinks are from the handsome and empty-headed young man, are similarly idealistic. "Roxane: His face shines with wit and intelligence. He's proud, noble, young, fearless, and handsome.... Cyrano: Handsome! Roxane: What is it? What's the matter? Cyrano: Nothing.... it's... it's... it's only a twinge of pain from this little scratch." This exchange from Act I shows the extend of Cyrano's feelings for Roxanne. However, they also show the idolizing, removed quality of the love Roxane feels for Christian and Christian feels for Roxane. Thus not only is Cyrano is unable to express his affection for the woman in literal or physical terms, because of his appearance, but none of the characters really 'touch' one another, except through verbal pyrotechnics. "Christian: I need eloquence, and I have none! Cyrano: I'll lend you mine! Lend me your conquering physical charm, and together we'll form a romantic hero!" (Rostand, Act II)

The idea that voice and physique can be separated and combined to create a romantic hero is a curiously desexualized construction of love -- in a sensual scenario, what can occur when the 'voice' is gone, and the mute hero must speak in an intimate moment? The courtship through letters that is enjoyed between the triangle of the play is difficult to supplant into a 20th century context, where romance moves much more quickly -- except with a much higher degree of slapstick and humor. Thus, when C.D. "Charlie" Bates courts Roxanne vicariously by feeding his rival Chris the proper romantic words and phrases, the audience has difficultiy believeing the physical absurdity of the scenario can last forever.

Surely, a modern woman is not so naive as a French lady of many centuries ago the audience asks -- and surely a courtship cannot exist only through letters? Also, it is difficulty to believe that a woman today would be so naive in her emotional assessment of a potential partner that she would assume that merely because a man was handsome, he would be good, an eliding of the beauty of the soul and body made by the much more innocent Roxane. Roxane's emotional experience with men as friends is so socially limited, because of the gendered nature of her society that she is excused to some extent for her unintentional cruelty, while Martin's film must make greater use of slapstick to deflect from some of the sadness inherent to the situation.