Joe Patriot
1132-______
An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Silence in Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac
Joe Patriot
Candidate Number: 1132-__________
Word Count: 1,470
English A HL
World Literature Assignment
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Joe Patriot
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Reflective Statement: Cyrano de Bergerac
How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work
developed through the interactive oral?
I found Edmond Rostand’s development of Cyrano de Bergerac as a hero, based on
other heroes in French literature, very interesting. According to the Brenner article that we
discussed in class, Rostand may have built his hero based on the French romantic heroes of the
past, possibly Figaro, Don Cesar, and D’Artagnan. Cyrano, then, becomes an effective hero
because his power builds from the greatness of these heroes, with whom his audience would
have been familiar. By doing this, Brenner suggests that Rostand was paying tribute to the
writers and heroes of French literary history. Interestingly, though, Rostand also gives his hero
flaws, specifically, his physical appearance. Cyrano’s large nose gives him a fault that must be
overcome through his inner moral purity.
The idea of moral purity would have appealed to the French at the end of the century,
after the country’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. In the midst of the Drefus affair, the
people of France were polarized. We discussed an article by Venita Datta, who suggests that
the theater was able to bring the French closer and allow them to forget their political divisions;
in the intimate environment that Rostand created in his work, the people of France were able
to identify with the hero Rostand had created and feel less divided.
Ironically, Rostand found himself surrounded by fame and success, even though the
character he had created shunned both. Cyrano refused a patron in Rostand’s play, but
Rostand himself had to cater to his patrons – the mass audience who clapped for over an hour
at the play’s premiere and who then continued to financially support his art. According to
Datta, Rostand was concerned that celebrity was sometimes equated with art. In our
discussion, we brought up the irony of Rostand finding himself in the middle of an adoring
crowd but at the same time wanting desperately to escape from reporters and fans.
Cyrano de Bergerac was, in many ways, like his creator: he, too, wanted his art to be
pure and not sullied by his relationship to its consumers. Cyrano, like Rostand, needed an
audience to be effective. Understanding the relationship between the author and his hero has
allowed me to see how the cultural and authorial context of this play led to a hero who spoke
not only to his audience, but also to the writer who had created him.
Word Count: 396
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Joe Patriot
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Often in literature, a character’s personality is determined by his or her words and
actions. But sometimes, the nature of a character cannot be judged by the words he or she
speaks, but also by what the character does not say. Silence can be as effective as dialogue
because sometimes characters hold truths from others, which says much about their
personalities. Other times, a character may be silent because he or she simply has nothing to
say. In Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, silence plays an important role in relation to the
relationship between Cyrano de Bergerac and Christian de Neuvillette as well as the theme of
internal and external beauty.
Cyrano de Bergerac is considered to be an unattractive man because he has an
exceedingly long nose. However, Cyrano, despite his external appearance, is a good man and
“what shining gems [he] owns, [he] wear[s] inside” (Rostand 20). Although Cyrano may be ugly,
he is honorable, kind-hearted, and extremely witty. On the other hand, Christian de Neuvillette
has good looks, but he lacks wit and charm. They are both in love with a woman, Roxane;
however, both are lacking something that would make him the perfect romantic hero that
Roxanne desires. So, Cyrano writes letters to Roxane and signs them “Christian” to express his
hidden love for her; all the while, Roxane falls in love with whom she believes to be Christian.
Christian is satisfied because he has a vehicle in which to express his love for Roxane. As
Roxane falls in love with Christian because of both his external appearance and his expression
of his internal love through these letters, she is unaware that the love she reads of is actually
the feelings of Cyrano.
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Joe Patriot
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Silence plays a role in the characterization of Cyrano because he holds a noble secret for
many years. When Christian dies at the battle at the siege of Arras, Roxane goes into mourning
at the convent and holds dear to her love for him and his beautiful letters for fifteen years. For
all of those years, Cyrano keeps it a secret that he is actually the writer of the letters and that it
is his love for which she mourns. Although he may want to confess this to Roxane, he holds his
tongue because he believes that revealing the secret after Christian’s death would betray
Christian. Immediately before his death, Christian understands that Roxane has fallen in love
with his internal beauty, but fears her love for him is false because that internal beauty is
actually the beauty of Cyrano. Roxane claims that she would love Christian even if her were
ugly; therefore, she has fallen in love with the soul who writes the beautiful letters that have
driven her through great danger to the battlefield. When Christian is gravely injured in battle
and lies dying, Cyrano lies to him so that he may die happily, knowing that Roxane’s love was
directed toward him, not to Cyrano. Cyrano tells Christian, “I’ve told her everything. It’s you
and only you, she loves – no matter what” (Rostand 107). From then on, despite his desire to
tell Roxane everything, Cyrano does not speak a word of his secret. Cyrano remains silent out
of honor and respect. Although Cyrano never speaks of his “noble silence,” (Rostand 122) the
reader still learns that Cyrano is a faithful, valiant man from the absence of his words to
Roxane.
On the other hand, Christian de Neuvillette is often silent for a different reason.
Christian, although he is handsome, could never win Roxane’s heart with only his good looks.
His lack of wit and inability to express himself stand in the way of his winning Roxane. After
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Christian angrily shuns the assistance of Cyrano and insists that he, himself, can express his own
love for Roxane without Cyrano’s coaching, Roxane asks Christian to articulate his love for her:
CHRISTIAN. I love -ROXANE. Embellish it!
CHRISTIAN. – Love you so much!
ROXANE. Obviously. And then? … and then?
CHRISTIAN. And then – I would be happy if – if you – loved me. Roxane, say that you
love me, too. (Rostand 65)
Unsatisfied with his words of love, she rejects him: “You give me gruel. I expected sweets!”
(Rostand 65). Roxane is displeased at Christian’s lack of creativity and romantic talk of love;
Christian, alone and without the aid of Cyrano, cannot find the right words to say to her. He
and Cyrano realize that Christian is better to remain silent. This way, his external beauty can be
the focus and his lack of ability to express his love internally can be better hidden. This idea is
found in Act III, when Cyrano speaks to Roxane from under her balcony, but Roxane believes
she is speaking to Christian because she cannot see his face in the darkness. While Cyrano, in
the guise of Christian, eloquently speaks to Roxane of his love for her, Christian interrupts and
demands a kiss. This nearly destroys the romance in the conversation, and Cyrano tersely
scolds, “Be silent, Christian! Hush!” (Rostand 71). Rostand demonstrates that Christian’s
silence is often necessary because he knows neither what to say to Roxane nor when to say it.
His silence is present not because he is the bearer of a noble secret, but because he cannot
articulate his love using beautiful words of romance. Unable to do this, he cannot win the heart
of Roxane without the assistance of Cyrano de Bergerac.
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Joe Patriot
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The effectiveness of the silences of Cyrano and Christian are related to Rostand’s theme
of beauty, both internal and external. Although Cyrano’s nose is large and he sees himself as
disfigured, he is a man of great wit, honor, and will. His silence not only represents his loyalty
to the promises he has made, but also to his modesty. Cyrano is willing to write Christian’s
name on his poetic letters to Roxane simply because he wants Roxane to be happy. Ironically,
in Act III, Roxane tells Cyrano that Christian is “even wittier than [he is]” (Rostand 59).
Christian’s words are really the words of Cyrano, spoken from his heart and his soul.
Cyrano allows this misunderstanding to take place because he puts Roxane’s happiness
before his own. This takes a great deal of courage on the part of Cyrano. When he meets with
Roxane at Rageneau’s bakery, hoping that she will reveal her love for him, he is crushed to
discover that the cadet with whom Roxane has fallen in love is not himself, but Christian. This is
revealed when Roxane describes the object of her love: “On his brow / Genius shines forth.
He’s witty, noble, proud, / Fearless and young, and handsome –“(Rostand 41). This final quality
makes it clear to Cyrano that Roxane will never love him despite his great love for her. He
promises to protect Christian, to “never let him fight a duel” and “be his friend” (Rostand 42)
out of his love for her. As she leaves, she applauds his bravery: “A hundred men . . . How great
/ To show such courage!” Cyrano sadly admits, “I have shown more since” (Rostand 42).
Cyrano never boasts of his honor or bravery, but it is undoubtedly there, not merely because of
the words he says, but also because of the secrets he never reveals.
On the other hand, Christian is externally handsome, but does not possess the wit of
Cyrano. He is able to use his words to attack, as he does in Act III when he takes every
advantage of Cyrano’s story of fighting one hundred men to insult his nose, but he cannot use
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Joe Patriot
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his words to express his love. Christian knows that this inability will prevent Roxane from ever
loving him, and he explains this to Cyrano: “Words always fly when one attacks; / I have a
soldier’s glib supply of speech. / But women tie my tongue; they strike me dumb” (Rostand 54).
Christian’s silence represents his emptiness of mind and lack of words to say to Roxane.
Although Christian is certainly not stupid, and is clearly a man of honor, his eloquence was
insufficient when compared to that of Cyrano de Bergerac. Thus, his silence emphasizes his
external beauty.
Edmond Rostand uses the idea of silence to play a large role in relation to the character
development of Cyrano and Christian and to the theme of the contrast between inner and
outer beauty. Cyrano’s silence demonstrates his humility and honorable nature; Christian’s
silence portrays his external beauty and his lack of eloquence of poetic fluency. While the
silence of Cyrano shows the profound depths of his inner beauty, it emphasizes the external
beauty of Christian. In this play, silence proves to be just as effective as dialogue. Some of the
most important ideas in the play are told by words unspoken.
Bibliography:
Rostand, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac. Trans. Louis Untermeyer. New York: Dover
Publications, 1954. Print.
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