Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand A large nose is the mark

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Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand

• A large nose is the mark of a witty, courteous,
  affable, generous and liberal man.
• Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac

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Roxanne (1987), starring Steve Martin

• Martin plays a modern Cyrano, with a very large
  nose, who woos the woman he loves for another,
  more handsome man. Rent it and enjoy!

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• First produced at the Porte Saint-Martin Theater
  in Paris, France, on Dec. 28, 1897 the audience
  applauded for a full hour after the final curtain
  was drawn!

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• Cyrano lives on! The show will open on November
  1, 2007, at the Richard Rodgers Theater on West
  46th Street in New York City. Kevin Kline,
  Jennifer Garner, and Daniel Sunjata (Take Me Out)
  star. They're using the Burgess translation, not
  the one by Hooker that Jose Ferrer made famous a
  generation ago.

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TOP FIVE THEMES

• 1. Search for self In Cyranos search for
  himself and the conflict between what he is and
  what hed like to be he gains friends but also
  makes enemies.
• 2. Fear Cyrano fears rejection and ridicule.
  He believes no woman could love a man who is not
  physically beautiful BUT it is this rejection
  that drives him to be a great swordsman, poet,
  and wit.

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• 3. Beauty There are lots of contrasts between
  beauty and ugliness in this play the sense that
  beauty comes from within, from the soul, rather
  than from the outside is strong.
• 4. Loyalty Cyrano displays loyalty to others
  and others display their loyalty to him. The
  kind of loyalty that is fueled by deep friendship
  is an important theme in Rostands work.

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• 5. Freedom By believing that he cannot be
  loved, Cyrano wishes to be dependent on no one.
  As both poet and swordsman, Cyrano lives out his
  days independent and free, thumbing his nose at
  the conventions of the time.

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Stylistic Concerns

• Cyrano falls easily in the genre of Romanticism
  any work or philosophy in which the exotic or
  dreamlike figure strongly, or that is devoted to
  individualistic expression, self-analysis, or a
  pursuit of a higher realm of knowledge than can
  be discovered by human reason

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• Cyranos character was based on a real historical
  figure, so Rostand uses the most interesting
  aspects of the real de Bergerac and then adds
  details (like the nose).
• Rostands Cyrano takes on a life of his own and
  is marvelously developed.

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• Many times throughout the play, Cyrano engages in
  repartee conversation featuring snappy retorts
  and witticisms.
• Cyrano can defeat his foes with means other than
  his sword (but he is also very good with the
  sword!).

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• In the original French, Edmond Rostand wrote in
  Alexandrine verse.
• By writing in verse, Rostand was consciously
  working against the naturalism and symbolism of
  his contemporaries, including Henrik Ibsen.
• Cyrano could be classified as heroic comedy,
  defined by G. K. Chesterton Heroic comedy is,
  as it were, a paradise of lovers, in which it is
  not difficult to imagine that men could talk in
  poetry all day long.

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Historical Context

• Set during the mid-1600s (the beginning of the
  reign of Louis XIV), a time of political intrigue
  and artistic intellectualism, but written during
  the late 1890s a time of great industrial and
  technological advancement.

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• The Thirty Years War (1618 1648) was fought
  mainly in Germany and involved France, German
  Protestants, Sweden, Denmark, and England
  fighting the Holy Roman Empire (which included
  Austria, Spain, Bohemia, and Italy). The war was
  mainly over trade and control over trade routes.
  While the war ended for most countries in 1648,
  fighting went on between France and Spain, and in
  1654, the Spanish laid siege to Arras in
  northwestern France. The real Cyrano fought in
  this siege and Rostand uses this historical fact
  for the setting of Act II.

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• During the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King,
  French literature, arts, and philosophy became
  the standard for all of Europe. The Academie
  Francaise, founded by Cardinal Richelieu in 1634,
  tried to protect the French language by guarding
  it against slang and poor grammar. Rostand
  became the youngest member of the Academie.

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• The audience for theater in the 1600s tended to
  be a small, elite group of aristocrats who could
  afford to patronize the arts. Because writers
  were generally poor, they persuaded nobles,
  landowners, and even the king to finance their
  works. Authors included extreme flattery of their
  patrons in their writing. The real Cyrano was
  repulsed by this flattery but eventually was
  forced to seek the patronage of the Duke of
  Arpajon.

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• Literary works of the 17th century were read and
  discussed in salons. These were hosted by a
  French noblewoman who entertained aristocrats,
  writers, and philosophers. Madeleine Robineau,
  whom Rostand used as a model for Roxane, was an
  intellectual who was a fixture and frequent
  hostess of such events.

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• Rostand wrote Cyrano at a time when Naturalism
  was a major force in the literary world. Think
  Henrik Ibsen proponents of this movement
  believed heredity and environment control people.
  
• Rostands heroic comedy was a complete contrast
  to what most of his contemporaries were doing at
  the time. Cyrano created a completely different
  theater experience for his audience than did,
  say, A Dolls House.
• By setting Cyrano in the 17th century and basing
  the hero on a real-life figure, Rostand could
  explore a more exotic and romantic time.

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