Cyrano de Bergerac

While Cyrano is known for his mind, Christian is known for his good looks. Roxane calls him “beautiful” (74), commenting on his curly hair and soulful eyes, and other men admit he is “not ill-looking” (8). Christian himself identifies as a “soldier” (10) and has come from the Touraine, a part of France that is more north than Gascony, to join (the mostly Gascon) Guards at the beginning of the play. While Christian does not consider himself witty and is seen stumbling for words in front of Roxane, he is able to hurl witty insults at Cyrano. Cyrano tells Christian, “[Y]ou did not / Attack me like a fool” (98). However, Christian is called a fool more often than not, which highlights the importance of courting women as an aspect of intellect.

Christian initially goes along with Cyrano being the ghostwriter of his love letters to Roxane. However, Christian does try to speak to Roxane under the balcony using his own words until she rejects him when he simply repeats “I love you” (117-19). This convinces Christian to continue to use Cyrano’s words to woo Roxane. Yet, when Christian and Cyrano are at the front together, Christian sees that Cyrano stained a letter with a tear and finally realizes Cyrano loves Roxane. He not only encourages Cyrano to confess to Roxane but also asserts that he wants “her love / For the poor fool I am—or not at all!” (191). Just moments before his death in the war with Spain, Christian decides he wants to be loved for who he is rather than play the character Cyrano has written for him.

Roxane is the love interest of both Cyrano and Christian. She is known for her exceptional beauty as well as for being “intellectual [...] rich enough…an orphan…cousin / to Cyrano” (16). For these reasons, Guiche (a married man himself) hopes that she will marry Valvert, a friend of his. However, Roxane is enamored with Christian’s good looks. Roxane asks for Cyrano’s help with her crush on Christian. The love triangle has to navigate around her duenna, or governess, who accompanies her as a way of maintaining her honor as an unmarried orphan. After asking for Cyrano’s help, Roxane takes a passive role in being courted by Christian. The letters Cyrano writes for Christian and the words Cyrano speaks as Christian in the balcony scene convince Roxane she should marry Christian.

However, the letters written in Christian’s name by Cyrano while they are at war eventually cause her to take a more active role. She travels to the front with Ragueneau, saying the love letters caused her to become “just a little mad” (171). Traveling through the Spanish forces to deliver food and smiles to the Cadets is indeed risky as well as unconventional for a woman in the 1600s. After Christian dies in battle, Roxane goes to live in a convent and becomes reclusive. Rather than going out to the theater, as she does regularly before marrying Christian, Roxane gets her news from Cyrano’s weekly visits. She seems to only socialize when people like Le Bret, Guiche, and Ragueneau visit her. When Roxane finally realizes Cyrano is the author of the letters at the very end of his life, she says she loves him.

Ragueneau is a pastry chef, and poet. He is considered “The chief support of modern poetry” (12) because he allows poets to exchange poetry for food. This meager type of patronage causes a rift between him and his wife Lise, who ends up leaving him for a Musketeer. Ragueneau is a good friend of Cyrano’s and Roxane’s throughout the play, beginning with providing a private place for them to talk in his bakery. This location is the setting of Act 2 and, in it, Ragueneau supplies many quips about poetry, highlighting the playwright’s love of language, wordplay, and the arts.

Ragueneau also assists Roxane in going to the front and passing out food to the starving Cadets in Act 4, demonstrating his bravery and compassion. Again, he combines food and poetry, saying things like “Venus / Charmed their eyes, while Adonis quietly [...] Brought home the Boar” (176) while presenting a ham. This allusion to the poem Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare, which is about the mythological goddess of love and her lover, a young hunter, illustrates how Ragueneau is well-read and witty, similar to Cyrano. In the 15-year gap between Acts 4 and 5, Ragueneau cycles through several jobs, such as bath-house keeper, singer, actor, and hairdresser before winding up working as a techie (lighting candles) in the theater for the playwright Moliere. Ragueneau’s stage direction “Breaks down” (222) in response to Cyrano dying shows his love for the man and how he is a sensitive soul, unafraid of weeping.