Themes

=**Themes from __Cyrano de Bergerac__**=

In my opinion, there are three important themes inherent in the play __Cyrano de Bergerac__. These are "Various Interpretations of Beauty", "The Results of Deception", and "Leadership, Bravery, and Honor". Each of these themes relate back to Cyrano and the actions that he performs throughout the tenure of the play.


 * Various Interpretations of Beauty**

In this play, beauty is shown through one's appearance and one's soul. The beauty of one's appearance only deals with one's looks and external qualities. The beauty of one's soul deals with one's inner beauty and how one speaks or writes literary works. In this case, Christian is the one with beauty in his appearance. Roxane notices his beautiful appearance and becomes attracted to him at once. As the play progresses, she realizes that there is not much more beauty to Christian than his appearance. Later on in the play, Roxane realizes that Cyrano is a beautiful letter writer. This does not necessarily mean that he looks beautiful; it just means that he has a beautiful method of writing romantic letters to Roxane. Thus, Roxane is led to believe that Cyrano is full of inner beauty, which is much more powerful than one's beautiful appearance. Towards the end of the play, she becomes interested in Cyrano's inner beauty and loves him because of his soul. This theme shows how there are different interpretations of beauty in this play. It also shows how certain events can lead people to change the way they interpret one's beauty.


 * The Results of Deception**

The main occurrence of deception in this play is when Cyrano agrees to use his intelligence to unite Roxane and Christian as lovers. It may seem like Cyrano is just trying to help Christian in a friendly way; however, Cyrano is actually using this as an opportunity to show his love for Roxane by writing love letters to her under Christian's name. By writing these love letter to Roxane, Cyrano does actually gain her love. However, Roxane thinks that Christian is writing these letters. When the time comes for Christian to romantically speak to Roxane in person, he cannot do it because he is unintelligent and he has not been writing the letters to Roxane. Roxane becomes disappointed in Christian because of this. As the play goes on, Cyrano constantly has to pretend to be Christian and speak in a romantic way to Roxane. Christian finds out that Cyrano used him and Christian demands Cyrano to tell Roxane that he loves her. Before Cyrano has the chance to talk to Roxane, Christian dies on the battlefield. Towards the end of the play, Roxane realizes that Cyrano loves her and that he wrote all of the love letters to her. She then reveals her love for Cyrano because she loved the romantic letters. However, it is too late for both of them at this point because Cyrano is moments away from dying. This shows that deception always leads to repercussions and bad consequences, regardless of if they were intended or not.


 * Leadership, Bravery, and Honor**

There are two characters in this play who show leadership, bravery, and honor, Cyrano and De Guiche. They both express these characteristics while fighting in battle. Cyrano shows bravery when he fends off one hundred men all by himself. De Guiche shows leadership while leading his soldiers during battle. Cyrano and De Guiche both show honor through their plumes. The plumes, which are possessed by Cyrano and De Guiche, represent leadership, bravery, and honor. Cyrano possesses his plume at all times. For example, he has it when he is battling his enemies and when he is just speaking to other characters. Also, Cyrano's only possession when he dies is his plume. His last words are "There is one crown I bear away with me...my white plume". In addition to showing that he literally is taking his plume to his death, he is also showing that he is taking his leadership, bravery, and honor to his grave with him. These three characteristics are the only possessions that he takes with him to his death. On the other hand, even though De Guiche shows glimpses of possessing these traits, there is one incident where he shows that he does not possess these traits. When he purposely drops his white plume, De Guiche shows that he does not want to lead his soldiers and that he is afraid of dying in battle. Cyrano uses this incident to his advantage by making fun of De Guiche and saying that De Guiche does not possess these characteristics. Although De Guiche shows that he possesses these traits at some points in the play, Cyrano always shows that he possesses them.