In Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Roxane and Christian’s romance plays a key role in teaching us about the consequences of judging others superficially. He does this by telling a story about a love triangle comprised of Christian de Neuvillette, Roxane, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Christian and Roxane initially fall for each other due to physical attractiveness. However, Roxane only chooses to love Christian if he is eloquent. To prove his eloquence to Roxane, Christian teams up with Cyrano, and we watch as Roxane and Christian’s relationship blossoms through a series of romantic love letters. However, when the truth is revealed that it was Cyrano who truly loved Roxane, and wrote …show more content…
At the beginning of the play, Roxane only noticed Christian because of his looks, and in hopes of making him her soul mate, assumed that he would be eloquent and intelligent as well. Christian, who was neither, needed Cyrano’s help to win Roxane’s love; in return, Cyrano wrote a fleet of romantic love letters for him. This highlights how judging others by their appearances can make us falsify our identities. However, when the truth was revealed to Christian that Cyrano truly loves Roxane, he realized that he wasn’t able to live up to her expectations, and as a result from heartbreak, killed himself. Fifteen years later, Roxane realized this truth as well; that Cyrano was the one who wrote the letters, and that he was the one who truly loves her. If they truly understood each other, Christian wouldn’t have died, Roxane wouldn’t have sacrificed her elegant life to be a nun, and Cyrano wouldn’t have died alone. In conclusion, through horrible consequences, Rostand reminds readers to strive to understand individuals’ identities, and not judge them by their appearances