NOTES: CYRANO
1) How does this play exemplify this motto: "People do not live by bread alone."2) Relate each of the three main characters to the theme of vanity.
3) Relate each of the three main characters to the theme of hypocrisy.
4) Show how this play is a romance and a fantasy as opposed to a realistic play.
5) Show how these characters represent ideas or values rather than becoming on stage psychologically complex flesh and blood human beings like Blanche or Hamlet.
6) Roxanne manages to remain virginal though married and lives in a convent for the last 14 years of the play. She was obviously a role model of virtue for women generations ago, but what about today? Is Roxanne Dr. Laura's ideal woman?
7) Ragineau (the baker) appears in every important scene. What is his thematic function?
8) What does this play suggest about the nature of love?
9) Compare and contrast the theme of love in this play with Shakespeare's depiction of love in Midsummer.
10) The play is primarily a romance, but it also contains a good dose of social satire. Who/what is Rostand criticizing? Be specific. This question is narrowly focused. The next is more general.
11) Is the social satire in this play relevant today or do Cyrano's invections against hypocrisy just seem trite and obsolete in this more cynical age.
12) A whole act takes place in a bakery. Examine the theme of "hunger" in this play on more levels than just the physical.
13) What is Cyrano's philosophy of life? What is his moral code?
14) What is Cyrano's criticism of the theater in Act I? From what we see of the play being presented in Act I is Cyrano's criticism justified?
15) Does anyone change in this play or are all the characters static? Are Roxanne and Cyrano very different people in Act V?
16) What classic comic elements does this play contain? (See link to definition of Comedy.)
17) Is Cyrano proud to a fault? What are his flaws besides his nose?
18) What does Cyrano fear most?
19) Le Compte de Guiche -- why is he a wonderful villain?
20) Love should be honest, but isn't everyone being deceitful? Why is this not bothersome?
21) Cyrano's love for Roxanne is not returned until the very end (at least not directly). In what ways is unrequitted love better than the real thing?
22) Comment on the broad strokes this play paints: Love & War! The Pen vs. the Sword!
23) Both the Gerald Depardieu and the Jose Ferrer versions are "movies." How would the play be staged on a conventional stage -- like the one in the first scene? On stage how is the action moved from inside a theater to a bakery to courtyard to battlefield?
24) A traditional comedy ends in marriage -- the celebration of the renewal of life. Does this play fulfill or frustrate our desire for a comic ending?
25) What is the plot structure of this play: Climactic, Episodic, Circular, or a mixture. (See link to Plot.)
26) What are the tragic elements in this play?
27) Interpret Cyrano's last words, "My white plume (panache)."
28 - 29 - 30) What public figure today comes close to being a present day Cyrano? Explain your choice. Three students may respond to this question.