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Act 3, Scene 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cyrano De Bergerac, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Appearances and Identity
The Many Kinds of Love
Panache
Social Hierarchy and the Romantic Ideal
Loyalty and Honor
Summary
Analysis
Outside Roxane’s house, the Count de Guiche stares amazedly at Cyrano, Roxane, and Christian. De Guiche gives credit where it’s due, and compliments Cyrano for his clever performance. The Monk then emerges from the house and tells the Count that he’s married Roxane to Christian—just as the Count asked. Furious, the Count clarifies that he never wanted this to happen.
One early sign that de Guiche isn’t an entirely villainous figure is that he compliments Cyrano for his excellent performance. De Guiche may be petty and selfish, but at least he can recognize great art when he sees it, and for Cyrano, being able to recognize and appreciate art is almost a moral imperative.
Themes
Spitefully, the Count de Guiche tells Cyrano and Christian that he’ll now arrange for the two of them to be shipped off to fight, along with the rest of the cadets. He sarcastically tells Roxane that she’ll have to wait to consummate her marriage. Privately, Cyrano mutters that he’s not too sad about this. As de Guiche turns to leave, Roxane begs Cyrano to protect Christian in battle and make sure he writes often. Cyrano promises that he will do his best.
It’s an important detail that Roxane and Christian never consummate their relationship (that is, have sex), and their love is always unfulfilled and incomplete. This fact is truer even than Roxane recognizes: her love for Christian is only “half” what she thinks it is, since her attraction to Christian’s eloquence and intelligence is really love for Cyrano. Cyrano’s loyalty seems to know no bounds: even though Christian is his rival for Roxane’s love, Cyrano again agrees to protect him, perhaps concluding that he has no chance with Roxane now that she’s married.
Themes
