Cyrano De Bergerac Tragic Hero Essay

In Edmond Rostand’s play, Cyrano de Bergerac, the main character Cyrano is considered a tragic hero. Cyrano, as with any other tragic hero, possesses many positive qualities that ultimately lead to his downfall. These defining heroic qualities are exhibited all throughout the play, including his ability to overcome bullies, his altruistic spirit, and his humbleness.

Cyrano overcomes adversity when he is judged harshly by Valvert and a bore for his looks. Because he is ridiculed relentlessly for his nose, Cyrano is left with two choices: to stand up to his bullies or to yield to their judgement. While Cyrano chooses the former, and defends himself with poise and wit, their criticisms still obviously get to him. From the beginning and throughout the entire story, Cyrano is put down terribly for his nose. In Scene IV, Valvert’s first interaction with Cyrano includes “You…you have... hmm .…..a very large nose!” Every hero faces an obstacle they must overcome or conquer. In Cyrano’s case, though he wittily deflects the criticism he receives regarding his appearance, it severely damages his self confidence.

This is surprising because of Cyrano possesses a passionate love for Roxane, yet has an extreme willingness to help Christian anyway. Though Cyrano knows Roxane well, he does not believe they can be together because he is not as handsome as Christian. When Christian melodramatically exclaims “Please! I must find some way of meeting her. I am dying of love,” Cyrano agrees to help, because he does not see a relationship between Roxane and himself to be likely anyway. This will later prove to be incorrect when Roxane reveals she was in love with the soul who wrote the poems, not Christians looks.Though kindness is considered a positive quality, Cyrano’s ultimately results in him losing the woman he loves until the end of the play, when it is too late for him to be