Compare and Contrast Essay on Cyrano de Bergerac, the Play vs. Roxanne, the Movie

Introduction

The 1987 Roxanne film is a great successful modernization to the 1950 Cyrano de Bergerac play since it fully describes the similarities of all the characters in the play and how detailed they turn out to be in a contemporary world.Both the book and the movie are similar in some way regarding the conflict, setting, characterization,and plot. This essay compares the characters, specific scenes and events, and how the different interpretations of the book and the movie impact other characters.

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The movie and the book's main characters are similar. In the movie, Cyrano plays as a chief firefighter while in the book he is a renowned sword fighter fighting people "I cannot continue fighting dwarfs, I have to face giants" (Rostand 43). In both, he is a witty, poetic, and charming, guy. Christian works for Cyrano in both settings. In the play we can see Cyrano's weaknesses and strengths and that together with Chris in the movie, they love Roxanne and are both skilled characters. In the play,at the balcony, Cyrano is afraid of directly telling Roxane about his feelings while Christianis brave enough to open up to Roxanne. Christian is also a weak character"for I am a tongue-tied man, I do not know how to express my feelings to a lady" (Rostand 77). Christian inquires for advice on how to approach Roxane and pleads Cyrano to approach her on his behalf claiming that he gets nervous in front of women.The movie portrays Chris and C.D as friends and workers, but Chris runs off and vomits whenever he sees Roxane.

Several characters in the book were affected by the interpretation since most of them are missing in the movie set. Cadets areviewedas committed men who are ready to go to war "...it was just one man who fought the whole group of assassins on his own" (Rostand 53).Firefighters replaced characters such as Le Bert, Ragueneau, and Comte De Guiche under Cyrano's command in the movie. The firemenin the movie are portrayed as a group of ludicrous adults with no idea of what they are doing. Cyrano writes to Roxanne pretending to be Christian "I will copy what is written on this paper and express my feelings to her" (Rostand 51). Just like Rostand, Roxanne has Ragueneau,and Le Bret transformed into the movie character Dixie. She plays a huge part by giving Roxanne Charlie's letter. Dixie slyly puts Charlie's name on the back to notify Roxanne that the letter was from Charlie and not Chris.

The settings of both the book and the movie are both in towns. The movie is based in a modern Suburban in the United States reflecting the present day while the book's setting is in France in the 1640's period. In the balcony scene, Cyrano helps Christian by asking De Guiche to distract any possible intruders "Go! Hide thereand if anyone passes by and tries to intrude, sing for them" (Rostand 94). In the movie, the old ladies are sent by Charlie to walk in on Chris and Roxanne. The settings in both portray similar conflicts Cyrano tries to help Christian and Roxanne fall in love with each other while he is also in love with Roxanne.Roxanne loves Christian who does not know how to communicate with her.

Conclusion

Concludingly we can see that the settings and characters in both the movie and book played similar roles thus passing the same conflicting theme of irony and men who lack the courage of facing one pretty lady.

Work Cited

Rostand, Edmond, et al. Cyrano de Bergerac. Ariel Educative Publications, pdf.