What struck me in this play was Roxanne and Christian’s underlying shallowness, compared to Cyrano’s love, which I argue is, from the soul. We never truly see Roxanne and Christian have a ‘normal’ conversation. The breadth of their interaction is limited to grand proclamations of love (which really, seem more like performance activism than anything else), or Roxanne reading and talking about the letters she thinks are written by Christian. To what extent can you love somebody you do not truly know?
Christian’s love is superficial. He, like all of her other admirers, loved Roxanne for her beauty, looks, and grace. He fell madly in love with her without ever really getting to know her. Once Roxanne too fell in love with Christian, it became clear that he craved physical intimacy much more than emotional – he did not long to speak to her, or get to know her, but rather to kiss her – to have her body as his.
Roxanne, on the other hand, is in love with love – or the idea of being loved. She marries Christian for his words, and falls truly in love with him (beyond the superficial) only when he begins to write to her and about her in ways that entrance her. When he can’t deliver those words, she tells him it “displeases me as much as though [he] was growing ugly”. She fell in love with Christian for his beauty, much as he did for hers. She tells him, “retrieve your scattered eloquence. Otherwise – leave.” She is not even willing to have a simple conversation with him unless he is praising her with embroidered words – she does not love him, but his poetry, and the attention it gives her.
Cyrano, on the other hand, loves Roxanne for who she is – a type of love Christian does not understand. He loves her like the sun loves the moon, enough to sacrifice his happiness for her oblivion.