Was Cyrano wrong to agree to teach Christian in the first place? Should they have seen the eventual outcome? Was he wrong to keep silent after Christian died? What positive effect would not knowing have on Roxane? Did it help her to hold onto that image of Christian? Wouldn't she have been happier being married to Cyrano, or would that have even happened if he had told her?
Within the ethics of this romantic tragedy, I can see Cyrano as unfailingly noble. I'm just wondering whether these ethics are upside down in some ways. Does this romantic ethic not want an ugly man to be with a beautiful woman? Would his nose have magically shrunk if they had married? (I'm not kidding -- that doesn't seem too far out for this story.)
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Was he noble? Interesting. I'll say this: Cyrano's nose was not his downfall. As he says in his death scene, it was vanity. He was excessively proud of his mind, his wit, his skill in battle. It kept him from advancing in the army, from having his play published. It was his vanity that led him to propose the ruse to Christian to begin with. As his friend tells him, he ruins every opportunity that comes along.
He didn't reveal himself to Roxane after Christian's death because he wanted to preserve her love and memory of him. He felt regret that he had failed to keep Christian from harm as Roxane had asked him, and that he had used Christian as a pawn. And he also now knew that he had misjudged Roxane -- that she would have loved him if he'd ever revealed his feelings. It was his vanity again that had kept him from telling her. He was afraid of being laughed at, though he had no evidence to suggest she would do so. I think a lonely life of quiet friendship to her was like a penance for having hurt all three of them.
Did Roxane deserve her punishment? Thinking that her beloved was dead when he was really so near for the 15 years she was in the convent?
Yes, yes, yes on Erin's post. I think Cyrano was noble by acting by Roxane's wishes (protecting Christian), but it was his vanity that led him to prop up and maintain the fiction about Christian.
Ben, what do you think about whether Roxane deserved to not know?
Her character was pretty flat, but also likeable. I don't see a fatal flaw to point to as a reason for her "punishment." I think that aspect of the story (i.e., what she lost and why) was ignored. It was Cyrano's story throughout, so her motivations and feelings were not important to the writer.
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