Cyrano de Bergerac

The moon, a favorite symbol of poets for many centuries, plays a large role in Cyrano de Bergerac. It has many meanings—the moon functions as Cyrano’s true friend, a representation of his desires as well as a witness to his acts of bravery and wit. The moon also symbolizes beauty and irrationality, and Cyrano finds it to be a useful tool in diversion.

The longest discussion of the moon is when Cyrano distracts Guiche while Roxane marries Christian. Cyrano says, “I fell out of the moon!” (138), which causes Guiche to call him “mad” (138). Their discussion about the various methods of traveling to the moon is an allusion to Astolfo from the Italian romance Orlando Furioso traveling to the moon to recover Orlando’s wits and restore his rationality. Cyrano’s diversion connects the moon to the morning dew, mirrors, rockets, smoke, the goddess Diana, magnets, and the sea.   

In other parts of the play, Cyrano dreams of his beloved “Walking with little steps under the moon, / And holding my arm” (49), describes the “blue moonbeams” (56) in the city of Paris as he goes to fight Lignière’s enemies, and describes said fight with “Overhead, the moon / Hung like a gold watch at the fob of heaven” (93).