Should Cyrano have told Roxane earlier that the letters were his? - Iola's Cyrano post # 3

Well, let us consider why he didn't in the first place. He wanted to let her mourn Christian and he didn't want to falsify her experience of reading the letter, by springing something so drastic on her. She probably would have had a heart attack. It would have been unfair to Roxane to so confuse her feelings for Christian just as he was dying - and also, Cyrano had just told Christian Roxane loved him, and maybe he just wanted it to be true. It was good of him to wait, but it wasn't necessarily a good idea to wait forever. Christian was dead, and wouldn't care anymore who Roxane loved, so it could not have been out of respect for his dead friend that Cyrano didn't tell her. The reason could have been this: he was afraid that she would be disappointed on finding out the truth, that she would not love him, and that she would lose her respect for Christian as well. Cyrano was probably afraid it would break her heart too much to find out that what turned into such a perfect, Romeo-and-Juliet style love - pure and innocent because it had been cut off too short - was really all a farce. I still think he should have told her. If she didn't love him, and if she was disillusioned about the nature of the previous relationship - if she was disappointed, maybe she would have matured a little, grown up. I assume that Roxane must have been very young, probably in her teens. She had plenty of time to get over a disappointing first love and go seek greater things. So maybe it was not out of consideration for Roxane that Cyrano didn't tell her. Maybe his motivation was selfish. Cyrano was afraid that the truth would crush him, and he preferred to live in a state of ambiguity, always with the hope that maybe things would have gone his way. I think this is the most likely answer, and this is also why I think it was wrong of him not to tell Roxane. He was not only keeping himself in the dark, but the woman he loved, as well. He was preventing her from going out and living her life with another man, keeping her to himself instead, though in a less satisfying manner than he could have if he had only told her. Though Cyrano was courageous in all other matters, in love he was a coward. He was afraid of the rejection that could come with tearing Roxane's lovely illusion of love with Christian from her. Instead he hoped that maybe she would have answered yes, convincing himself that it was an honourable thing to do. It was neither honourable or smart - had he taken a risk, as he did with so many other things in his life, he would have found that she loved him too, and they both would have lived a much happier life together.

It was cruel to make her lose him twice.