Edmond Rostand vs Charles Dickens

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With six completely different governments in just over 200 years, the French political climate and society as a whole seems to be in a constant state of change. This variation makes France the perfect backdrop for literary masterpieces and hundreds of authors, from Victor Hugo to Shakespeare have not let this opportunity go to waste. Two other notable writers, Edmond Rostand and Charles Dickens have utilized France’s vibrant history as the setting for their stories. Rostand, in his play Cyrano de Bergerac, describes a colorful, dramatic and sometimes larger than life depiction of French society. This is used as the background to the title character’s story of powerful love for his cousin Roxanne, a love Cyrano does not think he deserves, despite his wit, because of his physical appearance. Dickens, on the other hand, creates his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, during a time of great turmoil, the beginnings of the French Revolution, which would eventually upheave thousands of years of hierarchy and tradition. Dickens’s France is dark, miserable and filled with a climate of overwhelming terror behind the heroic and sacrificial tale of self-deprecating hero, Sydney Carton, who gives his own life in a selfless act of love for Lucie Manette in order to save the man she loves from the guillotine. Though Dickens’s illustration of the revolutionaries is not always positive, he has a deep sympathy towards the plight of the poor therefore his portrayal of France is extremely negative and often exaggerated. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens depict opposing interpretations of life in France which were developed based on the personal backgrounds of the authors and expressed in romanticized portrayals of French society in the mid-17th century and late 18th century respectively. Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in Portsmouth, England
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