Comparing the Anti-Social Plays of Cyrano de Bergerac and Night of the

The Anti-Social Plays of Cyrano de Bergerac and Night of the Iguana Cyrano is clearly a better example of an anti-social play than Night of the Iguana: Not only is this shown by the main characters and their relationship to each other, but more important, it is shown in the themes of these two plays. Shannon is unmistakably an ideal character for an anti-social play: While Cyrano may be alienated from society, it is, in many ways, through his own choice. For instance, he could have a position at court with his skill with poetry, but instead he chooses to follow his own conscience: "What would you have me do? ... like a creeping vine on a tall tree, crawl upward? ... No thank you!" Cyrano wants to make himself "in all things admirable," and he is: the bravest fighter, the exemplary poet, the quintessential lover, an individualistic moralist (he eats meat on Fridays, but expects to go to Heaven), the finest writer, and the greatest thinker. Shannon, in contrast, is none of these things. A defrocked minister, he is a lover only of teenage girls, and he is neither a poet nor a writer. Shannon is a thinker and a moralist, but these only contribute to his isolation from society: His thoughts on God and morality get him locked out of the church of which he is the pastor. Cyrano is also in control over his relationships: Ragueneau and Le Bret always follow Cyrano's lead when he condescends to tell them what to do; even Roxane could have been his had he not been hindered by his sense of honor. Shannon, on the other hand, is buffeted this way and that by the stronger characters in Iguana. He seems to have control over his relationship with Maxine, but at the end he acquiesces to her wishes. The only rel... ...ef that there is nothing to believe in anymore. The emergence of many philosophies (such as existentialism, atheistic satanism, objectivism, nihilism, and hedonism) which focus on despair or selfishness also reflects this. Anti-social plays, of which we have many in modern times, address the concepts of despair that these influential modern philosophies have in common. What is the way out of the despair that our society feels and the anti-social plays reflect? In a word: humanism. Humanism is a (usually atheistic) philosophy which espouses the well-being of all of the world's people as the highest ethical goal. As a species, we have placed our belief in deities and we have placed our belief in knowledge. Only a belief in ourselves can now save us from the self-destructive downward spiral that the anti-social plays suggest our society has entered.