Scene 5. I. of Cyra­no de Berg­er­ac begins in the peace­ful park of the Sis­ters of the Holy Cross in Paris, set in 1655, where the autumn beau­ty is cap­tured in vivid detail. The scene is paint­ed with the pres­ence of grand trees, an expan­sive house with wide steps, and a large plane tree stand­ing sen­tinel-like, sur­round­ed by box­wood bush­es. The park’s nat­ur­al beau­ty extends fur­ther, with chest­nut trees lin­ing an alley­way that leads to a dis­tant chapel, par­tial­ly obscured by branch­es. The soft view of the park’s wind­ing paths, clus­ters of trees, and green lawns cre­ates a serene atmos­phere, invit­ing both intro­spec­tion and antic­i­pa­tion.

The autumn sea­son is ful­ly present in the scene, with its deep reds col­or­ing the leaves and con­trast­ing with the rich green lawns and dark box­wood and yew trees. Yel­low leaves have scat­tered across the ground, lying on the steps and bench­es, their soft rustling heard as they are crushed under­foot. Among this qui­et beau­ty, an unfin­ished tapes­try is placed beside a chair, with bas­kets filled with skeins of wool, hint­ing at a calm, cre­ative task left incom­plete. This still life of nature, work, and reflec­tion is under­scored by the sim­ple, yet evoca­tive, image of the tapes­try that mir­rors the theme of things left unfin­ished or paused in time.

As the cur­tain ris­es, the still­ness of the park is com­ple­ment­ed by the gen­tle activ­i­ties of the nuns. Some walk slow­ly around the grounds, oth­ers sit and con­verse on the stone bench, form­ing a peace­ful com­mu­ni­ty around the elder Sis­ter. How­ev­er, the tran­quil­i­ty is sub­tly inter­rupt­ed by a moment of van­i­ty from Sis­ter Claire, who, caught glanc­ing at her­self in a mir­ror not once but twice, momen­tar­i­ly shifts the focus from the seren­i­ty of the sur­round­ings to the per­son­al con­cerns of the indi­vid­u­als in this peace­ful enclave. This small act of self-reflec­tion becomes sym­bol­ic of the bal­ance between inter­nal and exter­nal con­cerns with­in the oth­er­wise qui­et exis­tence of the nuns.

This open­ing scene, with its rich imagery and calm pace, sets the stage for what is to unfold, evok­ing themes of reflec­tion, time’s pas­sage, and the intru­sion of the out­side world into this sanc­tu­ary. Through the descrip­tive back­drop and the nuns’ gen­tle rou­tines, the scene estab­lish­es a con­trast between the endur­ing peace of their seclud­ed lives and the impend­ing devel­op­ments that will dis­rupt this calm. The beau­ty of the park and the sim­plic­i­ty of the moment pre­pare the audi­ence for a deep­er explo­ration of both the per­son­al and exter­nal ten­sions that will dri­ve the action of the final act. The mix of beau­ty, intro­spec­tion, and sub­tle dra­ma hints at an unfold­ing nar­ra­tive that will con­trast the tran­quil life of the nuns with the dra­ma and tur­bu­lence of the world out­side their sanc­tu­ary.

The peace­ful scene also serves as a reflec­tion of the themes of time and change in the play. The nuns, wrapped in their rou­tine, embody the pas­sage of time in a life that seems untouched by the out­er world. Yet, just as autumn sig­nals the change of sea­sons, the brief inter­rup­tion caused by Sis­ter Claire’s van­i­ty reminds us that, even in the most iso­lat­ed or serene envi­ron­ments, the exter­nal world and its con­cerns will inevitably make their pres­ence known. The open­ing sets the stage for a final act filled with deep­er emo­tion­al and philo­soph­i­cal reflec­tions on the nature of time, iden­ti­ty, and the bound­aries between the exter­nal and inter­nal worlds.

Through this por­tray­al, the scene empha­sizes the con­trast between a peace­ful, order­ly exis­tence and the inevitable intru­sion of larg­er forces—both per­son­al and societal—that push indi­vid­u­als toward change and trans­for­ma­tion. It sub­tly cri­tiques the human ten­den­cy to be caught between the com­fort of the famil­iar and the nec­es­sary con­fronta­tions with what lies beyond. The qui­et beau­ty of the scene, tinged with the under­tones of dis­rup­tion, invites the audi­ence to reflect on their own expe­ri­ences of seren­i­ty and trans­for­ma­tion.