The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

670 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender in literature

Every woman would want to be Lady Marguerite Blakeney, née St Just. Having recently made her debut at the Comedie Francois, Marguerite married Sir Percy Blakeney alias the Scarlet Pimpernel. Charming, clever, beautiful, with childlike eyes and a delicate face, Marguerite captures everyone’s attention. Yet Marguerite is portrayed as a stereotypical woman who is weak, impulsive, and whose identity revolves around her husband.

It is quite ridiculous how much Marguerite’s happiness lies in her husband Sir Percy Blakeney alias the Scarlet Pimpernel. One of Marguerite’s major struggles throughout the story is getting him to love her again, and until she did she could not sleep peacefully. Her husband who goes to France to save the aristocrats is in danger of being guillotined on his missions. Armand, her brother and a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel who is entrusted to bring the fugitives to Pere Blanchard’s Hut, is in equal danger of execution. Yet Marguerite cares only for the husband she realized she loved the night before, while completely ignoring the brother who helped raise her. “My brother!” she cries when Sir Andrews points this out. “Heaven help me but I fear I had forgotten.” She later screams, “No! no! no! no! Oh, God in heaven! this cannot be! let Armand's blood then be on her own head! let her be branded as his murderer! let even he, whom she loved, despise and loathe her for this, but God! oh God! save him at any cost!” The very man whom she called “the only being in the world who has loved . . . truly and constantly,” the man for whose safety she spied on the Scarlet Pimpernel, is cast aside for the foppish husband she fell in love with only yesterday. Marguerite’s life is centered on Percy to the point ...

... middle of paper ...

... is the star of London, the “fascinating young actress of the Comedie Francaise” who “glided through republican, revolutionary, bloodthirsty Paris like a comet with a trail behind her of all that was most distinguished, most interesting, in intellectual Europe.” Marguerite is the conventional picture of a fascinating young socialite.

Lady Blakeney is a feeble, irresolute, broken woman who does not take control of her life. Marguerite is seen as a weak character who is allowed to put responsibility on external forces rather than take action; when she does take action, it is only for the sake of her husband, and even then her efforts are pointless. Ruled by her feelings, she represents the stereotype of the overly emotional wife. Her appearance is set to be the ideal of feminine beauty. Marguerite Blakeney is the flawless, dutiful, good little wife everyone envies.

Show More
Related

  • Women In Voltaire's Cunegonde

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    Which is caused by the narrator having a male perspective. The narrator does not give the women and credit or redeeming qualities. All the women follow a general stereotype. If they tried to break away from the stereotype, they would me more important and influential characters. Paquette, a chambermaid in the Baron’s castle, is described as “a pretty and obedient brunette” (5). She is identified obedient not because of her job as a chambermaid, but because she is willing to exploit her soul and body to the men around the castle. In regards to the old woman, she doesn’t even have an actual name, which does not matter since is ugly and useless. The old woman has the mindset that she is; an object; a mistake; a disgrace. That her time has passed as a beautiful useful woman. All the rape and abuse has physically affected her and she is out of luck. In fact, she is lucky if men talk to her, or even look at her without

    Read More

  • Sandra Cisneros's “Never Marry a Mexican”

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Internal Struggle In Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening'

    2097 Words  | 5 Pages

    Franklin continues the argument that Edna is an example of the “labor toward self of the female hero with the accompanying inner and outer threats to attainment of selfhood” (Franklin 510) in her criticism The Awakening and the Failure of Psyche. Franklin also compares Edna’s character to a mythological figure; the comparison proves how it is “clear that heroism is necessary for the nascent self to resist the lure and power of unconscious” (Franklin 510). To first address Franklin’s discussion of Edna’s fight to become a female hero, it’s displayed in the criticism that Edna’s individuality is one of a matriarchal society. However, as Franklin proves, Edna wants are different than her actions because she “begins to play with different love roles, such as courtly love” (Franklin 514). Edna is then said to be a sexually awakened being because of her dabbling in different love roles as well as her idealism in her new relationships; although, her new sexual being comes with a cost because she, as said by Franklin, falls into the “narrow roles prescribed by the patriarchs” (Franklin 520). This struggle, as identified by Franklin, adds to the darkness in her emerging ego out of the stifling atmosphere. The criticism then elaborates on how the stifling atmosphere brings Edna to believe that there is a whimsical love in her journey individuation, but instead “Chopin now wishes [the readers] to see that Edna has a crucial choice to make: either to accept the fantastic nature of romantic love and continue on her solitary journey to self, or to refuse to acknowledge romantic love’s transient nature and embrace death” (Franklin 524). Franklin identifies Edna’s labor to find a balance between love and individuality as one similar to both the spirits of Psyche and Eros; they each have a continually struggle to strive towards two different passionate loves. Franklin explains that much like Psyche’s yearning, Edna’s infatuation with Robert is one in which

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in The Things They Carried

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    The character analysis of Mary Anne Bell in comparison and contrast to Martha and Elroy Berdahl implores the audience to consider the idea that gender is not inherent.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Nostalgia In My Antonia

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    Memories are a stockpile of good and bad experiences that are retained of a people, places. How do you remember your childhood memories? Do certain people, places or things trigger these memories to the past? Does the knowledge of these experience still affect your life today? Throughout the novel My Antonia, Jim's nostalgia for the past is represented by nature, symbolic elements, and above all Antonia.

    Read More

  • Essay Comparing The Awakening and Story of an Hour

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    The heroine, Mrs. P, has some carries some characteristics parallel to Louise Mallard in “Hour.” The women of her time are limited by cultural convention. Yet, Mrs. P, (like Louise) begins to experience a new freedom of imagination, a zest for life , in the immediate absence of her husband. She realizes, through interior monologues, that she has been held back, that her station in life cannot and will not afford her the kind of freedom to explore freely and openly the emotions that are as much a part of her as they are not a part of Leonce. Here is a primary irony.

    Read More

  • The Significance of Art in Chopin's The Awakening

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...

    Read More

  • Poem Essay: An Analysis Of 'The Wanderess'

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    Within every woman exists multiple facets of the self. The artist and poet help her to keep dreaming and feeling while the crone serves as her intuition. The seductress keeps her in touch with the fountain of youth and the mother takes care to nurture, heal and protect. The saint is her conscience and moral compass who keeps her on the straight and narrow as far as possible. The warrior rises up in times of trouble and fights the good fight, risking everything to survive. The clown keeps her grounded and playful. The wife does what is good and right, she has the morals and good sense to see things through while the temptress is naughty and daring, planting seeds that come from

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    Contrastingly, Mrs. Darling, his wife, is portrayed as a romantic, maternal character. She is a “lovely lady”, who had many suitors yet was “won” by Mr. Darling, who got to her first. However, she is a multifaceted character because her mind is described “like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East”, suggesting that she is, to some extent, an enigma to the other characters, especially Mr. Darling. As well as this, she exemplifies the characteristics of a “perfect mother”. She puts everything in order, including her children’s minds, which is a metaphor for the morals and ethics that she instils in them. Although ...

    Read More

  • The Woman of an Hour

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    If any other characters in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” were to read Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts, they would surely be horrified. What sort of sane, caring woman would feel joy and relief at the death of her husband? She must be a terrible person, despite her reasoning for those feelings. How could Mr. Mallard have chosen such a woman for his bride? She’s a gem, truly; note the sarcasm. Though, one does have to consider what else there is to Mrs. Mallard. She is a human and there is much more to her than her seemingly ill feelings toward her late husband, such as her desire for freedom, her genuine care for Mr. Mallard, and her capacity to exhibit strong emotions.

    Read More

  • Power

    1238 Words  | 3 Pages

    By changing Marguerite’s name, Mrs. Cullinan proves how much power she has over a little black servant like Marguerite. A rich white member of the society, in which Marguerite grew up, has more power and control over things than someone of a poor background or a black background. Mrs. Cullinan wasn’t the first to incite the drastic change of Marguerite’s name, although she started it off by calling her Margaret, it was in fact, one of her friends who suggested that “the name’s too long. I’d never bother myself. I’d call her Mary if I was you.”(5) As if showing off to her friends, and proving that she really does have control and power over black people, she starts calling her Mary, much to Marguerite’s disgust. Marguerite soon learned that Mrs. Cullinan had changed Miss Glory’s name twenty years ago.

    Read More

  • The Story of An Hour Theme

    387 Words  | 1 Pages

    Chopin reflects her rejection of the “postures of femininity” through her character’s descriptions. She describes her as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression.” Describing her as young and calm are what men looked for in a wife in the 19th century. They wanted a submissive woman to tend to their needs as Chopin’s description suggests. Furthermore, Chopin says of her character Mrs. Mallard, “she would live for herself.” Her character believes she will now be free of her marriage, and won’t be “repressed” as aforementioned any longer by her husband. Wives had a natural servitude towards their husbands as husbands worked and went about their lives. All in all, Chopin displays her character as having a joyous moment after the death of her husband because she is let go of being forced into her “femininity.”

    Read More

  • Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through attention to detail, repeated comparison, shifting tone, and dialogue that gives the characters an opportunity to voice their feelings, Elizabeth Gaskell creates a divide between the poor working class and the rich higher class in Mary Barton. Gaskell places emphasis on the differences that separate both classes by describing the lavish, comfortable, and extravagant life that the wealthy enjoy and compares it to the impoverished and miserable life that the poor have to survive through. Though Gaskell displays the inequality that is present between both social classes, she also shows that there are similarities between them. The tone and diction change halfway through the novel to highlight the factors that unify the poor and rich. In the beginning of the story John Barton exclaims that, “The rich know nothing of the trials of the poor…” (11), showing that besides the amount of material possessions that one owns, what divides the two social classes is ability to feel and experience hardship. John Barton views those of the upper class as cold individuals incapable of experiencing pain and sorrow. Gaskell, however proves Barton wrong and demonstrates that though there are various differences that divide the two social classes, they are unified through their ability to feel emotions and to go through times of hardship. Gaskell’s novel reveals the problematic tension between the two social classes, but also offers a solution to this problem in the form of communication, which would allow both sides to speak of their concerns and worries as well as eliminate misunderstandings.

    Read More

  • A Summary Of Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    7713 Words  | 16 Pages

    In America, the 1890s were a decade of tension and social change. A central theme in Kate Chopin’s fiction was the independence of women. In Louisiana, most women were their husband’s property. The codes of Napoleon were still governing the matrimonial contract. Since Louisiana was a Catholic state, divorce was rare and scandalous. In any case, Edna Pontellier of Chopin had no legal rights for divorce, even though Léonce undoubtedly did. When Chopin gave life to a hero that tested freedom’s limits, she touched a nerve of the politic body. However, not Edna’s love, nor her artistic inner world, sex, or friendship can reconcile her personal growth, her creativity, her own sense of self and her expectations. It is a very particular academic fashion that has had Edna transformed into some sort of a feminist heroine. If she could have seen that her awakening in fact was a passion for Edna herself, then perhaps her suicide would have been avoided. Everyone was forced to observe, including the cynics that only because a young

    Read More

  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Scarlet Letter is a blend of realism, symbolism, and allegory. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses historical settings for this fictional novel and even gives historical background information for the inspiration of the story of Hester Prynne in the introduction of The Scarlet Letter, ‘The Custom-House’. The psychological exploration of the characters and the author’s use of realistic dialogue only add to the realism of the novel. The most obvious symbol of the novel is the actual scarlet letter ‘A’ that Hester wears on her chest every day, but Hawthorne also uses Hester’s daughter Pearl and their surroundings as symbols as well. Allegory is present as well in The Scarlet Letter and is created through the character types of several characters in the novel.

    Read More

More about The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Open Document