At several points throughout The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy uses figurative language relating to snakes and serpents. She first introduces the image in Chapter 7, where it is associated with Marguerite:
The gentle sea-breeze blew Marguerite's hair about her face, and sent the ends of her soft lace fichu waving round her, like a white and supple snake.
This reference to snakes is likely a Biblical allusion to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, a figure associated with treachery. The allusion calls to mind the fate of Eve, who disobeyed God and brought about the fall of mankind after being deceived by the serpent. By using this allusion in relation to Marguerite, Orczy signals that she has committed acts of treachery in the past—most notably her role in the execution of the Marquis de St. Cyr and his family. Orczy also foreshadows events that occur later in the novel, in which Marguerite unwittingly betrays her husband after being blackmailed by Chauvelin.
Orczy explicitly links Chauvelin with the image of snakes in Chapter 9:
A figure had emerged from under one of the benches; with snakelike, noiseless movements it crept closer and closer to the two men, not breathing, only gliding along the floor, in the inky blackness of the room.
The biblical serpent, in addition to its traditional association with treachery, is also sometimes interpreted as Satan in animal form. At other points in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy explicitly likens Chauvelin and his men to demons from hell. These comparisons, along with this allusion to the biblical serpent, align Chauvelin—and, by extension, the French Republic—with the forces of ultimate evil.
Snake-related imagery makes another appearance in Chapter 16, when Marguerite and Sir Percy are on their way home from Lord Grenville's ball:
The river wound in and out in its pretty delicate curves, looking like a silver serpent beneath the glittering rays of the moon.
This and the earlier simile from Chapter 7 are both visually appealing, representing the contrast between Marguerite's beauty and apparent innocence and her past misdeeds. This simile also reminds the reader that Marguerite, on orders from Chauvelin, has just committed another act of treachery at Lord Grenville's ball.
In Chapter 8 of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite fantasizes about the mysterious hero who has confounded the agents of the French Republic and captured the English imagination:
"Ah! there was a man she might have loved, had he come her way: everything in him appealed to her romantic imagination; his personality, his strength, his bravery, the loyalty of those who served under him in that same noble cause, and, above all, that anonymity which crowned him as if with a halo of romantic glory."
The fact that Marguerite views the Scarlet Pimpernel as her romantic ideal is situationally ironic, since the Scarlet Pimpernel turns out to be Sir Percy. Marguerite is currently married to Sir Percy, whom she does love, but she incorrectly regards him as foppish and inane. Her fantasies therefore foreshadow the eventual revelation of Sir Percy's secret identity.
In Chapter 20, after Marguerite has discovered that Sir Percy is the Scarlet Pimpernel, she reflects on her earlier infatuation:
Marguerite's thoughts flew back to him, the mysterious hero, whom she had always unconsciously loved, when his identity was still unknown to her. Laughingly, in the olden days, she used to call him the shadowy king of her heart.
In hindsight, Marguerite recognizes the irony of her fantasies. The traits she admired in the Scarlet Pimpernel are all traits that her husband shares, but she was previously unable to notice them. Technically, she has never stopped loving Percy, since he was the object of her unconscious love all along.
At several points throughout The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy uses figurative language relating to snakes and serpents. She first introduces the image in Chapter 7, where it is associated with Marguerite:
The gentle sea-breeze blew Marguerite's hair about her face, and sent the ends of her soft lace fichu waving round her, like a white and supple snake.
This reference to snakes is likely a Biblical allusion to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, a figure associated with treachery. The allusion calls to mind the fate of Eve, who disobeyed God and brought about the fall of mankind after being deceived by the serpent. By using this allusion in relation to Marguerite, Orczy signals that she has committed acts of treachery in the past—most notably her role in the execution of the Marquis de St. Cyr and his family. Orczy also foreshadows events that occur later in the novel, in which Marguerite unwittingly betrays her husband after being blackmailed by Chauvelin.
Orczy explicitly links Chauvelin with the image of snakes in Chapter 9:
A figure had emerged from under one of the benches; with snakelike, noiseless movements it crept closer and closer to the two men, not breathing, only gliding along the floor, in the inky blackness of the room.
The biblical serpent, in addition to its traditional association with treachery, is also sometimes interpreted as Satan in animal form. At other points in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy explicitly likens Chauvelin and his men to demons from hell. These comparisons, along with this allusion to the biblical serpent, align Chauvelin—and, by extension, the French Republic—with the forces of ultimate evil.
Snake-related imagery makes another appearance in Chapter 16, when Marguerite and Sir Percy are on their way home from Lord Grenville's ball:
The river wound in and out in its pretty delicate curves, looking like a silver serpent beneath the glittering rays of the moon.
This and the earlier simile from Chapter 7 are both visually appealing, representing the contrast between Marguerite's beauty and apparent innocence and her past misdeeds. This simile also reminds the reader that Marguerite, on orders from Chauvelin, has just committed another act of treachery at Lord Grenville's ball.
In Chapter 19 of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite discovers that the Scarlet Pimpernel, the hero who has been rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine, is actually the alter ego of her husband Sir Percy. She realizes that Sir Percy's apparent lack of intelligence has been a clever ruse designed to deflect suspicion:
The mask of the inane fop had been a good one, and the part consummately well played. No wonder that Chauvelin’s spies had failed to detect, in the apparently brainless nincompoop, the man whose reckless daring and resourceful ingenuity had baffled the keenest French spies, both in France and in England.
The contrast between the cunning and elusive Scarlet Pimpernel and the foppish Sir Percy is an example of situational irony. Sir Percy, whom everyone regards as stupid, is the last person anyone would expect to secretly be a mastermind like the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Previous chapters in the novel contain some instances of foreshadowing. Sir Percy's brainless persona is quite successfully executed, but he is sometimes unable to conceal how sure and capable he truly is. In Chapter 9, Marguerite admires how easily he is able to control their horses:
[A]s she sat next to him hour after hour, admiring the dexterous, certain way in which he handled the reins, she often wondered what went on in that slow-going head of his.
This admiration is ironic, since Marguerite has previously claimed that Sir Percy's mind is unable to handle any task more strenuous than the "tying of a cravat."
There are other examples of irony and foreshadowing, in which Marguerite's perspective is limited by her lack of knowledge about Sir Percy's secret identity. In Chapter 16, for instance, Percy grows pale at the mention of Marguerite's brother Armand. Marguerite thinks that he is simply shocked by the revelation that Armand is in danger, but Sir Percy really pales because, as the Scarlet Pimpernel, he is responsible for Armand's predicament. And in Chapter 19, Marguerite's realization that Sir Percy is the Scarlet Pimpernel is triggered by Suzanne's revelation that the Scarlet Pimpernel has left for France to rescue her father. The scene is ironic because, while Marguerite does in fact know that Sir Percy has just left for France, she has yet to make the connection that he is the Scarlet Pimpernel.
At several points throughout The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy uses figurative language relating to snakes and serpents. She first introduces the image in Chapter 7, where it is associated with Marguerite:
The gentle sea-breeze blew Marguerite's hair about her face, and sent the ends of her soft lace fichu waving round her, like a white and supple snake.
This reference to snakes is likely a Biblical allusion to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, a figure associated with treachery. The allusion calls to mind the fate of Eve, who disobeyed God and brought about the fall of mankind after being deceived by the serpent. By using this allusion in relation to Marguerite, Orczy signals that she has committed acts of treachery in the past—most notably her role in the execution of the Marquis de St. Cyr and his family. Orczy also foreshadows events that occur later in the novel, in which Marguerite unwittingly betrays her husband after being blackmailed by Chauvelin.
Orczy explicitly links Chauvelin with the image of snakes in Chapter 9:
A figure had emerged from under one of the benches; with snakelike, noiseless movements it crept closer and closer to the two men, not breathing, only gliding along the floor, in the inky blackness of the room.
The biblical serpent, in addition to its traditional association with treachery, is also sometimes interpreted as Satan in animal form. At other points in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy explicitly likens Chauvelin and his men to demons from hell. These comparisons, along with this allusion to the biblical serpent, align Chauvelin—and, by extension, the French Republic—with the forces of ultimate evil.
Snake-related imagery makes another appearance in Chapter 16, when Marguerite and Sir Percy are on their way home from Lord Grenville's ball:
The river wound in and out in its pretty delicate curves, looking like a silver serpent beneath the glittering rays of the moon.
This and the earlier simile from Chapter 7 are both visually appealing, representing the contrast between Marguerite's beauty and apparent innocence and her past misdeeds. This simile also reminds the reader that Marguerite, on orders from Chauvelin, has just committed another act of treachery at Lord Grenville's ball.
In Chapter 19 of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite discovers that the Scarlet Pimpernel, the hero who has been rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine, is actually the alter ego of her husband Sir Percy. She realizes that Sir Percy's apparent lack of intelligence has been a clever ruse designed to deflect suspicion:
The mask of the inane fop had been a good one, and the part consummately well played. No wonder that Chauvelin’s spies had failed to detect, in the apparently brainless nincompoop, the man whose reckless daring and resourceful ingenuity had baffled the keenest French spies, both in France and in England.
The contrast between the cunning and elusive Scarlet Pimpernel and the foppish Sir Percy is an example of situational irony. Sir Percy, whom everyone regards as stupid, is the last person anyone would expect to secretly be a mastermind like the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Previous chapters in the novel contain some instances of foreshadowing. Sir Percy's brainless persona is quite successfully executed, but he is sometimes unable to conceal how sure and capable he truly is. In Chapter 9, Marguerite admires how easily he is able to control their horses:
[A]s she sat next to him hour after hour, admiring the dexterous, certain way in which he handled the reins, she often wondered what went on in that slow-going head of his.
This admiration is ironic, since Marguerite has previously claimed that Sir Percy's mind is unable to handle any task more strenuous than the "tying of a cravat."
There are other examples of irony and foreshadowing, in which Marguerite's perspective is limited by her lack of knowledge about Sir Percy's secret identity. In Chapter 16, for instance, Percy grows pale at the mention of Marguerite's brother Armand. Marguerite thinks that he is simply shocked by the revelation that Armand is in danger, but Sir Percy really pales because, as the Scarlet Pimpernel, he is responsible for Armand's predicament. And in Chapter 19, Marguerite's realization that Sir Percy is the Scarlet Pimpernel is triggered by Suzanne's revelation that the Scarlet Pimpernel has left for France to rescue her father. The scene is ironic because, while Marguerite does in fact know that Sir Percy has just left for France, she has yet to make the connection that he is the Scarlet Pimpernel.
In Chapter 16 of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy uses metaphor and personification to dramatize the marital conflict between Marguerite and Sir Percy. After arriving at their estate in Richmond, the couple argues, and Orczy frames the argument as a conflict between Sir Percy's extreme pride and Marguerite's extreme beauty:
His pride and her beauty had been in direct conflict, and his pride had remained the conqueror.
The metaphorical battle between the personified forces of beauty and pride represents the larger conflict between the values of the French Republic and those of the English aristocracy. Marguerite's beauty represents what Orczy views as the inherent shallowness of the French, which leads Chauvelin and his men to be constantly duped by the Scarlet Pimpernel. Percy's pride, meanwhile, represents what Orczy believes to be the English aristocracy's strong commitment to duty, which inspires him to perform acts of heroism.
In this scene, Percy's pride remains "the conqueror," foreshadowing how traditional English morals emerge victorious at the end of the novel, with Marguerite fully rejecting her French Republican sensibilities. With her use of personification and metaphor, Orczy elevates the private marital conflict in Marguerite and Sir Percy's to the level of international and even universal importance.
At several points throughout The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy uses the motif of the mask to foreshadow the revelation that Sir Percy is actually the Scarlet Pimpernel. In Chapter 17, after Marguerite has bid farewell to Sir Percy, she ponders suspicions that there is more to her husband than meets the eye:
And now that she looked back upon the last few months of misunderstandings and of loneliness, she realised that she had never ceased to love him; that deep down in her heart she had always vaguely felt that his foolish inanities, his empty laugh, his lazy nonchalance were nothing but a mask; that the real man, strong, passionate, wilful, was there still.
Marguerite's suspicions are correct—Sir Percy's foppish persona is indeed an act—but she fails to realize just how correct. Selfishly, she believes that Sir Percy is merely hiding his love for her, and she never considers that he could be concealing a heroic alter ego.
It is not until Chapter 19 that Marguerite understands the true nature of Sir Percy's "mask":
She understood it now—all at once . . . that part he played—the mask he wore . . . in order to throw dust in everybody’s eyes.
Early on in the novel, the Scarlet Pimpernel is established as a master of disguise. But even though Marguerite is aware of this fact, she fails to connect it to her husband's excellent acting abilities and the metaphorical "mask" he appears to wear.
Chapter 18 of The Scarlet Pimpernel—in which Marguerite begins to suspect that there is more to her husband than meets the eye—contains an allusion to a French folktale:
Gently, on tiptoe, she crossed the landing and, like Blue Beard's wife, trembling half with excitement and wonder, she paused a moment on the threshold, strangely perturbed and irresolute.
"Bluebeard," the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault, concerns a woman who discovers that her husband has been systematically murdering his previous wives and narrowly avoids the same fate.
In the folktale, Bluebeard gives his new bride the keys to his castle but forbids her from entering one specific room. One day, when her husband is out of the house, the wife's curiosity gets the best of her, and she goes to investigate the secret room, where she discovers the corpses of her predecessors.
This allusion highlights the illicit nature of Marguerite's activities and foreshadows the reveal that her husband, like Bluebeard, has been keeping a major secret from her. The allusion recurs later in the chapter, when Marguerite is leaving her husband's study:
Her head began to ache, she turned away from this strange Blue Beard's chamber, which she had entered, and which she did not understand.
These allusions are, of course, highly ironic. Unlike Bluebeard, Sir Percy is not secretly a serial killer. Rather, he is far more intelligent and heroic than he appears. And while Perrault's folktale ends with Bluebeard's wife being rescued in the nick of time from the clutches of her murderous husband, The Scarlet Pimpernel ends with Marguerite and Sir Percy rescuing one another.
In Chapter 19 of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite discovers that the Scarlet Pimpernel, the hero who has been rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine, is actually the alter ego of her husband Sir Percy. She realizes that Sir Percy's apparent lack of intelligence has been a clever ruse designed to deflect suspicion:
The mask of the inane fop had been a good one, and the part consummately well played. No wonder that Chauvelin’s spies had failed to detect, in the apparently brainless nincompoop, the man whose reckless daring and resourceful ingenuity had baffled the keenest French spies, both in France and in England.
The contrast between the cunning and elusive Scarlet Pimpernel and the foppish Sir Percy is an example of situational irony. Sir Percy, whom everyone regards as stupid, is the last person anyone would expect to secretly be a mastermind like the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Previous chapters in the novel contain some instances of foreshadowing. Sir Percy's brainless persona is quite successfully executed, but he is sometimes unable to conceal how sure and capable he truly is. In Chapter 9, Marguerite admires how easily he is able to control their horses:
[A]s she sat next to him hour after hour, admiring the dexterous, certain way in which he handled the reins, she often wondered what went on in that slow-going head of his.
This admiration is ironic, since Marguerite has previously claimed that Sir Percy's mind is unable to handle any task more strenuous than the "tying of a cravat."
There are other examples of irony and foreshadowing, in which Marguerite's perspective is limited by her lack of knowledge about Sir Percy's secret identity. In Chapter 16, for instance, Percy grows pale at the mention of Marguerite's brother Armand. Marguerite thinks that he is simply shocked by the revelation that Armand is in danger, but Sir Percy really pales because, as the Scarlet Pimpernel, he is responsible for Armand's predicament. And in Chapter 19, Marguerite's realization that Sir Percy is the Scarlet Pimpernel is triggered by Suzanne's revelation that the Scarlet Pimpernel has left for France to rescue her father. The scene is ironic because, while Marguerite does in fact know that Sir Percy has just left for France, she has yet to make the connection that he is the Scarlet Pimpernel.
At several points throughout The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy uses the motif of the mask to foreshadow the revelation that Sir Percy is actually the Scarlet Pimpernel. In Chapter 17, after Marguerite has bid farewell to Sir Percy, she ponders suspicions that there is more to her husband than meets the eye:
And now that she looked back upon the last few months of misunderstandings and of loneliness, she realised that she had never ceased to love him; that deep down in her heart she had always vaguely felt that his foolish inanities, his empty laugh, his lazy nonchalance were nothing but a mask; that the real man, strong, passionate, wilful, was there still.
Marguerite's suspicions are correct—Sir Percy's foppish persona is indeed an act—but she fails to realize just how correct. Selfishly, she believes that Sir Percy is merely hiding his love for her, and she never considers that he could be concealing a heroic alter ego.
It is not until Chapter 19 that Marguerite understands the true nature of Sir Percy's "mask":
She understood it now—all at once . . . that part he played—the mask he wore . . . in order to throw dust in everybody’s eyes.
Early on in the novel, the Scarlet Pimpernel is established as a master of disguise. But even though Marguerite is aware of this fact, she fails to connect it to her husband's excellent acting abilities and the metaphorical "mask" he appears to wear.
In Chapter 8 of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite fantasizes about the mysterious hero who has confounded the agents of the French Republic and captured the English imagination:
"Ah! there was a man she might have loved, had he come her way: everything in him appealed to her romantic imagination; his personality, his strength, his bravery, the loyalty of those who served under him in that same noble cause, and, above all, that anonymity which crowned him as if with a halo of romantic glory."
The fact that Marguerite views the Scarlet Pimpernel as her romantic ideal is situationally ironic, since the Scarlet Pimpernel turns out to be Sir Percy. Marguerite is currently married to Sir Percy, whom she does love, but she incorrectly regards him as foppish and inane. Her fantasies therefore foreshadow the eventual revelation of Sir Percy's secret identity.
In Chapter 20, after Marguerite has discovered that Sir Percy is the Scarlet Pimpernel, she reflects on her earlier infatuation:
Marguerite's thoughts flew back to him, the mysterious hero, whom she had always unconsciously loved, when his identity was still unknown to her. Laughingly, in the olden days, she used to call him the shadowy king of her heart.
In hindsight, Marguerite recognizes the irony of her fantasies. The traits she admired in the Scarlet Pimpernel are all traits that her husband shares, but she was previously unable to notice them. Technically, she has never stopped loving Percy, since he was the object of her unconscious love all along.
In Chapter 26 of The Scarlet Pimpernel, readers are introduced to Benjamin Rosenbaum, a French Jewish man who offers to help Chauvelin locate The Scarlet Pimpernel. As the readers later discover, Rosenbaum—a deeply antisemitic caricature—is actually Sir Percy/The Scarlet Pimpernel in disguise. This disguise is situationally ironic, since there is a disconnect between appearance and reality. But descriptions of Rosenbaum also subtly foreshadow the coming reveal.
Orczy describes Rosenbaum as having a stoop, which she ascribes to the Jewish habit of "mock humility." This explanation is incredibly antisemitic and unfounded, but astute readers will also recall that Sir Percy often needs to find ways to hide his tall stature when in disguise. Ironically, Chauvelin even refers to Sir Percy as "the tall stranger" when speaking with Rosenbaum, unaware that he is talking to the tall stranger in question.
When Marguerite attempts to look at Rosenbaum's face, she has a strange premonition:
[S]he looked anxiously at the Jew, but could not read his face beneath the shadow of his broad-brimmed hat. Vaguely she felt somehow as if he held Percy's fate in his long dirty hands.
Marguerite's feeling that Rosenbaum holds Sir Percy's fate in his hands is also ironic because the two men are, in reality, one and the same.
