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Simile
Explanation and Analysis—"Savage Creatures":
At multiple points throughout The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy utilizes metaphor and simile to compare the supporters of the French Revolution to animals.
Chapter 1 opens with a crowd of French peasants gathering around the guillotine to watch the execution of aristocrats:
A surging, seething, murmuring crowd, of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate.
In this passage, French citizens are dehumanized and compared to “savage creatures.” From Orczy’s perspective, they are “human only in name,” appearing as animals to the eye and ear. Orczy also portrays the French peasantry as a mindless, bloodthirsty mob, rather than a group of free-thinking individuals. And although the real-life leaders of the French Revolution were motivated by a genuine desire for justice and social equality, Orczy dismisses these motivations as “the lust of vengeance and hate.”
Throughout the novel, Orczy contrasts this perceived mob mentality with The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, whose members are motivated by a strong devotion to their leader and their cause but are still capable of independent thought and action.
In Chapter 28, Marguerite uses metaphor and simile to compare Chauvelin and his lackeys to wolves:
She thought of the ravenous beasts—in human shape—who lay in wait for their prey, and destroyed them, as mercilessly as any hungry wolf, for the satisfaction of their own appetite of hate.
Interestingly, although Marguerite describes Chauvelin’s men as animals, she ascribes attributes to them that are only found in human beings. Animals are, by nature, amoral. Their behavior is motivated by an innate instinct to survive, and they are incapable of feeling human emotions like hate.
Also, although Marguerite’s comparison is intended to be disparaging, Chauvelin uses similar language later in the same chapter when he speaks to his men:
"But remember that you must be as silent as the wolf is at night, when he prowls around the pens."
In this instance, animal-like behavior is depicted as something worthy of emulation. Chauvelin, it seems, is fully comfortable embracing his identity as a predator.
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