Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel

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“The Scarlet Pimpernel” by Baroness Orczy Who is the notorious Scarlet Pimpernel? Imagine a 14th century Superhero, saving victim’s lives from the historical event people call the French Revolution. If one desires to know the answer, one must read the classic book that will leave readers with their mouths hanging. Baroness Orczy, the author of this highly successful book, came from a wealthy Hungarian aristocratic family and lived from 1865 to 1942. By all means, Orczy lived a life with hardships and difficulties involving her family, and war stricken moving. She was a talented writer who composed this book in an impressive 5 weeks; capturing the media’s attention, making her rise to fame. Although the Scarlet Pimpernel seems like…show more content…
Someone once said, “That those who don’t know the value of loyalty can never appreciate the cost of betrayal.” That is to say that the men who works with the Scarlet Pimpernel never backed out of any intricate situation when it came to a mission of saving an aristocrat. They would risk their own lives in order for the identity of the scarlet pimpernel to be kept safe. “Lady Blakeney,” he said at last, ‘God knows you have perplexed me, so that I do not know which way my duty lies. Tell me what you wish me to do. There are nineteen of us ready to lay down our lives for the Scarlet Pimpernel if he is in danger” (p.158). Lady Marguerite also exhibits loyalty throughout the story by going through extremes for her beloved brother. “Now Lady Blakeney had suddenly ceased to exist. It was Marguerite St. Just who was there only: Marguerite St. Just had passed her childhood, her early youth, in the protecting arms of her brother, Armand. She had forgotten everything else-her rank, her dignity, her secret enthusiasm-everything save that Armand stood in peril of his life, and that there...might be the talisman which would save her brother’s life”(p. 99). Lewis Carroll once said, “One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.” This is to demonstrate how the Scarlet Pimpernel risks his own life in order to save the lives of people whom he had never met before, but yet goes through the struggle to help them. Lady Marguerite is set off to in trying to save her husband from the danger that awaits him. “God would be merciful. he would not allow so appalling a crime to be committed, as the death of a brave man, through the hand of a woman who loved him, and worshipped him, and who would gladly die for his sake”(p.160). The valuable themes, loyalty and selflessness, were expressed by Orczy exhibiting them thoroughly with her
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