Character
Sir Percy is a wealthy English baronet who rescues individuals sentenced to death in the guillotine. His acts of daring show him to be a master of disguise, an imaginative planner, a formidable swordsman and a quick-thinking escape artist. With each rescue he taunts his enemies by leaving behind a card showing a small flower--a scarlet pimpernel. The identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel thus becomes a topic of widespread popular interest and the hero himself becomes the subject of an international manhunt by the French revolutionary authorities. To hide his true identity, Sir Percy presents himself in everyday life as a fop who is intellectually dull, cares only for wearing the latest fashions, speaks little French and takes no notice of world affairs. His secret is kept by a band of friends known as the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. The league operates as an undercover team in enacting Sir Percy's rescue plans.
Unusually for an action hero, Sir Percy is married. Events in the original novel are related from the point of view of his wife, Marguerite St. Just.
Baroness Orczy's general sympathy with aristocrats is evident in her stories, where nobility of birth and nobility of character easily correspond. Even so, her tales present commoners as capable of selfless and heroic actions. Marguerite St. Just and her brother Armand, both commoners who initially help bring about the French Revolution, work closely with Sir Percy as members of the League.
Read more about this topic: The Scarlet Pimpernel
Famous quotes containing the word character:
“The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being framed.”
—Plato (5th century B.C.)
“Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)