Hannah Burns
3rd hour
8/22/14
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel provides the history of The French Revolution, in 1792, by telling the story of Lord Percy Blakeney’s journey to help French aristocrats escape their destiny of being be-headed. As all the characters in the book are sleuthing to uncover the identity of the mysterious deceiver, Percy sneaks across the border to use a red flower, known as “The scarlet pimpernel,” assisting the highest class in France to their safety in England.
Comtesse de Tourney and her two children manage to make it across the border with the help of an old hag who happens to be The Scarlet Pimpernel under the mischievous disguise. Comtesse attends dinner thanking Sir Andrew and Lord…show more content… He was granted the distinguished job of pursuing targeted victims for the guillotine. When The Scarlet Pimpernel case becomes the focal point of France, he investigates. After Marguerite Blakeney refuses to help, his men capture two men who cooperated with the mastermind behind all of this, and along with them they disclosed two notes. One exposing their guilt, and the other proves Lady Blakeney’s brother’s involvement. Lady Blakeney voluntarily agrees when Chauvelin informs her that her brother is conspiring with The Scarlet Pimpernel, and threatens him. In exchange of her brother’s freedom, Lady Blakeney anxiously snoops to reveal the criminal during Lord Greenville’s…show more content… The book directly relates to the story of Wen and Wu in Zhou. Wen was a ruler who proposed a rebellion with the power of dissatisfied Shang subjects which presents an akin to Percy. Percy was a courageous rebel who made the hazardous decision to compensate French former elite, much like Wen who rebelled against Shang in order to relieve the Shang subjects. His son Wu became the first ruler of the Shang dynasty. Wu neglected to pay tribute to the gods and killed and abused his subjects. Metaphorically speaking, the French commoners are personified by Wu, implying that the subjects are the aristocrats in The Scarlet Pimpernel. Wu and the French abuse and kill their own kind. King Wu assigned specific territories to his allies; similarly Chauvelin demanded his men guard the west gate, and the roads leading to the inn in the book. The duke of Zhou was perceived as an honorable man such as Percy, both doing the ethical thing. In 771 B.C.E the Zhou capital was attacked by an alliance of enemies, which would represent The Scarlet Pimpernel’s collaborators. Lord Blakeney’s friends that he conspired with planned to sabotage the French by assisting the Aristocrats to safety, while the enemies of Shang corrupted it on the soil of Zhou. The ancient Zhou dynasty used chariots, where as in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Chauvelin travels to the hut in a
