What Did The Guillotine Symbolize

The guillotine, a device consisting of a wooden frame and weighted blade used for decapitation, is the preferred course of execution in Orczy'south novel and is symbolic of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror in The Blood-red Pimpernel. Historically speaking, the guillotine replaced the breaking bike—a specially gruesome form of execution—after the aristocracy was overthrown in France. The French Democracy thought the guillotine a more than humane, and therefore more just, form of punishment, and they summarily sentenced all French royals, and their royal supporters, to death. The guillotine is swift and exacting, and constantly decorated at its "ghastly work." Thousands of French aristocrats—including women, children, and the elderly—are killed at the guillotine, known popularly as "Madame la Guillotine," during the Reign of Terror.

More than specifically, the guillotine represents the violence of the France and their complete discrimination confronting those of noble birth in The Scarlet Pimpernel. The guillotine is a constant threat to the aristocracy, to the Scarlet Pimpernel, their heroic savior, and to anyone who supports him in his attack against the Republic. The relentless killing machine is the symbol of the French Republic's vengeance, and their blind hate for those privileged few who once claimed social superiority over them. Orczy portrays the citizens of the French Commonwealth every bit "bloodthirsty" and completely unjustified in their efforts to proceeds freedom and power, and the guillotine is the tool through which they realize their barbarous plan.

The Guillotine Quotes in The Scarlet Pimpernel

The The Scarlet Pimpernel quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Guillotine . For each quote, you lot can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated past its own dot and icon, similar this one:

A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human being only in name, for to the center and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the animalism of vengeance and of hate. The hr, some fiddling fourth dimension before dusk, and the identify, the West Barricade, at the very spot where, a decade later, a proud tyrant raised an undying monument to the nation's celebrity and his ain vanity.

Folio Number and Citation: 1

Caption and Analysis:

During the greater part of the day the guillotine had been kept busy at its ghastly work: all that French republic had boasted of in the past centuries, of aboriginal names and blue blood, had paid toll to her desire for liberty and for fraternity. The carnage had simply ceased at this late hour of the twenty-four hours because there were other more than interesting sights for the people to witness, a little while earlier the final endmost of the barricades for the nighttime.

Page Number and Commendation: one

Caption and Analysis:

She hated the Marquis. Years ago, Armand, her dear brother, had loved Angele de St. Cyr, but St. But was a plebeian, and the Marquis total of the pride and arrogant prejudices of his degree. One twenty-four hours Armand, the respectful, timid lover, ventured on sending a small verse form—enthusiastic, ardent, passionate —to the idol of his dreams. The next night he was waylaid just exterior Paris by the valets of the Marquis de St. Cyr, and ignominiously thrashed—thrashed like a dog within an inch of his life—because he had dared to raise his eyes to the daughter of the aristocrat. The incident was i which, in those days, some two years before the great Revolution, was of almost daily occurrence in France; incidents of that type, in fact, led to the encarmine reprisals, which a few years later sent about of those haughty heads to the guillotine.

Folio Number and Citation: sixty

Caption and Analysis:

She had just little real sympathy with those haughty French aristocrats, insolent in their pride of degree, of whom the Comtesse de Tournay de Basserive was then typical an example; but, republican and liberal-minded though she was from principle, she hated and loathed the methods which the young Democracy had chosen for establishing itself. She had not been in Paris for some months; the horrors and bloodshed of the Reign of Terror, culminating in the September massacres, had merely come beyond the Channel to her as a faint echo. Robespierre, Danton, Marat, she had not known in their new guise of bloody justiciaries, merciless wielders of the guillotine. Her very soul recoiled in horror from these excesses, to which she feared her brother Armand—moderate republican every bit he was—might get one day the holocaust.

Page Number and Citation: 67-8

Caption and Assay:

The Guillotine Symbol Timeline in The Scarlet Pimpernel

The timeline beneath shows where the symbol The Guillotine appears in The Scarlet Pimpernel. The colored dots and icons signal which themes are associated with that advent.

...vile passions and by the animalism of vengeance and hate." Well-nigh the Westward Barricade, the guillotine has been "busy" for most of the mean solar day at its "ghastly piece of work," where the "ancient... (full context)

...the people." Now, the people rule French republic, and all nobility will discover themselves nether the guillotine sooner or afterward. No i is safe from "Madame la Guillotine"— "old men, young women,... (total context)

...upon the mouse." Bibot is "proud" to have sent "at least fifty" aristocrats to the guillotine, and he has been personally commended by high ranking members of the French republic. (full context)

...The captain and the soldiers ran after the cart and Grospierre was sent to the guillotine. Afterward, information technology was discovered that the Ruby Pimpernel was not in the cart but was... (full context)

...can't believe it. It is "preposterous" to think they take chances capture and decease at the guillotine for sport. She asks Lord Tony how many men are in league with the Scarlet... (total context)

..."enthusiasm for liberty and equality," but that message is lost under the weight of the guillotine. (full context)

...you hateful, to the tribunal that ultimately sent him and all his family to the guillotine?" she asks. Yeah, Marguerite confirms, Sir Percy knows. She had told him subsequently they were... (full context)

...that "she hated the Marquis," but she never intended for them to go to the guillotine. Years ago, Armand had fallen in love with a young St. Cyr girl, merely since... (full context)

...accusation of treason is "sufficient" testify for the French tribunal to send anyone to the guillotine. Marguerite's words had been "impulsive" and "thoughtless," and while they came from a place of... (full context)

...and plans, so that he may capture him in France and ship him to the guillotine before the British government can protest. "What you propose is horrible, Chauvelin," Marguerite claims. "Whoever... (total context)

...to Calais, trapping the Cherry-red Pimpernel on French soil, where he will exist vulnerable to Madame la Guillotine . (full context)

...Madame," he says, "the Marquis de St. Cyr and all his family perished on the guillotine, and the popular rumor reached me that information technology was the married woman of Sir Percy Blakeney... (full context)