The Elusive Pimpernel · Chapter
XIV: The Ruling Passion explained
After a brilliant but tense evening, Marguerite Blakeney reflects on her husband Percy's dangerous adventures and her own fears.
What happens
After a brilliant but tense evening, Marguerite Blakeney reflects on her husband Percy's dangerous adventures and her own fears. She encounters Désirée Candeille in the garden, who offers her a passport to accompany Percy to France, hoping to prove her loyalty. Marguerite, torn between mistrust and a desire to be with her husband, ultimately retrieves the passport.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
Marguerite's internal conflict between her love for Percy and her resentment of his dangerous adventures highlights the strains within their marriage.
Sacrifice for the Greater Good
Percy's repeated risks for others contrast with Marguerite's desire to keep him safe, exploring the theme of self-sacrifice.
Deception and Disguise
Candeille's secretive offer of the passport and Marguerite's mistrust underscore the theme of deception.
Characters to notice
- Marguerite Blakeney
Struggles with anxiety over Percy's safety and her own feelings of selfishness and envy towards those who keep their husbands safe.
- Sir Percy Blakeney
Mentioned as the object of Marguerite's fears and love; his ruling passion for adventure is highlighted.
- Désirée Candeille
Approaches Marguerite in the garden, offering her maid's passport and expressing a desire to help, though Marguerite remains suspicious.
- Sir Andrew Ffoulkes
Last guest to leave; his devotion to his wife Suzanne is contrasted with Percy's adventurous nature.
- Citizen Chauvelin
Referenced as the dark bird of prey and the orchestrator of the plot against Percy.
Key passages
“Is not a woman who loves—be it husband or child—the most truly selfish, the most cruelly callous creature in the world, there, where the safety and the well-being of the loved one is in direct conflict with the safety and well-being of others.”
A loving woman is selfish when her loved one's safety conflicts with others' welfare.
Marguerite reflects on her own selfish desire to keep Percy safe at the expense of others.
“She would right gladly have closed her eyes to every horror perpetrated in France, she would not have known what went on in Paris, she wanted her husband!”
She would ignore the horrors in France just to have her husband with her.
Marguerite's internal struggle between her love and the greater good.