The Scarlet Pimpernel Marguerite's love and courage amply proven, Percy's ardour is rekindled. Safely back on board their schooner, the "Day Dream", the happily reconciled couple returns to England. Sir Andrew marries the count's daughter, Suzanne. The title character, Sir Percy Blakeney, a wealthy English fop who transforms into a formidable swordsman and a quick-thinking escape artist, established the "hero with a secret identity" into popular culture, a trope that would be seen in subsequent literary creations such as Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro), Kent Allard/Lamont Cranston (The Shadow) and Bruce Wayne (Batman). The Scarlet Pimpernel exhibits characteristics that would become standard
Romantic hero love interest, him or herself victimised by the hero's rebellious tendencies, with their fates intertwined for decades, sometimes from their youths to their deaths. (See Tatyana Larina, Elizabeth Bennet, Eugenie Grandet, et al.) The Romantic hero first began appearing in literature during the Romantic period, in works by such authors as Byron, Keats, Goethe, and Pushkin, and is seen in part as a response to the French Revolution. As Napoleon, the "living model of a hero", became a disappointment to many, the typical notion of the hero as upholding social order began to be challenged. Classic literary examples of the