A new season of Bridgerton has arrived and it’s finally time for Benedict Bridgerton to take center stage! Season 4 adapts the story of An Offer from a Gentleman, telling the love story of Benedict and Sophie Baek.
Much like in the book, their story begins with a masquerade ball where the pair has a Cinderella story moment that changes the trajectory of both Benedict and Sophie’s lives. After their encounter, Benedict is desperate to identify the woman who stole his heart during his mother’s masquerade ball. Eventually, in the show, he turns to Penelope for assistance, hoping that she can use her status as Lady Whistledown to help him find the mystery woman.
When Benedict meets with Penelope and Eloise to discuss the idea, Penelope makes it clear that while she can help, she can’t be as direct as he’d like her to be. As she explains, she cannot have been the only one at the ball to notice Benedict and the mystery woman at the ball. Penelope points out that the woman being alone on a terrace with a man was bad enough. What is worse is that the man is a “notorious rake,” Eloise interjects, which quickly puts Benedict’s defenses up.
“How dare you,” Benedict replies. “I am a lover of pleasure, a free spirit untrammeled by mere convention.”
In unison, Penelope and Eloise double down on their claim, telling him, “You’re a rake,” as Penelope points out that no woman would come forward as doing so would tarnish their reputation. Benedict quickly comes up with an alternative plan to try to put the word out there to assist in his search, but the conversation turns heads among fans, raising a question of what exactly a rake is within the context of the show.
What does being a rake mean in the world of Bridgerton?
So what exactly does the term rake mean within the context of Bridgerton? The simple answer is that a rake was a man with a notorious reputation, or in terms that Britney Spears would use today, a rake was essentially a womanizer.
In the Regency-era world of Bridgerton, a rake was typically a womanizer known for having multiple lovers; often had scandalous behavior which typically included gambling, drinking, poor decision-making, and late-night shenanigans; were charming and attractive, with a penchant for being a social butterfly; and had questionable morals by the ton’s standards.
Within the context of the show, being a rake isn’t exactly a bad thing in the sense of a character being seen as a villain, rather when characters like Eloise and Penelope made fun of his rakish behavior, it is in reference to his bad reputation.
Benedict is one of many men within the Bridgerton franchise who have been labeled a rake at some point in their lives before settling down; however, there is no doubt that Benedict certainly has the biggest reputation for being a rake within the show’s universe. We’ve seen Benedict display all the key qualities a rake is known for across the show’s four seasons, and season 4 serves as the turning point in his life which is a key aspect of the rake romance archetype.
Typically in Regency-era stories such as Bridgerton, rakes like Benedict are viewed as being flawed but redeemable, someone whose love for the right woman leads to their redemption. For Benedict, that woman is Sophie… though we have some time still to go before Benedict has that redemption arc given the question he asked Sophie as the part 1 finale came to a close.
