History Main / ReformedRakes

-->-- '''Samuel Richardson'''

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* Naveen from ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', after he marries. Considering he says that [[DidIJustSayThatOutLoud he's dated thousands of women]]...

Reformed Rakes are what happens when the heroine of a romance story wants to [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys eat her cake]] and [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan matrimonially have it too]], ending up with a former womanizer with a penchant for criminal activity who doesn't just accept monogamy but thrives in it. Rakes, men famous for cutting a swathe through the wives and mistresses of the town, not only know how to please a lady and protect her from harm, but they are only waiting for that one special woman who will cause them to reform and turn into the perfect husband and family man. The converse is that any man who didn't sleep around as a bachelor will be a boring wimp as a husband at best, if not an outright villain.

Common in period romances, especially those set in RegencyEngland.

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': Simon, a rake by reputation, becomes taken with Daphne through their fake courtship. Lampshaded in the first episode; Lady Bridgerton talks about the belief that reformed rakes make the best husbands.
** In Season 2, Anthony initially encountered and slept with many women who are potential to be his wife. Once he sets his eyes to Kate, there's only her.

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}: Simon, a rake by reputation, becomes taken with Daphne through their fake courtship. Lampshaded in the first episode; Lady Bridgerton talks about the belief that reformed rakes make the best husbands.

* Creator/GeorgetteHeyer, the [[TropeCodifier Genre Codifier]] of the Regency Romance, had a fondness for [[TheJerkIndex characters of questionable character]]. The anti-heroes of ''Literature/TheseOldShades'', ''Literature/DevilsCub'', ''Literature/{{Frederica}}'', and ''Literature/BlackSheep'', among others, are rakes and libertines (and jerks) until they meet their matches, while ''Literature/{{Cotillion}}'' and ''Literature/{{Venetia}}'' are subversions.

Reformed Rakes are what happens when the heroine of a romance story wants to [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys eat her cake]] and [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan matrimonially have it too]], ending up with a former womanizer who doesn't just accept monogamy but thrives in it. Rakes, men famous for cutting a swathe through the wives and mistresses of the town, not only know how to please a lady and protect her from harm, but they are only waiting for that one special woman who will cause them to reform and turn into the perfect husband and family man. The converse is that any man who didn't sleep around as a bachelor will be a boring wimp as a husband at best, if not an outright villain.

* Deconstructed in "The Rake's Song" by Music/TheDecemberists. The Rake gets married, is ''apparently'' reformed, "no more a rake and no more a bachelor"...but then he realizes that sex leads to babies and discovers that the married life really isn't for him. Cue [[OffingTheOffspring infanticide]]!

Reformed Rakes are what happens when the heroine of a romance story wants to [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys eat her cake]] and [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan matrimonially have it too]], ending up with a former womanizer who doesn't just accept monogamy but thrives in it. This is a common Regency Romance trope. When it applies, any man who didn't sleep around as a bachelor is ''supposedly'' going to be a boring wimp as a husband at best, if not an outright villain. Conversely, men famous for cutting a swathe through the wives and mistresses of the town not only knows how to please a woman and protect her from harm, he is only waiting for that one special woman who will cause him to reform and cleave to her with unwavering fidelity as the perfect family man.

Compare to AllGirlsWantBadBoys, but here the trope is not just that the bad boy is attractive, but that [[LoveRedeems all he needs is love to fix everything wrong with him]], so you can have both that trope and SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan simultaneously.


Compare LadykillerInLove, a more realistic take on this issue, and FemaleAngelMaleDemon for a metaphor of this trope when the two aforementioned characters are in love.

Related to DracoInLeatherPants.

* ''Literature/TheTenantOfWildfellHall'': So very averted in this Creator/AnneBronte novel.

Reformed Rakes are what happens when the heroine of a romance story wants to [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys eat her cake]] and [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan matrimonially have it too]] -- [[BlatantLies because, of course, former bad boys make the best husbands]]. This is a common Regency Romance trope. When it applies, any man who didn't sleep around as a bachelor is ''supposedly'' going to be a boring wimp as a husband at best, if not an outright villain. Conversely, men famous for cutting a swathe through the wives and mistresses of the town not only knows how to please a woman and protect her from harm, he is only waiting for that one special woman who will cause him to reform and cleave to her with unwavering fidelity as the perfect family man.

Never is it mentioned that there's a risk of disease from his antics, nor does he ever have any bastard children that he has to pay attention to, nor does anyone ever point out that real reformed rakes had a tendency to turn into gigantic prudes. He never backslides even when he is revisited years later in other books. Compare to AllGirlsWantBadBoys, but here the trope is not just that the bad boy is attractive, but that [[LoveRedeems all he needs is love to fix everything wrong with him]], so you can have both that trope and SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan simultaneously.

May be the core of {{Fan Fiction}}s written by teenage girls when they don't want their self-insert {{Relationship Sue}}s to become a LoveMartyr.

* It all started [[OlderThanRadio in 1740]] with ''Pamela'', or ''Virtue Rewarded'' where the eponymous character overcomes Mr. B's rakishness with her MarySue-like perfection of virtue. Wildly popular to the point where it alarmed the author, Samuel Richardson: "To what a bad choice is many a worthy woman betrayed, by that false and inconsiderate notion, That a reformed rake makes the best husband!" It also annoyed Henry Fielding, another author of the time, who wrote ''Shamela'' as a rather obvious TakeThat to the first book. Challenging this dubious trope is not a modern idea.

Note this trope has nothing to do with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rake_(stock_character)#The_rake_in_restoration_comedy restoration rakes,]] though they may overlap. It also has nothing to do with [[CreepyPasta The Rake]] making a HeelFaceTurn.

* ''Love's Last Shift'' by Creator/ColleyCibber has something of an {{Unformed|Trope}} instance of the trope, appearing in 1696, a time when bawdy RestorationComedy was changing into something more moralistic. Its central character is a rake who remains completely unreformed despite being married, thus being a lousy husband. His resourceful wife tricks him into reform, making him good. Notably, the trope was then promptly {{Deconstructed|Trope}} before it had fully formed by rival playwright John Vanbrugh, whose ''The Relapse'' (also from 1696) borrows the characters of the previous play and shows the rake relapsing, to his wife’s distress. Funnily enough, ''The Relapse'' has remained much more popular and successful than ''Love's Last Shift''.

* It all started [[OlderThanRadio in 1740]] with ''Pamela'', or ''Virtue Rewarded'' where the eponymous character overcomes Mr. B's rakishness with her MarySue-like perfection of virtue. Wildly popular to the point where it alarmed the author, Samuel Richardson: "To what a bad choice is many a worthy woman betrayed, by that false and inconsiderate notion, That a reformed rake makes the best husband!"
* Seth from ''Literature/WickedLovely''. He has piercings, lives in a train, and has a reputation for getting around....yet he truly loves Aislinn to the point of [[spoiler:sacrificing his mortality to be with her for eternity]].
* There's a romance novel titled ''Stranger In My Arms'' that actually {{deconstruct|ion}}s this trope: The heroine's husband has been presumed dead for years, and she isn't too sad about it because he was unfaithful to her and never seemed to enjoy having sex with her. Then, out of the blue, he returns BackFromTheDead, says that he's a changed man, and proceeds to be passionate and devoted to her in a way he never was before. The heroine is pleasantly surprised, but can't shake off the feeling that rakes don't reform ''that'' thoroughly, and gets uneasy when her friend uses her husband's changed behavior to justify [[LoveMartyr her staying with her own physically abusive husband in the hope that he'll change eventually]]. It turns out that [[spoiler:the heroine's husband ''did'' die all these years ago, and her current "husband" is actually her husband's half-brother who [[LoveBeforeFirstSight learned about her through diaries her husband left behind]] and decided to [[DeadPersonImpersonation use his impersonation abilities to be the loving husband she never had]]]].

May be the core of {{Fan Fiction}}s written by teenage girls, when they don't want their self-insert {{Relationship Sue}}s to become a LoveMartyr.

* In ''Fanfic/TheBerserkersBride'', Dagur is ''so'' devoted to his wife that she is the only person he actually listens to, her influence having prevented various acts of murder, violence and war.

* Seth from ''Literature/WickedLovely''. He has piercings, lives in a train and has a reputation for getting around....yet he truly loves Aislinn to the point of [[spoiler:sacrificing his mortality to be with her for eternity]].

* Deconstructed in ''A Dangerous Compromise'' by Shannon Donnelly, in which the heroine thoroughly believes this trope, and her (decidedly not a rake) love interest decides to pose as a reformed rake to win her over, while battling for her affections with an actual rake who has absolutely no intentions of reforming.

* Creator/JaneAusten, who inspires a lot of Regency Romance though she didn't exactly write it, liked to {{Deconstruct|ion}} the idea that people could reform their spouses, and used the ReformedRake variant specifically in ''Literature/MansfieldPark''. Fanny Price's AbhorrentAdmirer Henry Crawford boasts that he will be the first person to ever treat her as well as she deserves, and the narrator agrees in the epilogue that he would have been successful, if he'd only had enough principle to stop trifling with other women's feelings to gratify his vanity. Instead he is forced to acknowledge that Fanny's harsh evaluation of his character - that he lacks 'constancy' - was completely accurate.

* Naveen from ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', after he marries. Considering he says that [[DidIJustSayThatOutLoud he's dated thousands of women]]...
* Tramp from ''Disney/LadyAndTheTramp''. Falling in love, being adopted into a family, and becoming a father will do that to a dog.

** And Wally ''does'' it...[[http://outthere.keenspot.com/d/20070427.htmlafter being married a while.]]

Note this trope has nothing to do with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rake_%28character%29 restoration rakes,]] though they may overlap. It also has nothing to do with [[CreepyPasta The Rake]] making a HeelFaceTurn.

* Ladies and gentlemen, a [[http://www.amazon.com/Reformed-Rakes-Make-Best-Husbands/lm/R1T0KA4HILMO1B book list.]]

* Seth from ''Literature/WickedLovely''. He has piercings, lives in a train and has a reputation for getting around....yet he truly loves Aislinn to the point of [[spoiler: sacrificing his mortality to be with her for eternity.]]
* There's a romance novel titled ''Stranger In My Arms'' that actually [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructs]] this trope: The heroine's husband has been presumed dead for years, and she isn't too sad about it because he was unfaithful to her and never seemed to enjoy having sex with her. Then, out of the blue, he returns BackFromTheDead, says that he's a changed man, and proceeds to be passionate and devoted to her in a way he never was before. The heroine is pleasantly surprised, but can't shake off the feeling that rakes don't reform ''that'' thoroughly, and gets uneasy when her friend uses her husband's changed behavior to justify [[LoveMartyr her staying with her own physically abusive husband in the hope that he'll change eventually]]. It turns out that [[spoiler:the heroine's husband ''did'' die all these years ago, and her current "husband" is actually her husband's half-brother who [[LoveBeforeFirstSight learned about her through diaries her husband left behind]] and decided to [[DeadPersonImpersonation use his impersonation abilities to be the loving husband she never had]]]].

* Creator/JaneAusten, who inspires a lot of Regency Romance though she didn't exactly write it, liked to [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstruct]] the idea that people could reform their spouses, and used the ReformedRake variant specifically in ''Literature/MansfieldPark''. Fanny Price's AbhorrentAdmirer Henry Crawford boasts that he will be the first person to ever treat her as well as she deserves, and the narrator agrees in the epilogue that he would have been successful, if he'd only had enough principle to stop trifling with other women's feelings to gratify his vanity. Instead he is forced to acknowledge that Fanny's harsh evaluation of his character - that he lacks 'constancy' - was completely accurate.

* So very averted in [[Creator/AnneBronte Anne Bronte's]] Literature/TheTenantOfWildfellHall.

* Marcus Flutie from the Literature/JessicaDarling series is this, which Jessica [[GenreSavvy notes]] but [[{{Deconstruction}} isn't too happy about]] - being the first girl who he was willing to change for puts altogether too much pressure on her for her taste, and his extensive sexual history partly skeeves her out, partly makes her feel insecure about her own inexperience.

Reformed Rakes are what happens when the heroine of a romance story wants to [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys eat her shallow little cake]] and [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan matrimonially have it too]] -- [[BlatantLies because, of course, former bad boys make the best husbands]]. This is a common Regency Romance trope. When it applies, any man who didn't sleep around as a bachelor is ''supposedly'' going to be a boring wimp as a husband at best, if not an outright villain. Conversely, men famous for cutting a swathe through the wives and mistresses of the town not only knows how to please a woman and protect her from harm, he is only waiting for that one special woman who will cause him to reform and cleave to her with unwavering fidelity as the perfect family man.

More often than not, the core of {{Fan Fiction}}s written by teenage girls, when they don't want their self-insert {{Relationship Sue}}s to become a LoveMartyr.

* Rod of ''Webcomic/OutThere'' offers this. [[http://outthere.keenspot.com/d/20090326.html]]
** And Wally ''does'' it...after being married a while. [[http://outthere.keenspot.com/d/20070427.html]]

Note this trope has nothing to do with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rake_%28character%29 restoration rakes]], though they may overlap. It also has nothing to do with [[CreepyPasta The Rake]] making a HeelFaceTurn.

* Ladies and gentlemen, a [[http://www.amazon.com/Reformed-Rakes-Make-Best-Husbands/lm/R1T0KA4HILMO1B book list]].