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annabelaplit · 8 years

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Reading a Childhood Book Series Through a Feminist Lens

I was going to write about Dickens, I swear. I woke up bright and early at 8am this morning with a plan to get up, write a blog post about the theme of Death and Rebirth in A Tale of Two Cities, do an assortment of other homework and then write scholarship essays. But before that I wanted to spend a little time reading a set of favorite childhood books called A Series of Unfortunate Events. A television show based on the series came out a few weeks ago, and I had a party with my friends where we watched the entire thing in a day. Afterwards I decided it might be fun to revisit the series again. So in my constantly-shrinking periods of free time I have slowly been working my way through the 13 book series.

Today I was reading Book 8 and my eyes looked over a passage that made me think of the entire series in a different light. So naturally I went back and skimmed the first 8 books, read books 9-13 in their entirety, watched applicable parts of the television show and read some literary criticism. Then I realized it was 10 pm and I had accomplished exactly 0 of my academic goals. I had, however, come up with a pretty viable theory for how all these works of Gothic children’s literature are actually feminist texts. So enjoy I guess?

A bit of background because you probably have no idea about the plot of any of these books. A Series of Unfortunate Events is written by a man named Daniel Handler, but it’s narrator is a persona called Lemony Snicket who seems to be this secretive man with a tragic past and a dead lover named Beatrice whom he mourns for consistently. He is chronicling the lives of three orphans as they struggle to protect their late parents fortune and their own lives from a man named Count Olaf. Basically they go to stay with a series of eccentric guardians or end up working and living in a series of eccentric places, and Count Olaf follows them, often in disguise with a bunch of henchmen, and concocts various schemes to get their fortune. Some main themes deal with critiquing adult authority and basic societal institutions, reckoning with the cynicism that comes with growing up, and exploring the ideas of morality and moral relativism. It’s peppered with all sorts of literary references, and it’s much darker than a typical children’s series. Overall it makes for a good read, even for an adult.

Anyway the three orphans are named Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire and they are 14, 13, and an infant respectively. They all have their own special talents which they repeatedly use to get out of all kinds of tricky scenarios. The youngest, Sunny, has unusually sharp teeth with she uses to chop things, bite people, climb walls, and sword-fight. As the series progresses she also reveals a latent talent for cooking, Klaus, the middle child, is a voracious reader and researcher with an encyclopedia of knowledge in his head. And Violet, the eldest child, is a skilled inventor with a Mac Gyver like knack for using household objects to escape dangerous situations.

I think that Handler’s choice to make Violet an inventor is really interesting in a feminist context. Female inventors or females in any kind of engineering, scientific, or mechanical job are less common, both in literature and real life. The lack of women in STEM fields is a real and documented problem. But it is Violet, a girl that has this talent, rather than the bookish skills that are slightly more associated with women. Tison Pugh the author of a literary article about the role of gender in A Series of Unfortunate Events writes,

“Gender roles in the series are additionally undermined through the reversals of gendered norms that have already been reversed. Violet may be coded as somewhat masculine due to her inventing skills, and Klaus may be coded as somewhat feminine due to his inveterate reading, but their respective tendencies in regard to gendered activities do not limit their potential to act in new ways....Gendered categories are rendered meaningless for the Baudelaire children, who express the freedom and agency to strip themselves of the prescriptive cast of gender's historical enactments”

So Violent Baudelaire’s identity is primarily based on the fact that she is an inventor not that she is a girl. However most of the people around her, especially the adults view her more in the context of her gender than in the context of her skills and talents. Characters that can be considered “friendly” towards the orphans exhibit a lot of subtle and sometimes blatantly sexist behavior towards her.

For instance, in Book #3, The Wide Window Josephine Anwhistle, the new guardian of the Baudelaires, gives gifts to the children.

"For Violet," she said, "there is a lovely new doll with plenty of outfits for it to wear." Aunt Josephine reached inside and pulled out a plastic doll with a tiny mouth and wide, staring eyes. "Isn't she adorable? Her name is Pretty Penny."

"Oh, thank you," said Violet, who at fourteen was too old for dolls and had never particularly liked dolls anyway. Forcing a smile on her face, she took Pretty Penny from Aunt Josephine and patted it on its little plastic head

Now to a certain level this incident can just be seen as disinterested parenting instead of a specific attack on gender. However, Josephine’s entire rationale for giving Violet this gift is that Violet is a girl and girls like dolls. She sees the 14 year old in the context of her gender instead of seeing her for her talents and interests outside the scope of her gender.

In Book #7, The Vile Village Count Olaf is trying to frame the orphans for murder and he uses a hair ribbon for evidence

“He reached into the pocket of his blazer and brought out a long pink ribbon decorated with plastic daisies. "I found this right outside Count Olaf's jail cell," he said. "It's a ribbon — the exact kind of ribbon that Violet Baudelaire uses to tie up her hair.”

The townspeople gasped, and Violet turned to see that the citizens of V.F.D. were looking at her with suspicion and fear, which are not pleasant ways to be looked at.

"That's not my ribbon!" Violet cried, taking her own hair ribbon of her pocket. "My hair ribbon is right here!"

"How can we tell?" an Elder asked with a frown. "All hair ribbons look alike."

"They don't look alike!" Klaus said. "The one found at the murder scene is fancy and pink. My sister prefers plain ribbons, and she hates the color pink!"

Here the townspeople of the Village of Fowl Devotees, the ostensible guardians of the children, decide that Violet is guilty based on the assumption that she would wear a fancy pink hairband because she is a girl.

In Book #11, The Grim Grotto, Klaus helps a sea captain find the location of an important object. The excited captain explains,

“Aye! You're sensational! Aye! If you find me the sugar bowl, I'll allow you to marry Fiona!”

“Stepfather!” Fiona cried, blushing behind her triangular glasses.

“Don't worry,” the captain replied, “we'll find a husband for Violet, too! Aye! Perhaps we'll find your long-lost brother, Fiona! He's much older, of course, and he's been missing for years, but if Klaus can locate the sugar bowl he could probably find him! Aye! He's a charming man, so you'd probably fall in love with him, Violet, and then we could have a double wedding! Aye! Right here in the Main Hall of the Queequeg ! Aye! I would be happy to officiate! Aye! I have a bow tie I've been saving for a special occasion!”

“Captain Widdershins,” Violet said, “let's try to stick to the subject of the sugar bowl.” She did not add that she was not interested in getting married for quite some time”

Captain Widdershins decides that marriage is a suitable reward for the Baudelaire’s help. First he thinks of marrying his stepdaughter to Klaus and then of marrying his long lost stepson to Violet. At this point the Captain has considerable knowledge of Violet’s personality and her passion for inventing, but he still thinks that she is more interested in love and marriage than anything else.

In Book #12, The Penultimate Peril, a mentor of the Baudelaires named Kim Snicket attempts to show the children how much they can accomplish,

"When your parents died," Kit said, "you were just a young girl, Violet. But you've matured. Those aren't the eyes of a young girl. They're the eyes of someone who has faced endless hardship. And look at you, Klaus. You have the look of an experienced researcher-not just the young reader who lost his parents in a fire. And Sunny, you're standing on your own two feet, and so many of your teeth are growing in that they don't appear to be of such unusual size, as they were when you were a baby. You're not children anymore, Baudelaires. You're volunteers, ready to face the challenges of a desperate and perplexing world”

I think here the sexism comes across pretty subtly. Kit is trying to talk about how all three of the children have changed as a result of what they have faced after the deaths of their parents. Sunny goes from a baby with unusually large teeth to a older child with more normal teeth. Klaus goes from a “young reader” to a “experienced researcher”. But Violet goes from a “young girl” to someone who has faced endless hardship. Both Sunny and Klaus experience change based on their talents: reading and biting. But Violet’s change is related to her femininity rather than her skills or talents. Arguably Kit is the best ally the orphans have in any of the novels, but she still falls prey to subtle gender stereotyping

Probably the greater instance of sexism in the novels is in Book #2, The Reptile Room. The banker Mr. Poe who is in charge of placing the orphans in the care of various guardians discovers that Violet has picked a lock in order to discover vital information about how Count Olaf murdered the herpetologist Dr. Montgomery Montgomery.

"It was an emergency," Violet said calmly, "so I picked the lock."

"How did you do that?" Mr. Poe asked. "Nice girls shouldn't know how to do such things."

"My sister is a nice girl," Klaus said, "and she knows how to do all sorts of things.

"Roofik!" Sunny agreed.

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory

This behavior isn’t entirely unique to adults. There are only two male characters in all 13 books that are approximately Violet’s age and the connections she has with both of them are to some degree romantic. The only people that seem to view her completely outside of the context of her gender are her siblings. However Violet’s romantic interests, most of the other child characters, and some of the adults recognize Violet’s innate inventing skills. They see her as being more than just a girl and it is important that this way of looking at her is connected with the “good” people. Readers, especially impressionable children (including me at that age), see how it is right to value Violet as an inventor instead of as a girl.

If those with friendly towards Violet can be said to sometimes value her gender over her talent and skills in other areas, those who are the enemies of the Baudelaire can be said to treat her far worse. They see her only in the context of her physical attractiveness rather than in the context of any of her other attributes.

Violet is pretty and this is an attribute that Count Olaf and his various henchmen unerringly pay attention to throughout the series. Some examples,

In Book #1, The Bad Beginning the children are put in the care of Count Olaf and his various evil henchmen

“Nobody paid a bit of attention to the children, except for the bald man, who stopped and stared Violet in the eye.

"You're a pretty one," he said, taking her face in his rough hands. "If I were you I would try not to anger Count Olaf, or he might wreck that pretty little face of yours." Violet shuddered, and the bald man gave a high-pitched giggle and left the room.”

Here an evil henchmen pays attention to Violet over the other children only because she is attractive and then he uses her attractiveness as the basis of a threat.

At one point in Book #1 Count Olaf asks the children to participate in a play he is producing,

"And what will I do?" Violet asked. "I am very handy with tools, so perhaps I could help you build the set."

"Build the set? Heavens, no," Count Olaf said. "A pretty girl like you shouldn't be working backstage."

"But I'd like to," Violet said.

Here Count Olaf literally devalues Violet’s mechanical and technical skills in favor of her physical looks.

At one point in the Bad Beginning Count Olaf imprisons Sunny in a cage and Violet gets captured by a hook handed henchman while trying to rescue her

" How pleasant that you could join us," the hook-handed man said in a sickly sweet voice. Violet immediately tried to scurry back down the rope, but Count Olaf's assistant was too quick for her. In one movement he hoisted her into the tower room and, with a flick of his hook, sent her rescue device clanging to the ground. Now Violet was as trapped as her sister. "I'm so glad you're here," the hook-handed man said. "I was just thinking how much I wanted to see your pretty face. Have a seat."

Seeing Violet just climb a 30ft building using a homemade invention this henchmen’s first thought is to mention how to wanted to see Violet because she is attractive.

Things cool down with all the references to Violet’s looks until midway through the series. In Book #9, the Carnivorous Carnival. Count Olaf and his associates talk about which children they would most like to have survived the fire they set at a hospital.

"I hope it's Sunny," the hook-handed man said. "It was fun putting her in a cage, and I look forward to doing it again."

"I myself hope it's Violet," Olaf said. "She's the prettiest."

Rather than any of her various other merits the sole reason Count Olaf mentions wanting Violet to be alive is because she is “pretty”

In Book #11, The Grim Grotto the Baudelaires need to convince Count Olaf to help Sunny who has been poisoned by a rare fungus,

Sunny coughed inside her helmet, and Violet thought quickly. “If you let us help our sister,” she said, “we'll tell you where the sugar bowl is.”

Count Olaf's eyes narrowed, and he gave the children a wide, toothy grin the two Baudelaires remembered from so many of their troubled times. His eyes shone brightly, as if he were telling a joke as nasty as his unbrushed teeth.

“You can't try that trick again,” he sneered. “I'm not going to bargain with an orphan, no matter how pretty she may be. Once you get to the brig, you'll reveal where the sugar bowl is – once my henchman gets his hands on you. Or should I say hooks? Hee hee torture!”

Here Count Olaf feels the need to slip in the fact that Violet’s looks play a role in this bargaining process.

But for me the passage which illustrates this phenomena best comes in Book #8, The Horrible Hospital. This was the passage that got me started on this whole 18 hour researching and blog post project. The Horrible Hospital was the first of the Series of Unfortunate Events that I read, way back in the 3rd grade. Something about it stuck out to me then and today I realized what that was. Its background is that Count Olaf has captured Violet and is going to basically saw off her head but make it look like a surgical procedure. Klaus and Sunny have disguised themselves as evil henchmen nurses and are attempting to find a way to break their sister out of the hospital.

The bald man took a key out of the pocket in his medical coat, and unlocked the door with a triumphant grin. "Here she is," he said. "Our little sleeping beauty."

The door opened with a long, whiny creak, and the children stepped inside the room, which was square and small and had heavy shades over the windows, making it quite dark inside. But even in the dim light the children could see their sister, and they almost gasped at how dreadful she looked.

When the bald associate had mentioned a sleeping beauty, he was referring to a fairy tale that you have probably heard one thousand times. Like all fairy tales, the story of Sleeping Beauty begins with "Once upon a time," and continues with a foolish young princess who makes a witch very angry, and then takes a nap until her boyfriend wakes her up with a kiss and insists on getting married, at which point the story ends with the phrase "happily ever after." The story is usually illustrated with fancy drawings of the napping princess, who always looks very glamorous and elegant, with her hair neatly combed and a long silk gown keeping her comfortable as she snores away for years and years. But when Klaus and Sunny saw Violet in Room 922, it looked nothing like a fairy tale.

The eldest Baudelaire was lying on a gurney, which is a metal bed with wheels, used in hospitals to move patients around. This particular gurney was as rusty as the knife Klaus was holding, and its sheets were ripped and soiled. Olaf's associates had put her into a white gown as filthy as the sheets, and had twisted her legs together like vines. Her hair had been messily thrown over her eyes so that no one would recognize her face from The Daily Punctilio, and her arms hung loosely from her body, one of them almost touching the floor of the room with one limp finger. Her face was pale, as pale and empty as the surface of the moon, and her mouth was open slightly in a vacant frown, as if she were dreaming of being pricked with a pin. Violet looked like she had dropped onto the gurney from a great height, and if it were not for the slow and steady rise of her chest as she breathed, it would have looked like she had not survived the fall. Klaus and Sunny looked at her in horrified silence, trying not to cry as they gazed at their helpless sister.

"She's a pretty one," the hook-handed man said, "even when she's unconscious."

"She's clever, too," the bald man said, "although her clever little brain won't do her any good when her head has been sawed off." ....

Although her siblings preferred to think about her inventing abilities and conversational skills rather than her physical appearance, it was true, as the hook-handed man had said, that Violet was a pretty one, and if her hair had been neatly combed, instead of all tangled up, and she had been dressed in something elegant and glamorous, instead of a stained gown, she might indeed have looked like an illustration from "Sleeping Beauty."

There is a lot to take in here. Handler does a really great job subtly deconstructing the fairly tale of Sleeping Beauty and making it look stupid. He first does through diminishing the action to things like taking a nap and suggesting that getting married doesn’t necessarily equate a happy ending. The idea of a sleeping beauty is then contrasted by Violet’s decrepit treatment and quite sad appearance as she lays unconscious on the gurney. The two henchmen talk about her attributes, focusing primarily on her natural beauty as opposed to her “cleverness”. But the most important part of the scene might be that last paragraph where Snicket talks about Violet’s beauty but not before mentioning, “her siblings preferred to think about her inventing abilities and conversational skills rather than her appearance”. It is an unobstructed fact that Violet is beautiful but only the “bad” characters focus on her beauty while the “good” characters think of her outside of this context. It is a really subtle morality lesson, saying that it is correct to think of girls is outside the scope of traditional fairy tales, and it is a lesson that personally reverberated with me after the reading the book for the first time.

There is an elephant in the room regarding the way in which Violet is viewed by her enemies. An analysis can’t be complete without referring to the fact that Count Olaf tried to marry Violet, who I should remind you was 14 throughout A Bad Beginning and throughout most of the series. This almost-marriage was solely a convoluted way for Count Olaf to get his hands on the Baudelaire fortune, and it seems a lot less strange when you read the actual books, and this whole plot is foiled which some hand signing shenanigans. But the whole thing is still quite weird and it has some weird implications as well as spawning some more commentary on Violet’s character in relation to her gender and appearance.

The reason that Count Olaf imprisoned Sunny in a cage above his house was to force Violet to participate in a legitimate marriage ceremony embedded in a play he was putting on.

"Come now," Count Olaf said, his voice faking—a word which here means “feigning"— kindness. He reached out a hand and stroked Violet's hair. "Would it be so terrible to be my bride, to live in my house for the rest of your life? You're such a lovely girl, after the marriage I wouldn't dispose of you like your brother and sister.

Violet imagined... wandering around the house, trying to avoid [Count Olaf] all day, and cooking for his terrible friends at night, perhaps every night, for the rest of her life. But then she looked up at her helpless sister and knew what her answer must be. "If you let Sunny go," she said finally, "I will marry you

Okay this is really really creepy especially for a children’s novel. But is also interesting to note how Violet’s physical appearance is the sole reason Count Olaf seems inclined to treat her with a modicum of kindness afer their theoretical marriage. Violet’s view of how marriage with the villain will be also seems to her involve being a sort of housewife who cooks dinner for the Count’s henchpeople every night. Her life with him would have nothing to do with her actual talents and everything to do with her attractiveness and traditional gender roles.

There is also a really important interaction with Violet, Count Olaf and the Hook Handed Man right after she gets caught trying to break Sunny out of her cage.

“ The hook-handed man reached into a pocket of his greasy overcoat and pulled out a walkie-talkie. With some difficulty, he pressed a button and waited a moment. "Boss, it's me," he said. "Your blushing bride just climbed up here to try and rescue the biting brat."

He paused as Count Olaf said something. "I don't know. With some sort of rope."

"It was a grappling hook," Violet said, and tore off a sleeve of her nightgown to make a bandage for her shoulder. "I made it myself." "

She says it was a grappling hook," the hook-handed man said into the walkie-talkie. "I don't know, boss. Yes, boss. Yes, boss, of course I understand she's yours. Yes, boss." He pressed a button to disconnect the line, and then turned to face Violet. "Count Olaf is very displeased with his bride. "

"I'm not his bride," Violet said bitterly.

"Very soon you will be," the hook-handed man said

Once again this whole thing is pretty creepy and weird especially without the context of the whole novel. But throughout this passage Violet is referred to by the bad guys in the context of her role as a future wife, even as they discuss what she has done in her role as an inventor. There is also the whole thing with Violet belonging to Count Olaf which sexist in a pretty blatant way.

So overall the fact that Violent’s appearance and actions in traditional gender roles are granted such importance by the bad characters and are neglected by the good characters signals to readers that that sort of behavior is bad in general. It teaches them that girls shouldn’t be just thought of as “pretty” and future wives, they can be inventors, or researchers, or poets, or spies.

Okay I’m not quite done yet. I want to talk about Violet’s “foil” in this story, a girl named Carmelita Spats. We are first introduced to Carmelita in Book #5, and she comes back in Book #10, Book #11, and Book #12. The first sentence of Book #5, the Austere Academy is

“If you were going to give a gold medal to the least delightful person on Earth, you would have to give that medal to a person named Carmelita Spats, and if you didn't give it to her, Carmelita Spats was the sort of person who would snatch it from your hands anyway. Carmelita Spats was rude, she was violent, and she was filthy, and it is really a shame that I must describe her to you, because there are enough ghastly and distressing things in this story without even mentioning such an unpleasant person”

So basically Carmelita Spats is THE WORST PERSON EVER. But besides being rude and greedy and doing a lot of mean stuff to people Carmelita is quite obsessed with her looks and fitting into traditional gender roles. In the Austere Academy she informs the Baudelaires

"I have a message for you from Coach Genghis. I get to be his Special Messenger because I'm the cutest, prettiest, nicest girl in the whole school”

Notice how two of the three adjectives she uses to describe herself deal with her physical attractiveness. This self obsession is only heightened later on. In Book #10 The Slippery Slope Carmelita relates to the orphans a truly dull and awful story,

"Once upon a time, I woke up and looked in the mirror, and there I saw the prettiest, smartest, most darling girl in the whole wide world. I put on a lovely pink dress to make myself look even prettier, and I skipped off to school where my teacher told me I looked more adorable than anyone she had ever seen in her entire life, and she gave me a lollipop as a special present"

Look how Carmelita thinks of herself, she mentions once that she is smart, but she mostly talks about how attractive she is, how she is the “prettiest”, the “most darling”, “adorable”. She gets rewarded by a teacher for being beautiful instead of being smart. She also talks wearing a pink dress to become more attractive, something that fits in with tradtional gender stereotypes, and can be seen as the opposite of Violet with her plain hair ribbon.

Later on in The Slippery Slope Count Olaf’s girlfriend Esme Squalor asks Carmelita to join their band of villains. Her sales pitch?

"I think you're adorable, beautiful, cute, dainty, eye-pleasing, flawless, gorgeous, harmonious, impeccable, jaw-droppingly adorable, keen, luscious, magnificent, nifty, obviously adorable, photogenic, quite adorable, ravishing, splendid, thin, undeformed, very adorable, well-proportioned, xylophone, yummy, and zestfully adorable," Esmé pledged, "every morning, every afternoon, every night, and all day long!"

Almost every single one of those compliments have to do with Carmelita’s looks. There is barely any mention of any other skills or talents Carmelita might have. With references to being “thin” and “well-proportioned” the idea that beautiful women ought to be skinny is also enforced. Carmelita is entirely defined by her femininity, while Violet’s status as a girl is tangential to her personality.

When we meet up with Carmelita in Book #11, The Grim Grotto her reliance on traditional gender roles is even more enforced.

“Carmelita had always been the sort of unpleasant person who believed that she was prettier and smarter than everybody else, and Violet and Klaus saw instantly that she had become even more spoiled under the care of Olaf and Esmé. She was dressed in an outfit perhaps even more absurd than Esmé Squalor's, in different shades of pink so blinding that Violet and Klaus had to squint in order to look at her. Around her waist was a wide, frilly tutu, which is a skirt used during ballet performances, and on her head was an enormous pink crown decorated with light pink ribbons and dark pink flowers. She had two pink wings taped to her back, two pink hearts drawn on her cheeks, and two different pink shoes on each foot that made unpleasant slapping sounds as she walked. Around her neck was a stethoscope, such as doctors use, with pink puffballs pasted all over it, and in one hand she had a long pink wand with a bright pink star at the end of it.

“Stop looking at my outfit!” she commanded the Baudelaires scornfully. “You're just jealous of me because I'm a tap-dancing ballerina fairy princess veterinarian!”

Carmelita has grown more spoiled but she has also grown even more attached to feminine stereotypes. Look at her blindingly pink outfit, covered with hearts, ribbons, and flowers. Her career choices are ballerina, fairy, princess, and veterinarian, all of which are tradtionally associated with females except maybe veterinarians. Even then her stethoscope is covered with “pink puffballs”. Carmelita has basically become the very embodiment of female stereotypes, compiling every traditional desire of little girls into one person. Her constant reminder of what a “typical girl” should look be directly contrasts how Violet acts. And since Carmelita is “the least delightful person on earth” and we know Violet is wonderful from spending 11 books with her, readers feel that Violet’s is the example that they should follow.

The only other thing interesting to note about Carmelita Spats is what happens to her in Book #12 the Penultimate Peril. Violet sees her playing in a pool on the rooftop of a hotel.

The last time Violet had seen the unpleasant captain of this boat, she was dressed all in pink, and was announcing herself as a tap-dancing ballerina fairy princess veterinarian, but the eldest Baudelaire could hardly say whether being a ballplaying cowboy superhero soldier pirate was better or worse.

"Of course you are, darling," purred Esmé, and turned to Geraldine Julienne with a smile one mother might give another at a playground. "Carmelita has been a tomboy lately," she said, using an insulting term inflicted on girls whose behavior some people find unusual.

"I'm sure your daughter will grow out of it," Geraldine replied, who as usual was speaking into a microphone”

This time the lesson on gender stereotypes doesn’t come from Carmelita’s actions but from Snicket himself. Carmelita has changed from an incredibly feminine person to one with masculine interests. Rather than legitimately accepting her ward’s more non-tradtional interests Esme insists that she is just going through a phase, and a local reporter insists that these interests will soon change. But Snicket calls out these adults and others who use the term tomboy. He calls the term “insulting” and describes it as being “inflicted” on girls. The message is clear: it’s perfectly acceptable if one wants to act outside the bounds of traditional gender stereotypes and children shouldn’t be shamed for it.

A few other minor notes. Handler likes to comment on the gendered quality of words and phrases in various places in the series. At one point a female villain says that she prefers to use the term henchperson as opposed to henchman. And the stepdaughter of Captain Widdershins insists on inserting the phrase “or she” in the Captain’s personal motto of “He who hesitates is lost”. He also deconstructs more fairy tales such as Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood.

There are also other instances of the behaviors I have described here in the Netflix show based on the first four books of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The teleplays for that series was also written by Daniel Handler. In the Episode A Bad Beginning Part 2 one of Olaf’s henchpeople states that

“I just think, even in changing context, that marriage is an inherently patriarchal construction that is likely to further the hegemonic juggernaut that's problematizing a lot of genders”

This is intended to be comic relief but you can see some of Handler’underlying messages about gender roles in the statement. There is also a truly creepy scene in that episode where Klaus insists, “You will never touch our fortune” and Count Olaf replies, “Klaus, I’ll touch whatever I want” and then squeezes Violet’s shoulder. It is just another instance of Violet’s physical features being valued over her mental ones.

Also in the Episode: The Reptile Room Part 2 the critique that Violet shouldn’t pick locks because she is a nice girl is stated by both Mr. Poe and Count Olaf on separate occasions. Count Olaf also insists that he is willing to settle for taking just Violet to Peru, where there are lax childcare laws, instead of all four siblings.

Alright that is literally everything I can possibly think of to say about this book series from a feminist perspective. Through the views of different characters on Violet Baudelaire's attributes readers can understand how treating girls in certain ways is inappropriate. Girls are more than just their looks, they are more than traditional gender roles, and their identities based on their talents and skills are just as important as their gender identity. When you read A Series of Unfortunate Events you may think you are reading a children’s story about secret organizations and eccentric guardians but you’re actually reading subtle feminist propaganda. As a huge fan of the books when I was young, it is invigorating to look at them through this lens and I am glad I got to use my AP Lit skills for something I am so passionate about.

Also it’s 2:30 in the morning and I have literally spent 18 hours researching and writing this post. It’s time for bed yo!

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