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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bad Beginning, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Parenthood
Surveillance, Supervision, and Guardianship
Children vs. Adults
Intelligence and Ethics
Summary
Analysis
Lemony Snicket, the narrator, warns his readers that the story does not have a happy beginning, middle, or end. He explains that, despite the intelligence, charm, and attractiveness of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, the siblings were very unlucky, and their life was filled with despair. He recounts how their “misfortune” began on a cloudy day at Briny Beach—the siblings’ parents would sometimes let the children travel from their mansion in the city to spend the day at the seashore.
The story’s narrator, Lemony Snicket, cautions his readers about the unhappy nature of the story. Though the subject matter is dark, Lemony Snicket’s delivery is playful and ironic, setting the tone for the rest of the book. This humorous preface also hints at the unusual type of narrator that Lemony Snicket will be in the story. Instead of a typical, removed storyteller, Lemony Snicket is very much a personality and presence. The narrative choices he makes, like prefacing the ending of the story, greatly impact the tone and interpretation of the story.
Themes
The narrator describes each of the three Baudelaire children, starting with eldest, Violet. Violet likes to skip rocks as she plans her next inventions. She keeps her hair tied in a ribbon to not distract her from her thoughts, which are often filled with things one would use in inventions, like gears. Klaus is the middle child and wears glasses. He has spent much of his life reading the books in the enormous Baudelaire library, meaning that he not only looks, but is smart. Sunny is the youngest child, and she likes to bite things with her four very sharp teeth. As she is an infant, she cannot say real words and thus communicates by shrieking.
Lemony Snicket describes personalities of the three Baudelaire children. Apart from Sunny, who is an infant, the Baudelaire children are exceptionally intelligent and curious: Violet is an avid inventor, and Klaus is an avid reader with encyclopedic knowledge of the world. Each child also has a unique physical feature or accessory that symbolizes their personality and talents. Violet has a hair ribbon which she uses whenever she is thinking up inventions; Klaus has glasses which he uses to read almost constantly; and Sunny has four large teeth which she uses to bite things. Though mere hobbies now, the Baudelaire children’s special abilities will become essential to their survival later in the story.
Themes
A mysterious figure walks toward the children on the beach, causing Sunny to shriek. The figure appears frightening in the mist, and Violet considers throwing the rock she is holding at it. As the figure gets closer, however, and the children recognize it as Mr. Poe, a friend of their parents whom they have met before at dinner parties. According to the narrator, the children like that their parents let them sit with the adults when they have friends like Mr. Poe over. They remember him for always coughing and having a cold.
Mr. Poe’s arrival sets an ominous, spooky tone. Spying him through the mist from a distance, Sunny shrieks to warn her siblings, and Violet considers attacking him with her stone. Though it turns out to be Mr. Poe, a friend of their parents, the frightening nature of his arrival hints that his reason for being there may not a happy one. Still, he is a friend of their parents, and the children are not displeased to see him.
Themes
Mr. Poe takes off his top hat, coughs, and greets the children. He looks sad but does not say much at first. Violet says it’s a nice day, to which he agrees. But then he says he has bad news: the children’s parents have died in a fire that destroyed their house. At first, the children are too shocked to believe him. Klaus sadly imagines all the books that burned that he won’t get to read. Mr. Poe explains that he has come to take the siblings to his home while the bank figures out what do with them. He tells them that he is the executer of their parents’ estate and that when Violet comes of age, the family fortune will become theirs.
Mr. Poe greets the children awkwardly. The reason for this is soon revealed, with Mr. Poe informing the children that their parents have perished in a fire along with their house. The children are shocked and initially do not believe him, highlighting the power that trauma can have on one’s faculties. Though they are all intelligent children, they cannot come to terms with such a massive and sudden change in their lives.
Themes
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Violet feels like Mr. Poe is an executioner, not an executer, because he has changed their lives forever. Mr. Poe goes to grab Violet’s hand, requiring her to drop her skipping stone. Klaus grabs Violet’s other hand, and Sunny grabs Klaus’s hand. Then they walk away from the beach together.
Though he is not at fault for their parents’ deaths, Mr. Poe, as the messenger, becomes the focal point of the Baudelaire siblings’ misery. It does not help that, while sympathetic, Mr. Poe does not offer much emotional support for the children.
Themes
