Previous
Chapter 7
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
Klaus spends the whole night reading, something he used to do for pleasure back when his parents were alive. However, this time he reads by the light of the moon, not a flashlight, and he tries desperately not to fall asleep. By morning, Klaus discovers what he needs to, and goes downstairs by himself to confront Count Olaf. When Count Olaf arrives, Klaus explains that he has figured out his scheme to legally marry Violet during the play. According to the law, a marriage only requires a judge, both parties to say, “I do,” and for the bride to sign an explanatory document in her “own hand.” Since all those requirements will be met during the performance of the play, Violet’s marriage to Count Olaf will be real.
Continuing his independence streak, Klaus spends the night reading alone to uncover Olaf’s plot. He succeeds and confronts Count Olaf the next morning about it. This not only reinforces Klaus’s newfound confidence and maturity, but it also reveals how a hobby like reading, which for Klaus began as a purely pleasurable pursuit, can come to have real life applications later. Here, Klaus’s skills as a reader allow him to uncover Count Olaf’s plan to marry his sister and steal their fortune.
Themes
Count Olaf claims that Violet is not old enough to legally marry. Klaus retorts that it is legal with the permission of her legal guardian—Count Olaf. Klaus. Count Olaf feigns confusion as to why he would want to marry Violet, but Klaus reads from the law book, Nuptial Law, which explains that a husband can control his wife’s money. This means that Count Olaf would take control of the Baudelaire fortune if he married Violet. Klaus then threatens Count Olaf with telling Mr. Poe about the scheme and sending Count Olaf to jail. Instead of becoming angry, however, Count Olaf calmly admits to the plan, suggesting that Klaus go tell his siblings. Klaus is confused by Count Olaf’s lack of concern.
Count Olaf tries to convince Klaus his discovery is wrong, but Klaus is too smart for his trickery. For every counterargument Olaf proposes, Klaus has a rebuttal, and eventually Olaf admits that Klaus is right. However, Olaf does not seem bothered at Klaus threat to report him to Mr. Poe, an ominous sign which draws parallels to Olaf’s confusing and unsettling behavior when originally asking the children to join his play. It appears Olaf is hiding something, though it’s not yet clear what.
Themes
Klaus returns to their room and wakes Violet, telling her of Count Olaf’s plan. When they go to wake Sunny to go to Mr. Poe’s office, however, they find that she’s missing from her bed. They search the room but cannot find her anywhere. Finally, Count Olaf appears in the doorway, his eyes shining brightly and smiling like he just made a joke. He asks, rhetorically, “Where can she be, indeed?”
The reason for Count Olaf’s mysterious indifference to Klaus’s discovery becomes clear when Klaus and Violet discover that Sunny is missing. When Olaf arrives in the doorway with his characteristically evil glint in his eyes, Violet and Klaus realize he is responsible for Sunny’s absence. As though all the eyes in his house have actually been watching them all along, somehow Olaf has anticipated the Baudelaire children’s moves once again.
Themes
