Beatrice Baudelaire

Beatrice Baudelaire
A Series of Unfortunate Events character

First appearance	The Bad Beginning
Created by	Lemony Snicket
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	V.F.D. member
Family	(See Baudelaire family)

Beatrice Baudelaire is a fictional character in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events series. She is the mother of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, the wife of Bertrand Baudelaire, the unrequited romantic interest of Lemony Snicket, and a member of V.F.D.

Biography

Love life

Lemony Snicket was in love with Beatrice and they were engaged, but she canceled the marriage and married Bertrand instead because she believed that Lemony was dead, after his obituary appeared in The Daily Puntilio. Various hints are dispensed throughout the series as to why she called off the marriage. According to Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, Lemony Snicket is mistakenly reported by The Daily Punctilio as dead. This is possible, as suggested in The Grim Grotto, where Lemony makes reference to Captain Widdershins convincing Beatrice that a story in a newspaper was true, which could be the report of his death. The other evidence for her belief was that she had planned to name Violet 'Lemony' had she been a boy, in accordance with the family custom of naming a child after a friend who had died. We can assume that Beatrice at one time believed that Snicket was dead. When Lemony was revealed to be alive, she had already married Bertrand and she could not marry him. However, in The Beatrice Letters the reader is told that Beatrice returned Lemony's engagement ring and sent him a 200-page book explaining why the two could not wed, something she could not have done had she believed Snicket to be dead; although this may have been after he was revealed to be alive. This may contradict Ishmael's statement from The End that the ring was given to Beatrice then back to Lemony to Kit to Bertrand then back to Beatrice. Also, the newspaper article mentions Lemony's work as the biographer of the Baudelaires, so this particular article could not have been published until after Beatrice's death, so this puts a damper on the idea that she read that particular article. She could, of course, have believed a completely different article about him (perhaps one accusing him of crimes he did not commit—Snicket makes frequent references to such articles and false information), sent him the book and the letter, then later when she had married Bertrand, discovered the truth and also believed him (for a time at least) to be dead for some reason—though again, it could not be the obituary that appears in the Daily Punctilio that convinces her of this as that must appear after her death. In The End, when Kit Snicket nears death, she informs the Baudelaire children that "their families have always been close, even if they had to stay apart from one another".

The Beatrice Letters reveal that Beatrice and Lemony first met when they were still schoolchildren and Beatrice was friends and classmates with the R, the Duchess of Winnipeg.

Mother of the Baudelaires

In The Beatrice Letters, which was published before The End, it is revealed that Beatrice's full name is Beatrice Baudelaire, making her a relative of the Baudelaire orphans. It later becomes clear that this Beatrice is the Baudelaire orphans' late mother, and that there is another Beatrice Baudelaire, Kit Snicket's child, who is born in The End and raised by the orphans. The Beatrice Letters reveals that both Beatrices are baticeers (a person who trains bats). Baticeer is an anagram for Beatrice. Such anagrams are used frequently in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Even prior to the release of the thirteenth book, there was speculation that Beatrice was the Baudelaires' mother, based on the fact that a list of anagrams in The Hostile Hospital includes "Carrie E. Abelabudite" an anagram for Beatrice Baudelaire. However, the same list includes "Ned H. Rirger" an anagram for Red Herring (a similar passage, juxtaposing evidence that Beatrice is Mrs. Baudelaire and the "Red Herring" anagram appears in The Unauthorized Autobiography. However, the red herring may also be the name "Monty Kensicle', yet another anagram for Lemony Snicket). The Baudelaires have heard her name mentioned twice by Esmé Squalor, but they have not had opportunity to discuss it, so it was unknown if the name meant anything to them.

Snicket mentions Beatrice's death in the dedication of each book.

Involvement with the sugar bowl

Beatrice, the Baudelaire orphans' mother, may have stolen Esmé Squalor's sugar bowl, which is an important artifact in the series. In The Ersatz Elevator, Esmé declares to the Baudelaires that she wanted to "steal from [them] the way Beatrice stole from me." In The Penultimate Peril, Esmé exclaims "Beatrice stole it [the sugar bowl] from me!" However, in The Hostile Hospital, Lemony Snicket states that he helped Beatrice steal the sugar bowl and that he feels guilty about it. The Beatrice Letters seems to suggest that Beatrice and Lemony attended a tea party held by Esmé and, for reasons unknown, one of them stole Esmé's sugar bowl, setting off the schism.

Kit Snicket's Daughter

Before Kit Snicket (Lemony Snicket's elder sister) died on the island she told the Baudelaire orphans to name her daughter after their mother, Beatrice. Beatrice also loves bubble gum and when she and Lemony Snicket first meet in the book, he gives her a bouquet of bubble gum flowers.

Inspiration

Beatrice "Bice" Portinari was Dante's inspiration and "true" love, whom he met when he was 9 and she was 8. However, she married another man and died three years later. This is probably the basis for the elder Beatrice Baudelaire, whom Snicket met when he was 11 and she was 10; he fell in love with her, but she married another man (Bertrand Baudelaire) and eventually died.

Charles Baudelaire, from which the protagonists' surnames are derived, wrote a poem called "La Beatrice."^[1]

Dedications

These dedications are made to the first Beatrice Baudelaire (the mother of the Baudelaire orphans) by Lemony Snicket in each book in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Book	Quotation
The Bad Beginning	To Beatrice - darling, dearest, dead.
The Reptile Room	For Beatrice - My love for you shall live forever. You, however, did not.
The Wide Window	For Beatrice – I would much prefer it if you were alive and well.
The Miserable Mill	To Beatrice – My love flew like a butterfly Until death swooped down like a bat As the poet Emma Montana McElroy said: "That's the end of that."
The Austere Academy	For Beatrice – You will always be in my heart, In my mind, And in your grave.
The Ersatz Elevator	For Beatrice – When we met my life began, Soon afterward, yours ended.
The Vile Village	For Beatrice – When we were together I felt breathless. Now you are.
The Hostile Hospital	For Beatrice – Summer without you is as cold as winter. Winter without you is even colder.
The Carnivorous Carnival	For Beatrice – Our love broke my heart, and stopped yours.
The Slippery Slope	For Beatrice – When we met, you were pretty, and I was lonely. Now I am pretty lonely.
The Grim Grotto	For Beatrice – Dead women tell no tales. Sad men write them down.
The Penultimate Peril	For Beatrice - No one could extinguish my love, or your house.
The End	For Beatrice - I cherished, you perished. The world's been nightmarished
Chapter Fourteen	For Beatrice - We are like boats passing in the night - particularly you.
The Beatrice Letters	To Beatrice, and From Her

References

↑ Kramer, Melody Joy (12 October 2006). "A Series of Unfortunate Literary Allusions". NPR. Retrieved 20 November 2010.