Post by Hermedy on Jan 24, 2005 17:50:31 GMT -5
The Masked Ball of Duchess “R”
Lemony mentions a certain masked ball that was hosted by the duchess of Winnipeg (known as “R”), which he once attended, in the guise of a bullfighter. He then goes on to say that being in disguise made him feel like someone different and so as the police (disguised as scorpions) searched among the guests he approached someone who he had been forbidden to talk to for the rest of his life. This person was dressed as a dragonfly, and is known as Beatrice. Lemony had waited for 15 long and lonely years to deliver a message for her. He begins “Beatrice, Count Olaf is” And then he says that he cannot continue telling us about it. (TAA pg 167)
This theory only makes sense if we assume that Mrs. Baudelaire is Beatrice. So please, for the sake of the argument just pretend they are one and the same people.
First I am going to assume that lemony and Beatrice are of a similar age. Beatrice is the mother of Violet and Violet is 15 years old (or nearly 15, at the time of the mansion burning) and since this is a children’s book I doubt that Mr Snicket or Mr Handler wishes to promote teenage pregnancies so let us say that at the time of Violet's birth Beatrice and Lemony were about 20 years old. Making them around 35 years old to date which could be quite accurate considering that Lemony is sort of Handler's alter ego and they would be of similar age, and Handler is 34. (The west Australian, Monday, January 3, 2005, pg 8)
Ok, so let us assume that this party happened before violets birth and both Beatrice and lemony were in the early twenties whilst attending R's masked ball. Lemony says that he had spent 15 long and lonely years waiting to give Beatrice the message, so if Lemony was 20 at the time of delivering the message then he must have been only five at the time the message was created (which is rather unlikely, as he was probably not even in VFD at the time). Also we must assume that Count Olaf also being part of VFD must also be (roughly) in the same age category as the Baudelaire parents and the Snickets. I have done a bit of research and to acquire a royal title such as count you must be sixteen. (www.regaltitles.com) Olaf could not have been a Count at the time the message was made yet lemony clearly uses the word Count.
Knowing this we know that the masked ball must have taken place after Violet's birth, perhaps even later than one might think. Knowing that you must be 16 to acquire a title and that the message was created 15 years before it was delivered it is relatively safe to say that the Baudelaire parents, lemony and Olaf were older than 31 at the time the message was finally delivered (the masked ball). So, the question we must ask ourselves is: How recent was this ball. If we go back to the Snicket file there is a photo of the Baudelaire, Jacques and one man whom we cannot see the face of, presumably Lemony. The caption reads 'because of the evidence discussed on page nine, experts now suspect that there may in fact be one survivor of the fire, but the survivor's whereabouts are unknown.'(THH pg 109) We can safely assume that this document is referring to either a fire involving the Baudelaires or the Snickets, as the document only mentions a survivor and since we know that both Lemony and Jacques are alive or were alive not so long ago we can say that this most likely refers to the Baudelaires. Also Sunny says a rather long word Pietrisycamollaviadelrechiotemexity (THH pg 71) as Hal first mentions the Snicket file. An anagram from some of the words is: 'mother is alive.' If she is the survivor, which I strongly believe (see Conflicting Conjectures, Survivor of the Fire - Submitted by PJ) and as Mr Baudelaire is confirmed dead (TSS) then it is possible that Lemony could not deliver the message for 15 years because Beatrice was married and had three children. Violet is 15 years old (TGG) So it is possible to conclude that Lemony has been trying to warn Beatrice since the birth of Violet, about Count Olaf. Perhaps the warning was that Olaf was going to kill her and burn her house down. So either she went to the ball before the arson (more likely) and the warning arrived, and the Baudelaire parents sent their children to Briny Beach (see RE notes) because they knew Olaf was coming. OR the ball was after the fire, and the warning was another matter (which would explain why her husband wasn’t at the ball, he’s dead). The children will most likely be reunited with her in the 13th book and live happily ever after. One can only hope but with Handler on the loose we can only wait and see what misery unfolds in what I suspect will be the death of Beatrice. This would also provide us with the reason for Snicket's woeful tale.
With all Due Respect
A
The World Is Quiet Here
I would like to thank PJ for his involvement in this project.
Lemony mentions a certain masked ball that was hosted by the duchess of Winnipeg (known as “R”), which he once attended, in the guise of a bullfighter. He then goes on to say that being in disguise made him feel like someone different and so as the police (disguised as scorpions) searched among the guests he approached someone who he had been forbidden to talk to for the rest of his life. This person was dressed as a dragonfly, and is known as Beatrice. Lemony had waited for 15 long and lonely years to deliver a message for her. He begins “Beatrice, Count Olaf is” And then he says that he cannot continue telling us about it. (TAA pg 167)
This theory only makes sense if we assume that Mrs. Baudelaire is Beatrice. So please, for the sake of the argument just pretend they are one and the same people.
First I am going to assume that lemony and Beatrice are of a similar age. Beatrice is the mother of Violet and Violet is 15 years old (or nearly 15, at the time of the mansion burning) and since this is a children’s book I doubt that Mr Snicket or Mr Handler wishes to promote teenage pregnancies so let us say that at the time of Violet's birth Beatrice and Lemony were about 20 years old. Making them around 35 years old to date which could be quite accurate considering that Lemony is sort of Handler's alter ego and they would be of similar age, and Handler is 34. (The west Australian, Monday, January 3, 2005, pg 8)
Ok, so let us assume that this party happened before violets birth and both Beatrice and lemony were in the early twenties whilst attending R's masked ball. Lemony says that he had spent 15 long and lonely years waiting to give Beatrice the message, so if Lemony was 20 at the time of delivering the message then he must have been only five at the time the message was created (which is rather unlikely, as he was probably not even in VFD at the time). Also we must assume that Count Olaf also being part of VFD must also be (roughly) in the same age category as the Baudelaire parents and the Snickets. I have done a bit of research and to acquire a royal title such as count you must be sixteen. (www.regaltitles.com) Olaf could not have been a Count at the time the message was made yet lemony clearly uses the word Count.
Knowing this we know that the masked ball must have taken place after Violet's birth, perhaps even later than one might think. Knowing that you must be 16 to acquire a title and that the message was created 15 years before it was delivered it is relatively safe to say that the Baudelaire parents, lemony and Olaf were older than 31 at the time the message was finally delivered (the masked ball). So, the question we must ask ourselves is: How recent was this ball. If we go back to the Snicket file there is a photo of the Baudelaire, Jacques and one man whom we cannot see the face of, presumably Lemony. The caption reads 'because of the evidence discussed on page nine, experts now suspect that there may in fact be one survivor of the fire, but the survivor's whereabouts are unknown.'(THH pg 109) We can safely assume that this document is referring to either a fire involving the Baudelaires or the Snickets, as the document only mentions a survivor and since we know that both Lemony and Jacques are alive or were alive not so long ago we can say that this most likely refers to the Baudelaires. Also Sunny says a rather long word Pietrisycamollaviadelrechiotemexity (THH pg 71) as Hal first mentions the Snicket file. An anagram from some of the words is: 'mother is alive.' If she is the survivor, which I strongly believe (see Conflicting Conjectures, Survivor of the Fire - Submitted by PJ) and as Mr Baudelaire is confirmed dead (TSS) then it is possible that Lemony could not deliver the message for 15 years because Beatrice was married and had three children. Violet is 15 years old (TGG) So it is possible to conclude that Lemony has been trying to warn Beatrice since the birth of Violet, about Count Olaf. Perhaps the warning was that Olaf was going to kill her and burn her house down. So either she went to the ball before the arson (more likely) and the warning arrived, and the Baudelaire parents sent their children to Briny Beach (see RE notes) because they knew Olaf was coming. OR the ball was after the fire, and the warning was another matter (which would explain why her husband wasn’t at the ball, he’s dead). The children will most likely be reunited with her in the 13th book and live happily ever after. One can only hope but with Handler on the loose we can only wait and see what misery unfolds in what I suspect will be the death of Beatrice. This would also provide us with the reason for Snicket's woeful tale.
With all Due Respect
A
The World Is Quiet Here
I would like to thank PJ for his involvement in this project.