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Post by Very Funky Disco on Apr 6, 2009 17:22:12 GMT -5
Here is my theory regarding the whole telegraph issue.
First off, I don't think it was really Eleanora Poe that wrote to her brother. Most likely, it was Geraldine Julienne herself. Otherwise, she wouldn't've attempted to telegram her brother.
Also, when Mr. Poe send two telegrams to his sister - he just grabbed two random ones, without reading what they said.
What are your thoughts?
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Post by Sora on Apr 7, 2009 4:34:13 GMT -5
Well, I'd probably say that was all true. As evinced by the content of Eleanora's own telegram, she is clearly being used by Geraldine- so Geraldine more than likely advised Poe against the use of telegrams. As for the random selection - a cruelly ironic luck of the draw on Poe's part, tho it is odd that he never once took even a second to look at the front of the printed version of the messages.
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Post by Dante on Apr 7, 2009 6:54:31 GMT -5
I don't think for a second that Geraldine Julienne is wicked enough to actually impersonate her boss to trick Mr. Poe. As presented in TPP - and, presumably, in THH and TCC - then she's a foolish person with no idea of the truth of what she's involved in. Not evil, just stupid. I can just about see her locking Eleanora in the basement on Esmé's orders, given that we know that this happened - and I must emphasise that this all is on Esmé's orders. But I get the feeling she'd be a bit more conscious of the deception in impersonating Eleanora to Mr. Poe. I think Esmé would have to present it to Geraldine as her doing it on behalf of Eleanora, but combined with the basement-locking I think even Geraldine would start joining the dots. (It's unclear just when Eleanora was locked in the basement relative to the article and letter being sent to Mr. Poe - if it was before, then Geraldine would probably accept the logic of needing to write on Eleanora's behalf, but I'm still unsure of how Esmé could convince her that locking up Eleanora was a good idea.) Esmé might have written the letter herself. Or either of them could send an unsigned letter along with the article to Mr. Poe, and I'm pretty certain he'd assume it was from Eleanora.
On the other hand, Eleanora's probably a bit dim herself, as evidenced by her telegram in which she only now begins to doubt that some of the articles she printed were true. I think Eleanora could have genuinely sent the letter herself. She's clearly a complete dupe, much like her star reporter.
As for the choice of telegrams, I look at it from an authorial viewpoint. The Baudelaire one has to be included as the whole set-up is to explain why Mr. Poe never read the telegram (although if I recall correctly, TSS, bizarrely, seems to contradict it), and another one has to be included or else it looks a little more flimsy. Thus, if you need another one, the Eleanora one has to be written both for irony's sake and to shed light on Eleanora's character (and, for that matter, the relationship between Esmé and Geraldine). Notably, they're the most recent, which gives an idea of the place in the series at which these events occur.
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