Mr. Poe; A Character Study

[lemonymeringuepie]

    Mr. Poe is one of the most frequent characters in ASOUE, appearing in nearly all of the books. However, he isn't a very "good" character. While, morally, he is on the Volunteer side, his actions have supported the Fire-Starting side more. So, on this post, I'm going to analyze this ... intriguing character.

    So, what do I mean when I say that his actions support the Fire-Starting side? Well, for one, he delivered the Baudelaires to Count Olaf in TBB. This pretty much put the Baudelaires into every situation they go through in the series. If he hadn't, the Baudelaire children wouldn't have witnessed 2 of their guardians death, multiple guardians sending them away, Nero's horrible music, or even the tedious chores in the Village of Fowl Devotees. He set them up for this series of unfortunate events.

    But this can't be all he did? Is it? Of course not. In fact, much of his villainous supporting actions actually happen in TBB. When Violet, Sunny, and Klaus showed up to his office to tell him that Olaf had hit Klaus, he shrugged them off. He claimed that Olaf had the right to do so, because In Loco Parentis. However, this doesn't mean the parent gets to slap a child. It let's them determine punishments and the such, but not literal abuse. Poe's, I suppose, "uncaring" nature, is the most destructive flaw in the series.

    By the end of the series, Mr. Poe has continually placed the Baudelaire children into unsafe condition. From a Lumber Mill to a house on the side of a cliff, that nearly killed them. While Aunt Josephine would have been a safe guardian, her house surely wasn't. The same goes for Uncle Monty. Good guardian, dangerous house. 

    While Mr. Poe does place them in ... questionable circumstances, he is the reason Olaf kept getting away with his many, many crimes. He, like many of the adults, are oblivious to the fact that Olaf is in a disguise. However, the other guardians can be excused for this, as a most haven't seen Olaf before, or at least, hadn't in years. But what is Mr. Poe's excuse? He honestly has none. He continually sees Olaf every book, for much of the series. He know what Olaf looks like without a disguise. He dos claim that, because he can't see a tattoo or uni brow, that it can't possible be Count Olaf and that the Baudelaires are mistaken and should not make such rude accusations. But hair can be cut or removed, and a tattoo can easily be covered up. But, Mr. Poe, can't see that.

    See, the main way to tell people isn't hair or small, easily hid, tattoos, but height, body shape, and face structure. None of which Olaf changed within the books, ever. He only changed his hair and clothing. Or occasionally hiding his tattoo via peg leg or makeup.

    But you might remember the seen at Briny Beach, at the end of TGG, where Mr. Poe seemed to be full of grief over the situation the Baudelaire Children are in. But do remember that Poe is now, at that point, Head of Orphan Affair at the bank. So, knowing that Mr. Poe doesn't really care for the children, it is somewhat obvious that, if he doesn't find the children, will probably lose his job. He may be sad that he can't find them, but it isn't out of caring for them, but more for what how their being missing affects him personally.

    While Mr. Poe definitely wouldn't willing side with the Fire-Starting side of the schism, his actions do help their agenda. Or, at least helps Olaf. He continually doesn't do much to help the Baudelaires, which lets Olaf continually slide into their lives. I could've done so much more to analyze Mr. Poe's character and development, but I thought it was interesting to look at how, in reality, he caused much of the strife the Baudelaires faced throughout the series. He is neither a "good' or "bad" character. He is morally gray. But his actions and inability to see things right in his face is fairly "bad". He just ... is. No wonder the Baudelaires went with Kit instead.

[Foxy]

I don't think he's on the good side or the bad side, because I don't think he's in V.F.D. at all. I think he's just a bumbling banker.

When he delivered the children to Count Olaf, I don't think he was purposely being villainous. I think he was just being lazy. I guess you could call laziness villainy. And listening to bad violin music, while unpleasant, isn't exactly torturous... okay, you could convince me otherwise on this point, but doing chores for sure I do not see as a bad thing.

With the office situation, I think legally he probably was obligated to listen to them as far as abuse goes, but again, I think he was busy and so got lazy about taking care of the children. Not good.

I don't think Mr. Poe knew the children were going to be working in the lumbermill, or he wouldn't have sent them. And he probably did not know Aunt Josephine's house was on the side of a cliff, although he might still have sent them even if he did know where the house was located.

By TMM, Mr. Poe is always willing to make whichever Olaf-digsuise person is around take off the shoes, etc., to prove if they are or are not Count Olaf. Think Shirley and Coach Genghis, even if he doesn't recognize Olaf himself. But he never recognizes Olaf because all the adults in this series have some pretty serious short-comings.

When does Poe get the promotion from Vice President of Orphan Affairs to Head of Orphan Affairs?

I would agree, Mr. Poe did cause a lot of grief for the Baudelaires, but I don't think he was trying to be evil. He's just an idiot.

I wish the Baudelaires would have gone with the taxi driver instead of Poe in TPP.

[lemonymeringuepie]

I'm not calling him a hero or a villain, my point was that his inability to do simple tasks, like look into the next guardian and his other shortcomings do help the Villainous side of VFD more than the Volunteer side.

Also, I never mentioned chores specifically because they aren't a "Bad" thing. I mean, having children chop wood could be considered child endangerment, it is something Mr. Poe wouldn't care about unless one of the Children was injured.

Poe not knowing where at Josephine's house was located is definitely him being incompetent. He should have looked into it more. Same goes for the Mill. While he probably wouldn't have sent them if he knew they'd work there, a Mill still isn't a place for children to live.

And yes, he does look. However, it is to prove to the Baudelaires that it, in fact, isn't Count Olaf. He basis it on those two features and looks the other way on more compelling features, like facial structure.

He never got promoted. Sorry. I thought he was Head. That was me not checking on that fact.

And to repeat, I never called him a villain. I just said that his idiocy helped the villains.

The Baudelaires should have went with the Taxi driver. Fewer fires in the end, possibly.

[Foxy]

I see what you mean. I think Poe was not on either side of the schism, but due to his ineptness, he was constantly helping the fire-starting side rather than the fire putting out side.

Oh, the chores I was referring to was when you mentioned the chores of the Village of Fowl Devotees.

[lemonymeringuepie]

OOOHHHH. Right. Sorry, I immediately thought of Count Olaf's Chores. Wasn't thinking. But there is a difference between chores and doing what the Baudelaires did in the Village. They were basically unpaid handymen children. So, I feel like that gotta be some social service problem right there.

[Foxy]

Yes, you are probably right about that. The children probably should have been in school instead of doing all the chores/making ice cream sundaes. But as a kid, I probably would have rather been out cleaning a fountain or picking up hedge trimmings than in a desk.

[theplague]

In both adaptations, Mr. Poe’s stupidity is emphasized, but when I was younger I thought of him more as someone with screwed priorities. I actually thought of him as being very smart in a technical sense (supposedly he’s a decent banker), and I assumed his more ridiculous moments were just classic Snicket character writing.

I thought his primary character flaw was meant to be that he didn’t take children seriously- that he viewed helping them as an interruption from more important work. (The irony being that actually helping the Baudelaires would probably be one of the only ways he could do some legitimate good for the world).

After re-reading I realized he definitely is written to be stupid, but I wish the adaptations leaned more into his overly serious nature anyway.

Side note, I’m really interested in Mr. Poe’s sudden depth at the end of the series. I remember thinking he seemed very human in The Penultimate Peril despite still being the worst.

[Foxy]

When I read the books as a kid, I always thought of him as a very serious person who would probably never tell jokes or laugh or smile, and maybe he never took the children seriously, and that was his flaw. I don't think I ever thought he was stupid necessarily. The Netflix adaptation of his character is so completely opposite of what I ever thought Mr. Poe was like, but I do enjoy it.

Aug 10, 2019 19:23:14 GMT -5 theplague said:

Side note, I’m really interested in Mr. Poe’s sudden depth at the end of the series. I remember thinking he seemed very human in The Penultimate Peril despite still being the worst.

Could you possibly explain this further?

[theplague]

I guess it’s more me reading into it too much. A lot of it is the way I pictured lime delivery, which obviously varies from reader to reader.

The bit at the end of The Grim Grotto where he’s faintly heard calling out to the children with what I assumed to be increasing desperation casts him in more pitiable light than any other scene in the series does. The fact that he goes out of his way to meet with them after it’s no longer a part of his job shows some sort of half-character development. He’s grown to care about their well-being, but hasn’t grown to realize that he doesn’t always know better than them.

Then there’s the scene in The Penultimate Peril where he walks them back into the lobby. His actions here seem more cruel than usual, and there’s a bitterness to it that I think is meant to be resentment for their refusal to go with him in the last book. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he starts treating them like a lost cause immediately after his attempt at growth fails. It’s a very human kind of selfishness.