Thoughts on Esmé and her morals.

[R.]

Recently, I have been discussing the series with an associate, and we have especially been thinking about Esmé and how her character seems to change throughout the books. In the earlier books, she is a genuinely terrifying figure capable of almost anything. She is clever and calculating, and my theory of her being Ellington Feint comes mainly from books 6, 7 and 8. However, later on she starts acting weird, and by book 11 she is dressing like an octopus and attempting to use a giant piece of pasta as a whip. There was also this interesting line from book 10 (paraphrased) “Of course, the real reason we are doing this is to get our hands on all those fortunes,” Esmé said with a nervous snicker.  “We’ll have the Spats fortune, the Kornbluth fortune, the Winnipeg fortune and many others. I’ll be able to afford the penthouse apartment of every building that isn’t on fire!”  It seems at this point she is beginning to realise just how wrong the actions of her side of the schism are, and is desperately trying to reassure herself that she could benefit from this. Bear in mind that this was just before she took in Carmelita, despite saying at the beginning of the book that she never wanted children except as servants. As for the pasta whip, it is quite likely that she had been told to watch the kidnapped children and deliberately avoided hurting them. In TPP, she leaves Count Olaf in order to protect Carmelita and is seemingly plotting a mass poisoning at a cocktail party, most likely in an attempt to annihilate both sides of VFD. My conclusion from this is that she realise during TSS that her actions were wrong and began to try and redeem herself, but took after her father (see my theory in Wretchedly Wrong Questions) and resorted to somewhat extremist methods. Any thoughts?

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

I have an idea R.. It makes sense that the dynamics of Olaf and Esmé's relationship have changed, and the cause of that, as you said, is Carmelita's arrival in the family. Esmé may not have noticed, but Carmelita activated her motherly side. Consciously she was acting maternally with a selfish object, but subconsciously she was acting maternally because she identified with Carmelita. Without realizing it, she came to love her for who she was. And Carmelita, without realizing it, came to love Esmé for the same reason.

On the other hand, Count Olaf didn't really love Esmé, but he apparently tried to convince himself that he loved her.

However, I have a vision about the relationship of this "family" in relation to the incendiary side of the schism. They were not loyal to the arsonist from the start. In TBB Olaf describes himself as a self-employed, free-lancer. Olaf formed his own schism when he joined his theater team and went in search of fortunes and in search of destroying VFD. Olaf may have allied himself with the sinister man and woman, but in his heart he was not subject to anyone.

In LSTUA we realized that Esmé and Olaf acted separately from the incendiary side as a whole. They were not welcome at the construction committee meeting, it is true. But while the arsonist side was very interested in destroying the VFD bases, Olaf and Esmé were interested in controlling the VFD members using that mysterious item in a box. This attitude, of wanting to control others, was synonymous with being able to become a powerful person. And here I come to my personal assessment of Esmé. In TGG, as soon as Esmé realized that there was still some of the deadly fungus MM, Esmé devised a plan in which they could control people. I think that's the real essence of it. Even Olaf is not so much in control of others as Esmé. Esmé can appear to be controlled by fashion. But the truth is that she loves to determine what is in fashion and what is out of fashion. She loves to see people acting on what she is saying. What made her very jealous of Madame Lulu was not exactly the fact that Olaf could fall in love with the false fortune teller, but that Olivia was sort of running Olaf's actions. Thus, Esmé soon started a strategy of getting new people for her to control and also planned Olivia's death. Regarding her marriage to Jerome, she did not love him, but it is quite evident to me that she loved to control him.

I still haven't fully understood Esmé and Olaf's secret TPP plan. I am still studying this subject. At first glance, it really looks Esmé wanted to poison everyone. But I still can't make sense of it. Esmé knows how fast the deadly fungus MM can kill someone. And you can't control dead people. According to her words in TGG, she wanted to use the MM fungus to control people. So, I think she wanted to threaten people with fungus, and not really kill them. She could threaten to throw the fungus and kill everyone if they did not obey her, or she could after contaminating them offer a cure in exchange for cooperation.

In other words, the person I am most afraid of in ASOUE is Esmé. Her attitude in threatening children in TGG using whatever it is, for me only highlights how much she likes to control others. She will pretend to be a nice person to try to control others (method she used in Olaf and the "freaks"), she will try to manipulate the media (method she used in Geraldine and to determine what was in and out of fashion) , she will be authoritarian (method she used in Jerome, in the snow scouts), she will use threats (method she used in the construction committee and planned to use on many people through the deadly fungus MM according to the words in TGG).


But in Carmelita she found someone she didn't exactly want to control, but someone she loved, without even realizing it. Still, that I would be very afraid to relate to someone like Esmé.

Edit: The real reason for the schism between Olaf and Esmé in TPP, for me, is that Olaf got tired of being controlled. Olaf doesn't want to be controlled by anyone. He would enjoy living on an island named after him, a small place for him to call owner. This desire was further fueled by the strange competition for authority that began to exist. In TBB and TRR he alone reigned his empire of few people. But from there came Georgina, who was not exactly controlled by him. She died soon, so there was no time for real rivalry. But still, he was placed as a receptionist, a clear position of servitude towards Georgina. (That it was a woman, something that maybe touched his male pride). Then came Esmé. He thought he had Esmé under his command, but little by little Esmé was showing his true dominating nature. Then came the sinister man and woman, who were naturally authority figures. The funny thing about all this is that in the end (at the end of TPP) he finally managed to feel really respected by those he least expected; the Baudelaires. Olaf was being deceived by them, but he felt that those children were seeing him as he always wanted to be seen: not someone who wants others to fear him, but someone who wants others to obey him or follow his example by choice. I almost see Olaf's proud smile when Sunny suggests burning the hotel. At that moment, without realizing it, Olaf thought he got exactly what he always wanted, something he tried to have with Esmé and Carmelita but he couldn't: a real family that could respect him without him having to impose himself or without him. had to pretend to be someone he is not. I feel like the only time he felt this way before was with his relationship with Kit Snicket.

[R.]

How come you think in the exact same way as me? Everything you said about Esmé sounded like something I would say myself and it’s kind of weird. Thanks for responding to my PM by the way. I’m looking forward to all the contributions tricky will bring to our theories.