i think i know who lemony snicket is...!

[jessica13lynn]

alright so in the end it says that its a tradition to name children after someone who has died. and they named the baby beatrice. beatrice is the bauldelairs mother. so lemony snicket is the bauldelairs father because he dedicates all the books to beatric i read parts of the beatrice letters and lemony snicket and beatrice bauldelaire had a crush on eachother since they were little kids in academy. and lemony snicket is researching the bauldelairs because he wants so see what happened to his kids since he was the one parent that survived. if this doesnt make sense and im just rambling tell me because it makes sense in my head......

[descartes]

They would be the Snicket orphans if Lemony Snicket was there father.

[Dante]

Not quite. Lemony Snicket and Beatrice were in love with each other when they were young, but she broke off their engagement after learning something about Snicket that wasn't true; Beatrice went on to marry Bertrand Baudelaire, and they are the parents of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. Lemony still loves her, though, and that's probably a big part of why he's researching the story of the Baudelaires (although it has other connections to his own story, too - both the Baudelaires and Lemony had their lives ruined by Count Olaf, for example).

[jessica13lynn]

oh ok sorry about that thanks for correcting me

[jman]

It says in TPP that their father's name is Bertrand.

[thistledown]

Plus, Snicket is like Dante .A. from the Inferno. In that, he only spoke to Beatrice once in his lifetime.

Also, isn't it funny that Bertrand de Born, in the Inferno, was one of the Schismatics--the people who tore apart other people's lives and so were torn apart in Hell as a punishment?

Yeah, I don't think Snicket is their father.

[fiendishthingie]

In that, he only spoke to Beatrice once in his lifetime.

Ummmmm... can someone point out a source here? I mean, I've gotta be missing something pretty major not to have realised that this is the case, right?

But speaking of literary allusions, isn't it great how some people pointed out around the time of TBB that Shakespeare had a character called Beatrice from the Tempest, who was an orphan raised by her uncle, but they were shot down because that situation had "no relevance" to Beatrice herself? Ha ha. Serves 'em right. ;D

[Dante]

I've heard it said that Dante only spoke to Beatrice once in his life, although I'm not convinced that that's true. Lemony, however, has certainly spoken to Beatrice multiple times, possibly unless you're only counting direct quotations from the books and assuming that both of them were completely silent any time they were together, and that any time Lemony mentions speaking to a woman he loved then he meant someone else, and believe he got engaged to a woman he'd only spoken to once. Which is unlikely.

As it happens, I don't believe there is a Beatrice in The Tempest, or an orphaned character raised by their uncle, although there is a Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (who also marries somebody with the same first initial - eventually). And I hadn't heard of the situation you mention at the time of TBB, which is somewhat interesting (although to be fair, too little was known about Beatrice at the time of TBB to make a real judgement on her literary origin).

[RockSunner]

One Tempest reference that I really liked from TE was this about Ariel:

"I washed up on this shores after finally escaping from prison, where I had disguised myself as a young man for years!"

The spirit Ariel in The Tempest was imprisoned by a witch and freed by the wizard Prospero. The original character was male. Could this "disguise" be a subtle dig at Disney for using the name for their female mermaid?

[SnicketFires]

descartes said:

They would be the Snicket orphans if Lemony Snicket was there father.

They wouldn't be classified as orphans, either, if Lemony Snicket was their father, since he is obviously not dead (despite what the Daily Punctilio reported).

[The World Is Quiet Here]

Exactly, it's kinda a nice idea but I don't think it fits or works entirely and surely if he was the father he would make contact of some sort even if he wasn't planing on revealing his true identity.

[2yoshi101]

Lemony Snicket is not the Baudelaire father because Lemony Snicket said he recieved all 200 pages of a book on why Beatrice couldn't marry him.
Second, the Baudelaire father is Bertrand, backed up by evidence in TPP. What my theory was that Beatrice was going to name Violet if she was a boy Lemony because Beatrice THOUGHT Lemony was dead, and the family custom was to name people after dead friends/relatives.

[shesnotthere]

people pointed out around the time of TBB that Shakespeare had a character called Beatrice from the Tempest, who was an orphan raised by her uncle

There is no character in The Tempest called Beatrice. There is also no character who is raised by her Uncle. There is a Miranda, who is raised on an Island by her father, Prospero.
This name IS used in The End, as are other character names, Caliban, Ariel, Gonzalo, Alonso etc.
if you're determined to read into these i'll give you a brief synopsis of all of those characters within the play.

Miranda- a girl who has never known anything but the Island she lives on, and who lives alone with her controlling father.
(Prospero- said girls father, who has magical powers and controls Caliban as his slave, and Ariel as his faithful spirit. - i don't think anyone is called Prospero in the end though)
Ariel- a Spirit who serves Prospero.
Caliban- a disgusting beast who was the son of a witch Prospero destroyed when he became shipwrecked on the Island. (he also tries to rape Miranda)
Gonzalo- a wise old man (he's only referred to briefly in 'The End'- i believe in this context)
Alsonso- the King of Naples, who becomes shipwrecked due to Prospero's magic and the want for revenge.

I'm sure there are more. I'm unsure that there's any real symbolism in any of them, as for instance Caliban was a horrible beast- why on earth would they called Mrs Caliban after him if it bears any symbolism. also her name is Miranda Caliban.. so that's sort of a contradiction that doesn't really make sense.
it seems that the author has just gone for names which are to do with people who are shipwrecked Ie.

Friday- as in Man Friday in the novel 'Robinson Crusoe'- about being shipwrecked.
Dr Kurtz- as in Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's novel 'Heart of Darkness' - Kurtz isnt exactly shipwrecked but his boat has been damaged and left him alone to rule over 'savages' becoming a savage himself ultimately.
Ms. Marlow- Marlow- also in the novel Heart of Darkness, the man who pursues Kurtz into (Africa) via boat.
Erewhon- Erewhon is a character from 'Erewhon' or 'Over the range' by Samuel Butler which is about a failing Utopia- which is obviously not a reference to other books about shipwrecks, but others about failing Utopia's such as the Island in 'The End'
Mr. Pitcairn- Pitcairn is an Island where the mutineers from the mutiny on the Bounty went.
Calypso- Calpyso is the name of a sea nymph in Greek mythology.


- there are tonnes more but these are ones which sprung to mind when tihnking about it, i'm without doubt that every single name mentioned on the Island has a somewhat nautical/utopia/shipwrecked sort of reference, and i don't think there's anything else to read into about that.