Note: This post may contain spoilers from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events series.

Admittedly, I struggled to find someone for this month, it being difficult to manage my blog, studies and personal life. However, after much consideration I felt it would be a good opportunity to dedicate this month to a character I’ve held dearly since my childhood. Plus, with season 2 of the Netflix adaptation being released this month it felt fitting.

Violet Baudelaire | A Series of Unfortunate Events

e783dc0173fcbb4f1017d5f83cde9e52 — Credit to Artist. (Click image)

Violet Baudelaire has been a huge part of my life since picking up the series as a young child, becoming immediately inspired by her strength from the first novel.
As the eldest Baudelaire child, much of the weight falls onto her shoulders, being constantly reminded by various guardians that her siblings were her responsibility, which she takes in stride in all thirteen installments. Her natural leading skills is one of the many reasons I adore her character, inspiring readers of their capability in a literary world of far too many princesses. Violet proves time and time again how an overactive mind can be something wonderful, being a keen inventor and uses those skills to protect her loved-ones in multiple types of dangers.
Her personality is one of the main reasons why I adore her, being resourceful, strong and highly intelligent. As someone who didn’t find a connection to many popular children’s novels, reading about Violet was a breath of fresh air, inspiring many young people to find their own abilities and pursue whatever they put their mind to.
~~Plus, her dress sense in the 2004 movie was beautiful.~~

Who is Violet Baudelaire?

Eldest of the three Baudelaire children, above Klaus and Sunny.
Known as intelligent, charming and polite. However, she can be stern and have an attitude at times.
Is arguably the smartest of the three children, Klaus being known as brash whereas she is manipulative and uses the situation to her advantage.
Violet is known to be stereotypically unfeminine; unable to cook, hates dolls, knowledgeable, and hates the colour pink.
Is fourteen at the beginning of the series and is sixteen by the end.
Her whereabouts are unknown by the end of the series, Lemony Snicket having conducted research yet found nothing. However, there is the possibility that her and her siblings died.
Ties her hair up into a ribbon when thinking to keep it out of her eyes.
She is described to have “pleasant facial features”, alike her siblings.
Won her first invention contest when she was five years old, by creating the automatic rolling pin, made with a window shade and six pairs of roller skates.
Known to risk her own safety for her siblings, wanting to fulfill the promise she kept with her parents to keep them safe.
Before her parents death, Violet loved visiting the Verne Invention Museum, where she’d watch mechanical demonstrations that inspired her to become an inventor at two years old.
Her favourite inventor is Nikola Tesla, her favourite book being a biography of his life.
It is implied that she has a love interest in Quigley Quagmire, one of the Quagmire triplets.
Daniel Handler used the name Violet because it was a fairly British name and he wanted the setting of the series to be ambiguous, considering Klaus is German, Sunny is American, and Olaf is Scandinavian. Baudelaire is taken from poet Charles Baudelaire, most famous for his work The Flowers of Evil, a cycle of poems about finding beauty in terrible circumstances.

Note: Violet Baudelaire is portrayed by Emily Browning in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) and Malina Weissman in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017).

Favourite Quotes

“We didn’t lose our family. Only our parents.”
The Grim Grotto

“It was an emergency,” Violet said calmly, “so I picked the lock.”
“How did you do that?” Mr. Poe asked. “Nice girls shouldn’t know how to do such things.”
“My sister is a nice girl,” Klaus said, “and she knows how to do all sorts of things.”
The Reptile Room

“We are respecting our parents wishes… They didn’t want to shelter us from the world’s treacheries. They wanted us to survive them.”
The End

“What can I do?” Klaus asked.
“You can pray this works,” Violet said, but the Baudelaire sisters were so quick with their tasks that there was no time for even the shortest of religious ceremonies.
The Ersatz Elevator

“To those who hadn’t been around Violet long, nothing would have seemed unusual, but those who knew her well knew that when she tied her hair up in a ribbon to keep it out of her eyes, it meant that the gears and levers of her inventing brain were at top speed.”
The Bad Beginning