Violet Baudelaire

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A Series of Unfortunate Events character
Violet Baudelaire
Gender	Female
Hair color	Novel: Black Illustrations: Black Film: Auburn
Age	15
Film actor	Emily Browning
1st appearance	The Bad Beginning
V.F.D. alliance	Volunteer side of the schism

Violet Baudelaire is one of the main characters in the popular children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Violet is the eldest child of the Baudelaire orphans (and rather protective of her younger siblings due to a promise she made to her parents when they were born): she has a younger brother named Klaus and a baby sister named Sunny. When Violet is of age (eighteen years old), she will inherit the Baudelaire fortune.

In the later books, Lemony Snicket mentions that Violet Baudelaire is pretty. She and fellow orphans Quigley Quagmire and Duncan Quagmire have a romantic interest in each other. Violet's favorite book is The Life of Nikola Tesla, and she has a strong allergy to peppermints.

At the beginning of the series, Violet loses her parents in a fire which consumes their house. From this point onwards, the villainous Count Olaf tries to steal the enormous Baudelaire fortune from the orphans, using various nefarious schemes. Violet and Olaf almost get married in his play, The Marvelous Marriage, but Violet signs the marriage document with her left hand, and as she is right-handed, the ceremony is declared to be invalid. After this, Olaf and his associates go on the run as fugitives.

In The Austere Academy, Violet and her siblings meet Duncan and Isadora Quagmire. A close friendship between Violet and Duncan develops. In the tenth book, The Slippery Slope, she meets Quigley Quagmire, and they form a strong relationship. What will become of these relationships is still unknown, as Duncan and Quigley both disappeared into the "Great Unknown", referenced in The End.

In The End, she and her siblings adopt Kit Snicket's child, Beatrice, after Count Olaf dies, but the fate of her and her siblings is ambiguous.

[edit] Violet's inventions

Violet is a great inventor. She often invents devices to help herself and her siblings in dangerous situations, using only simple objects such as rubber bands and tin cans. Whenever Violet invents something, she ties her hair up with her ribbon.

• In The Bad Beginning, Violet makes a grappling hook, from metal rods and torn clothing.
• In The Reptile Room, she makes a lockpick, from two prongs from an electrical socket, a thumbtack, and some soap.
• In The Wide Window, she makes a signaling device, from a piece of cloth, fishing pole, a metal bucket, and a burning hairnet.
• In The Austere Academy, she makes a staple-making device, using a small crab, a potato, metal rods, creamed spinach, and a fork. She also makes a few pairs of tap shoes.
• In The Ersatz Elevator, she makes rope out of extension cords, curtains, and neckties. She also makes welding torches, from heated fire tongs, and crowbars, from bent fire tongs.
• In The Vile Village, she makes a battering ram, using a wooden plank, water, and spongy bread. She also assists Hector in constructing a Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home (also known as Deus Ex Machina or SSHAMH), using various mechanical devices.
• In The Hostile Hospital, she makes an intercom system, using an empty soup can with a hole. She also makes an escape device, from rubber bands.
• In The Carnivorous Carnival, she makes a cart as an escape vehicle, using vines, roller coaster parts and a piece of rubber.
• In The Slippery Slope, she makes a drag chute, using hammocks and a mixture of sticky condiments, and a brake, using a wooden table. She also makes climbing shoes using forks, fake fingernails, ukulele strings, and a candelabra.
• In The Penultimate Peril she makes a drag chute using dirty laundry sheets.
• In The End, Violet invents a water filter in order to make salt water drinkable. She also makes a sling for her and her siblings to use to carry baby Beatrice.

[edit] Disguises

A recurring theme in the series is the Baudelaire children's disguises. At the end of The Vile Village, they are falsely accused of murder. From this point on, they have no more guardians, and are on the run from the police. While running from the police, Violet assumes the following disguises:

• In The Hostile Hospital, Count Olaf disguises her as a patient so that he can conduct a fake operation and cut her head off.
• In The Carnivorous Carnival, Violet and her brother dress as a two-headed freak.
• In The Slippery Slope, Violet poses both as a Snow Scout and as a Volunteer.
• In The Penultimate Peril, Violet diguises herself as a hotel concierge.

[edit] Film adaptation

In the 2004 film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Violet is played by Australian actress Emily Browning, who has also been in such films as Ghost Ship, Darkness Falls and Ned Kelly.