The Wide Window

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and death by suicide.

Throughout the story, Violet, Sunny, and Klaus Baudelaire must rely on themselves instead of on the adults who are charged with caring for them. Their ability to rescue themselves from Olaf again and again—and the failure of Josephine and Poe to meaningfully protect the children—reinforces the notion that, when left to their own devices, children can be extremely resilient and resourceful—the heroes of their own story.

In his portrayals of both Poe and Josephine, Handler suggests that the adult characters’ preoccupations regularly get in the way of their duty to care for their young charges. Poe fails in his duties because he places his own comfort above doing what is right for Violet, Sunny, and Klaus and because he dismisses their concerns simply because they are children. In every instance, his puts his own needs before the needs of the Baudelaires. He refuses to believe the children’s assertions that Sham is really Olaf, trusting his own observations and deductions above those of “sad and worried” children (198). Handler’s portrayal of Poe as comically unobservant and neglectful valorizes the Baudelaires intelligence and empathy by comparison. 

Similarly, Josephine allows her overwhelming fear of the world to keep her from protecting the Baudelaires from harm. Her relationship with the Baudelaires reflects a role reversal in which the children care for and protect her rather than the other way around. She cannot provide the children with a warm home—or even a warm meal—because she’s afraid of radiators and stoves, among many other things. Once Olaf reappears in the children’s lives, masquerading as Sham, Josephine refuses to accept the children’s assessment of the situation. Like Poe, she is sure that she is right because she is an adult, and she refuses to acknowledge her own biases. Josephine’s elaborate plan to leave the children a coded message, fake her own death, and hide in Curdled Cave to wait for the children to join her demonstrates the degree to which her fears dictate her choices. After Josephine explains her thinking, Violet asks why she didn’t simply call the police, and Klaus asks, “Why didn’t you take us with you? Why did you leave us all alone by ourselves? Why didn’t you protect us from Captain Sham?” (157). Rather than respond to the substance of his questions, Josephine instead corrects his grammar, deflecting his words as a child might.

Handler highlights the irony of Mr. Poe and Aunt Josephine refusing to trust the judgment of the Baudelaire children by repeatedly demonstrating that the children have better judgment than either of the adults charged with their care. They are also exceptionally resourceful and resilient. When they cannot get the adults to protect them from Olaf, the Baudelaires set about protecting themselves. No matter how difficult their circumstances get or how many defeats they suffer, they never give up or give in. Violet uses her inventing skills, Klaus uses his research skills, and Sunny uses her small size and her ferocious bite to save the day over and over. In the middle of a hurricane, Klaus keeps working to decode Josephine’s note—as Lemony Snicket notes: “It began to thunder outside, and with each roll of thunder the entire house shook, but Klaus kept flipping pages and writing things down” (110). On a capsizing sailboat, Violet invents a signaling device to attract a rescuer. When all seems lost near the story’s conclusion, Sunny crawls over to Olaf and bites his prosthetic leg in two, revealing his real identity. Despite the ineptitude of the adults in their lives, the resilient and resourceful Baudelaire children always find a way to save themselves.