Analysis Of Count Olaf As A Villain In The Bad Beginning
A villain is a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime. This expression could be used to describe Count Olaf, and his role in Lemony Snicket’s The Bad Beginning. This novel follows the three Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, who are portrayed as the story’s protagonists, and their fight against Count Olaf to keep the Baudelaire fortune. This essay will analyse how Count Olaf is portrayed as the villain in this narrative.
As it happens, the children’s first encounter with Olaf pointed towards him having ill intent with him saying ‘“I realize that my humble home isn’t as fancy as the Baudelaire mansion, but perhaps with a bit of your money we could fix it up a little nicer.”’ This statement alone reveals that his intentions were never to look after the orphans, but entirely to obtain their massive fortune instead. Count Olaf invites some of his theatre troupe members over for a dinner and one of them says to Violet ‘“If I were you I would try not to anger Count Olaf, or he might wreck that pretty face of yours.”’ This shows that Count Olaf is violent, with a short temper and that he has a reputation for violence throughout his friend group. Count Olaf also clearly has a demand for control and will do anything to obtain what he presumes he is entitled to. When he lost his temper during the dinner and “struck Klaus across the face” it demonstrates this point.
A villain can often pose as a good person in order to trick their victims and manipulate them into doing what the villain desires. These people are often more sinister than openly evil people, as they blatantly lie to their victims with no remorse. Chapter 6 shows Count Olaf pretending to be nice and caring by making oatmeal. He poses as gracious so that when he askes the children to be in his play, which turns out to be a ploy to receive the Baudelaire fortune, they agree. Olaf’s plot to steal the fortune was eventually discovered by Klaus Baudelaire and as a way to regain control of the situation, Olaf kidnaps and holds the youngest Baudelaire, Sunny, hostage. Violet says to Olaf, “please, she’s just a baby. We’ll do anything, anything. Just don’t harm her.”’ Sunny is a small child who cannot even defend herself. Significantly, this shows us that Olaf is an unremorseful person with no sympathy.
In the novel The Bad Beginning, Count Olaf is quite clearly the antagonist of the story. His actions and reactions, traits, dialogue, attitudes, values, beliefs and relationships with others justify this point and help us analyse Count Olaf as a character. Olaf is a malicious person whose intent is to benefit himself and steal the Baudelaire orphan’s inheritance. Count Olaf is the villain to the children and the antagonist of The Bad Beginning.
