In “The Bad Beginning”, Daniel Handler used many examples of writers’ techniques to make the experience of his books appeal to a broader audience . He used dramatic irony, symbolism, and inner thinking of characters to make his works some of the best-selling books of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) used dramatic irony in the situation where we, the reader, know Count Olaf’s plan to take Baudelaire fortune. He tricked Violet into marrying him by staging a dramatic “play” that was actually a legally binding wedding . While Klaus was reading a marriage law book to find out what was going on, his guard was lowered. Olaf and his henchman were able to steal Sunny while Klaus was distracted. In order…show more content… Handler also used a strong sense of symbolism in this first book. He used the symbol of an eye all throughout the book. Count Olaf was nearly obsessed with this idea of “the eye”. He had it on his front door, tattooed on his ankle, and all around his tower. Count Olaf’s fixation with this mark symbolized watching movement in people's lives. Count Olaf says that he was going to his theatre group everyday, but he was always a step ahead of the Baudelaire orphans throughout the whole story. He also had no signs of a job and the children had never actually seen an ad for a play him and his cast companions. He seemed to be compelled to the protagonist's fortune. Count Olaf saw things throughout and had his plan developed far before they found out about it. Count Olaf may have been marking things with they eye to show that he had watched someone from there. He may have been playing the long game by purposely burning down the Baudelaire’s mansion, adopting the children, and marrying Violet just to get to their fortune. The Baudelaire children were always uneasy while in Olaf’s home because they felt like the eye was watching them. They would lower their voices, sometimes even when he was not around. Overall, the symbol of the eye only makes Count Olaf more
