I just barely finished Atwq for the first time, and have now jumped directly back into asoue, and I can't help but notice the differences in the characterization of young Lemony and Lemony as the author. Most striking has been his tendency to say that he is not nearly as brave as the Baudelaires. Lemony in atwq was occasionally self deprecating but one of his mantras in the series is to get scared later. It seems like he faced just as intimidating quagmires as the orphans. Any insights?
It’s interesting because most readers seem to remember Lemony as very self-deprecating whenever he spoke of the Baudelaire orphans’ courage. But the most overt passage on the subject I can remember is this one:
“Klausand I are happy to introduce you,” Violet said, with morebravery than I would have had when faced with meeting Count Olafagain.[The Wide Window, Chapter Three]
There are exceptions to this, though; Lemony knows very well he can be resourceful (otherwise he wouldn’t have survived for as long as he did). This passage is also interesting:
Andnone of theBaudelaires would ever meet some of the organization’s most belovedvolunteers, including the mechanicalinstructor C. M. Kornbluth, and Dr. Isaac Anwhistle, whom everyonecalled Ike, and the brave volunteerwho tossed the sugar bowl out the kitchen window so it would not bedestroyed in the blaze, andwatched it float away on one of the tributaries of the StrickenStream.[The Slippery Slope, Chapter Twelve]
Many readers agree that this “brave volunteer” is none other than Lemony himself. So this could be a case of false modesty.
Now that I’ve read “All the Wrong Questions”, I think Lemony admires the Baudelaires because they had a “moral” courage that he lacked. The orphans chose not to push Olaf overboard in “The End”, whereas Lemony chose to push Hangfire into the jaws of the Bombinating Beast. This takes a different kind of guts than the pubescent, arrogant defiance Lemony showed in his teenage years… He eventually came to regret his choices while the Baudelaires managed to keep their morals more or less intact in comparison.
All in all the teenage Lemony we see in “All the Wrong Questions”is portrayed as extremely arrogant and downright callous. Most of the things he despises in Theodora can actually apply to his own behaviour. He constantly acts like a genius even though he gets most of the case’s facts wrong. The way he abandons his friends and colleagues is loathable. And he complains that Ellington manipulates him for her own ends even though he ends up doing the exact same thing to her.
This sense of pride led him to commit a number of questionable acts (which probably culminated with his implication in Olaf’s parents’ murder). The Baudelaire orphans may be naive, but they have the courage to admit their own limitations.