Violet Baudelaire

Violet Baudelaire is a fictional character and one of the three protagonists of Lemony Snicket's *A Series of Unfortunate Events* series; she appears in all thirteen novels. Violet helps her 12-year-old brother Klaus and her baby sister Sunny solve problems with her inventing skills. As the eldest, she is the natural leader of the group.

### Character Description

Violet Baudelaire is the eldest Baudelaire: she is fourteen at the beginning of the series, and turns fifteen in *The Grim Grotto*. Brett Helquist's drawings indicate she has long, brown hair. When thinking and concentrating on new inventions, she ties her hair in a purple ribbon to keep it out of her face.

Violet is an amazing inventor, inventing various items such as a grappling hook that gets her up Count Olaf's tower in *The Bad Beginning*, a lock pick that enables her to open up Count Olaf's suitcase in *The Reptile Room*, a signaling device in *The Wide Window*, a climbing device made from ties, curtains, and extension cords in *The Ersatz Elevator*, an invention that frees her and her siblings from the jail in the Village of Fowl Devotees in *The Vile Village*, a rubber band ladder to get out of the burning Heimlich Hospital in The Hostile Hospital, fork-assisted climbing shoes that help her and Quigley Quagmire get up the frozen waterfall of Mount Fraught in *The Slippery Slope* and many more.

#### Inventions

Violet has an interest in inventing. The theme of children each
having a particular skill that they are good at is also shown with other
 characters in the series. For example, with the Quagmire triplets, Duncan is a journalist, Isadora is a poet, and Quigley is a cartographer. The Baudelaires' volatile friend Fiona is a mycologist.
 Violet is depicted as being extremely skilled at inventing devices. 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
 to keep it out of her eyes.[13]

### Violet's inventions

* In *The Bad Beginning*, Violet makes a grappling hook, from metal rods, a wire from the back of a photo frame, 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 "noisy
shoes" by attaching pieces of metal to the soles of normal 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 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 tries to make 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 out of dirty sheets from the Hotel Denouement.
* 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.

* In *Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events*,

 Violet invents various things, such as the Smasher, the Lobber, the
Lucky Lockpick, the Sprayer, the Lever Yanker, the Reptile Retriever,
the Brilliant Bopper (Klaus's weapon), the Fruit Flinger (her own
weapon), the Baby Booster (which helps Sunny jump), the Steady Stilts
(so that Violet can reach high places) and the Levitating Loafers (which
 can make Klaus fly).

### 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 Grim Grotto*, Violet dresses as a scuba diver.
* In *The Penultimate Peril*, Violet disguises herself as a hotel concierge.

#### Physical Appearance

In the movie Violet's hair color is different: it is colored light
brown, whereas in the book her hair is dark brown or black. In the
movie, her hair is also very straight, whereas in the books, it is
depicted as flicking or curling towards the ends, and as occasionally
curling, especially when it has not been brushed. Her clothes are
different, as she wears a black dress, with the blue coat which is worn
later. The dress notably has a lower sleeve with a V-shaped end, a
feature which is common in science fiction, especially in space operas. Violet is described by Snicket in *The Bad Beginning* as having pleasant facial features, like her siblings.