Klaus Baudelaire

Klaus Baudelaire is the middle Baudelaire child, and extremely smart for someone a little older than twelve years old. Having read more books than most people do in a lifetime, Klaus thrives off reading and would want no more than a good book, a comfy chair, and the warm glow of a reading lamp. Klaus is always there to help his siblings with words and phrases they do not understand and has good photographic memory for a child.

Biography

Klaus is acknowledged as the reader and researcher of his siblings. He remembers just about everything he reads, and this has helped the Baudelaire orphans immensely. He is known to have read a good deal of the Baudelaires' Private Library before it was destroyed in the terrible fire in which the children's parents both perished. He also reads whatever he can anywhere else including the remains of the V.F.D Library. It is said that Herman Melville is one of his favorite authors, and that he particularly enjoys “the way Melville dramatizes the plight of overlooked people, such as poor sailors or exploited youngsters, through his strange, often experimental philosophical prose."^[5]

The Bad Beginning

Klaus lived with his parents and two siblings (Violet and Sunny) until he was twelve years old, at which time the Baudelaire Mansion burned to the ground while he, Sunny, and Violet were at Briny Beach. Thereafter, the Baudelaire Children had become the Baudelaire Orphans. He and his sisters were sent to live with the evil Count Olaf, who forced them to do all of his chores and treated them abysmally, a word which here means, "Very awfully, especially in the field of parenting and trying-to-get-his-hands-on-their-enormous-fortune". The count tried to gain control of the massive Baudelaire Fortune by illegally attempting to marry Violet during a play he and his hideous acting troup had written. Due to Klaus's excellent researching skills, Olaf's plot was foiled and he was almost arrested before managing to escape with his comrades.^[6]

The Reptile Room

Here, Violet, Klaus and Sunny are sent to live with their giddy Uncle Monty. The story may start cheerily at first, with the Baudelaire orphans having a splendid time with their Uncle Monty in the Reptile Room, but when Monty's new assistant Stephano comes to stay, terror shadows the children's lives once more. Stephano is recognised by the children as Count Olaf in disguise the moment they lay eyes on him. He uses poison from a venomous snake to murder Uncle Monty, blaming it on the herpetologist's newest aquisition, the Incredibly Deadly Viper. The Incredibly Deadly Viper's name is a misnomer, because it is in fact completely harmless and friendly. The police do not believe the children when they try to explain this, or when they tell the police and Mr. Poe. Eventually the police are convinced, but Olaf escapes.

The Wide Window

Klaus and his sisters were transferred to their Aunt Josephine. Klaus' only toy, after trading with Sunny and Violet, was a rattle. Captain Sham (Count Olaf) appears and threatens Josephine, forcing her to write a note that will leave the children in his care. Josephine faked her suicide. Klaus then decoded a message from Aunt Josephine's suicide note. The message read "Curdled Cave". They went there and tried to convince Josephine to come back. Josephine was unwillling, so Klaus used his trump card, turning Josephine's fear of realtors against her, by telling her that the cave was for sale, and that there would be realtors. Klaus watches helplessly as Aunt Josephine gets thrown to the leeches and calls Olaf a fiend for murdering her.

The Miserable Mill

Klaus, Violet, and Sunny were sent to Lucky Smells Lumbermill, where they were put to work by Sir, for a wage of coupons and gum (which is later revealed to be illegal). After a few days, Klaus is tripped by the foreman (who is revealed to be the bald man with the long nose, one of Olaf's associates) and his glasses are destroyed. Klaus is brought to the optometrist, Georgina Orwell, to get repairs, but she hypnotizes him since she is working with Count Olaf. Klaus is later found by his sisters in a daze in front of the mill, and immediately Violet suspects something is wrong. After being instructed to operate the stamping machine the next day, Klaus is forced to cause an accident when the stamping machine destroys a string machine and falls on Phil, the Baudelaires' friend. While in a rant, the foreman accidentally says "inordinate", undoing Klaus' hypnosis. However, the foreman trips him again and his glasses break, causing him to be hypnotized once more. Later that night, a hypnotized Klaus is instructed to slice up Charles, Sir's assistant. This would cause the Baudelaires to be fired and put in the hands of Count Olaf, who is under the alias of Shirley. Violet is able to unhypnotize him with the word "inordinate", and while his sisters are overwhelmed, Klaus is able to save Charles using an invention he crafted, despite his field being research. Although he is not put into Shirley's care, he is fired by Sir and sent off to boarding school with his siblings.

The Austere Academy

Violet , Klaus and Sunny were sent to Prufrock Preparatory School, a boarding school run by Vice Principal Nero. They were forced to stay in a shack ovverrun by small, toe-pinching crabs, attend dull classes, and listen to long violin rehearsals by the Vice Principal, who was a terrible violin player. They met two orphaned triplets named Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, who they became quite close with. A friendship developed between Klaus and Isadora, from whom Klaus learned the usefulness of a commonplace book. There were subtle allusions to a romantic relationship between the two.

The Ersatz Elevator

Violet, Sunny, and Klaus are taken in by Esme and Jerome Squalor, who live at667 Dark Avenue. Esme is very "in style" and bases all her decisions off of whether it is "in" or "out". The orphans meet up again with the two Quagmire triplets who are caged in a secret tunnel underneath the apartment building in which Esme and Jerome reside. They are very close to rescuing them, when the two triplets mysteriously vanish. The Baudelaires are then taken to an auction by the Squalors, which they have discovered is the location that the Quagmire triplets have been moved to. Klaus reads a catalog and states (wrongly) that the Quagmires are inside the VFD (very fancy doilies) lot at the in auction. But they are really hidden in Lot #48, a literal red herring.

The Vile Village

The Baudelaire orphans are brought to live in the Village of Fowl Devotees. Klaus reads about mob psychology and the rules of the village, unfortunately being too late because Jacques Snicket had already been murdered mysteriously by Olaf. He spends his 13th birthday in a jail cell, however he and his siblings manage to escape by dissolving the mortar with spongy bread and water.

The Hostile Hospital

Klaus types a telegram to Arthur Poe about what has been happening to them, which is ignored by Poe under his sister's instructions. Klaus and Sunny also almost killed Violet when disguising themselves as the two White-Faced Women, disguised as nurses, when they were nearly forced to perform a craniectomy on their sister. He had to stall to keep Violet alive. They find the last page of the Snicket file which is safely kept in his pocket. With Violet's hair ribbon they steal the keys to the Library of Records From Hal.

The Carnivorous Carnival

Klaus, along with Violet, pretend to be a two headed freak along with Sunny who disguises herself as a wolf baby named Chabo (who's mother was supposedly a hunter who fell in love with a handsome wolf and Chabo was their offspring) in the Caligari Carnival. Olaf's name in disguise is Elliot. At the end, Count Olaf traps Klaus and Violet in a moving caravan and takes Sunny away with him and his troupe.

The Slippery Slope

Klaus helps Violet to stop the rolling caravan and search for poor Sunny. They also meet up with Quigley Quagmire who has a romantic interest in Violet. Klaus starts his own commonplace book after Quigley gives him one. He helped decode using the Verbal Fridge Dialogue saying that the V.F.D. meeting would be on Thursday. They managed to rescue Sunny from Count Olaf's clutches after she signalled them with Esme's Verdant Flaming Device. They learn of the sugar bowl, which is revealed to be stolen by Lemony Snicket, and Beatrice their mother.

The Grim Grotto

Violet, Klaus and Sunny are under the sea in this book. They meet Captain Widdershins and Fiona, who Klaus has a romantic interest in. Captain Widdershinns is the sort of man who takes some getting used to, being very outspoken, confusing, and true to his motto "He (or she) who hesitates is lost". Captain Widdershins shows them a big black question mark on the submarine's radar, called The Great Unknown. Then he sends the children and Fiona out into the sea to the cave where the sugar bowl has been dumped by the sea. The sugar bowl ends up not being there, having been removed by a mysterious swimming woman. Fiona tells Violet, Klaus, and Sunny about the Medusoid Mycelium and how dangerous and poisonous it is. She recites the poem: "A single spore has such grim power/ that you may die within the hour/ Is dilution simple?/ But of course!/ Just one small dose/ of root of horse." Soon after that, Sunny ends up getting sick and starts dying from the Medusoid Mycelium. Klaus, Fiona, and Violet try to find a way to save her. Luckily they find wasabi which is a condiment that is similar to horseradish, and give it to Sunny. She gets better. Fiona later joins Count Olaf and his troupe (to be with her brother Fernald, who is the hook-handed man). Klaus has his first kiss with Fiona before saying good-bye. The Baudelaires go to Briny Beach and meet Kit Snicket, Lemony Snicket's younger sister, in a taxi.

The Penultimate Peril

Klaus and his sisters pretend to be concierges at the Hotel Denouement. Kit tells them that Ernest in on the other side of V.F.D. and Frank is on their side but they are identical, actually being a pair of identical triplets. Klaus realized that the sugar bowl was delivered by a crow. He opens the Vernacularly Fastened Door using three code, and escapes the Hotel Denouement with his sisters as well as Count Olaf.

The End

Violet, Klaus and Sunny wash up with Count Olaf on an island filled with people who have been shipwrecked. They are then deserted on the coastal shelf with Olaf and the pregnant Kit Snicket. At the end, Kit and Count Olaf die of the Medusoid Mycelim as Kit is giving birth to her baby, Beatrice.

After The End

Though the fate of Violet is ambiguous, Klaus's fate - along with that of Sunny - is more well known: several sources state that something happened to The Beatrice - it sank on some sharp rocks when they were close to the mainline, though what made it hit the rocks is unknown - and Violet was forced to make an "emergency repair" to it, which allowed the ship to land, successfully, on the mainland, allowing all three siblings and Beatrice Snicket to survive^[7].

While Violet may have died some time after the Beatrice docked (she is stated as returning to Briny Beach for a third time, but her fate after that is unknown), Sunny survived to be "a young woman" who often discussed her new cooking recipes on the radio^[8] and Klaus spent "a lot of time thinking about his present situation (namely the events of the Reptile Room) many years later", implying that he too survived and possibly inherited (or bought) Montgomery Montgomery's property^[9]. However, this is unlikely as the house has burned down.

However, despite all his research and hard work, even Lemony does not know the current position, location and status of the Baudelaire children, implying that Violet, Klaus and Sunny have gone into hiding or are using fake names: Sunny often discusses her recipes on the radio, but whether she uses her actual name or a fake one is unknown.

Trivia

His father used to take him to the Akhmatova Bookstore as a treat. Jerome takes him there in The Ersatz Elevator.
He is allergic to peppermint, as are both of his sisters. In Klaus's case, his tongue swells up so much no one can understand a word he says.

Disguises

The Hostile Hospital - Klaus disguises himself as one of the White-Faced Women, who were disguised as nurses, Tocuna and Flo. Klaus is Nurse Tocuna.
The Carnivorous Carnival - Klaus disguises himself (with Violet) as a two-headed freak, he is Elliot and Violet is Beverly.
The Slippery Slope - Klaus is disguised as a Snow Scout.
The Penultimate Peril - Klaus, along with his sisters, is disguised as a conceirge employed by the Hotel Denouement.

Behind the Scenes

Klaus (Movie) — Klaus as portrayed by Liam Aiken

In the film, Klaus is played by actor Liam Aiken. In the film, Klaus does not wear glasses except for in a couple of brief shots where he is shown trying out an invention of Violet's and when he is reading. He is also shown to have a more pessimistic outlook on his and his sisters' situation.