Carmelita Spats
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| Carmelita Spats | |
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| First appearance | The Austere Academy |
| Last appearance | The Penultimate Peril |
| Created by | Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | Teenager |
| Occupation | Student |
| Call sign | Cakesniffer |
| Family | Two parents |
| Address | Prufrock Preparatory School (originally) |
Carmelita Spats is a fictional character in Lemony Snicket's series of the children's novels, A Series of Unfortunate Events. She often calls people whom she falsely deems to be lesser than herself (of which there are many) "Cakesniffers."
[edit] Personality
Carmelita Spats first appears in the fifth book in the series, The Austere Academy, where she is described by Lemony Snicket as a nasty, rude, dreadful, filthy, ghastly, and violent person. Snicket also says that one should stay as far from her as possible; Duncan Quagmire states that the less time a person spends with her the happier he/she will be. Carmelita Spats is portraited as a bully at the Prufrock Preparatory School, where Sunny, Klaus and Violet Baudelaire live in The Austere Academy. The bigoted, prejudiced Carmelita bullies them for being orphans, calls them "Cakesniffers" (and once "Saladsniffers"), and is generally unpleasant to them. Her constant labeling of people as "Cakesniffers" may be a reference to Holden Caulfield's similar usage of the word "phony", given that there are other J. D. Salinger references in the novels.
[edit] Role in the books
In The Slippery Slope, she reappears as a member of the Snow Scouts, of which Quigley Quagmire is also a member. At the end of the book, everyone of the Snow Scouts except Quigley, who was with the Baudelaires, and Carmelita are captured. Count Olaf and Esme are able to convince Carmelita into his troupe.
In The Grim Grotto, Esmé starts regarding Carmelita "as the daughter she never had" (both being snobbish and greedy) and spoils her accordingly. Olaf, on the other hand, is less fond of her, but is still persuaded to name his submarine "The Carmelita", Carmelita having said that "The Olaf" is a "cakesniffing" name. It is also revealed that Carmelita is a terrible singer. She is dressed as "a tap-dancing ballerina fairy princess veterinarian" during the book.
In The Penultimate Peril, Carmelita's spoiled attitude seems to have gotten worse under Esmé Squalor's care. She dresses up as "a ballplaying cowboy superhero soldier pirate" during the book's course.
Within The Penultimate Peril, Olaf eventually tires of her and violently knocks her to the floor, ending their already fragile relationship. It is not known whether Carmelita Spats escaped the fire of Hotel Denouement, but the narrative implies that even if she survived, she never again argued with the Baudelaire children.
In The End, the boat that Count Olaf and the Baudelaire orphans sails in from the Hotel Denouement is named after Carmelita by herself, much to Olaf's distaste.
In The Penultimate Peril, she submits a 'book about how wonderful (she is)' as evidence in the trial against Count Olaf. It is implied earlier that Carmelita herself published this book, entitled Carmelita Spats, Me: The Completely Authorized Autobiography of the Prettiest, Smartest, Most Darling Girl in the Whole Wide World; an excerpt from Page 793 detailing her misguided encounter with a V.F.D. librarian appears in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, where it is listed as having been published by 'Spoiled Brat Press'.
Her name is Carmelita Spats, giving her the initials CS. CS can also refer to "cakesniffers," making her use of the word ironic. This could also refer to C. S. Lewis, although whether this is the case is not known.
In Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, Vice Principal Nero writes a letter to her parents.
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