What, Then, Does Beatrice Mean?: Hermaphroditic Gender, Predatory Sexuality, and Promiscuous Allusion in Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Series of Unfortunate Events depicts a virtually genderless society, in that characters express themselves in ways largely free of male/female stereotypes; nonetheless, predatory forms of male sexuality circumscribe female agency. Intriguingly, Handler opens a space for feminine resistance to male desire through promiscuous deployments of literary allusions, which highlight female agency in subverting male desire.