Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Generally, laws are a good thing… But when the law says it's okay for a fourteen-year-old girl to marry her greedy, dreadful guardian, then maybe it's time to rethink things. The Baudelaires have quite a few run-ins with the law throughout the story and they usually don't turn out very well. The law, in this book, is often tied to trouble.
The children can't get access to any of their money by law until Violet comes of age. When the Baudelaires try to get help from Mr. Poe because Count Olaf is a madman, Mr. Poe replies that there's nothing illegal about what Count Olaf is doing to them. Count Olaf nearly tricks Violet into marrying him simply by fulfilling the minimum requirements of the law. And Justice Strauss isn't allowed to adopt the children because she doesn't fit the exact requirements laid out in Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire's will:
To Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, it seemed that Mr. Poe and the law had made the incorrect decision to take them away from the possibility of a happy life with Justice Strauss and toward an unknown fate with some unknown relative. They didn't understand it, but like so many unfortunate events in life, just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't so. (13.75)
In each of these cases, the adults in the story appeal to the law in order to deny the children something that would be in their best interest. Even though Mr. Poe and Justice Strauss try to help the children, they still confine themselves to the letter of the law without every worrying about what might actually be the right thing to do. Even though everyone is clearly upset that Count Olaf has married Violet, the adults all agree that legally they are married. In a way, it's understandable, but on the other hand, that's a bit of madness right there.
The law sort of shuffles around the plot as yet another way for adults to act with total incompetence, enabling them to be all like, we can't break the law—better to let the children live with the madman. We guess that just goes to show you what happens when you make yourself a slave to the rule of law.