Character Analysis
Mr. Poe's wife and sons only show up briefly in the beginning of this story, but they make a very bad impression right away.
Though Mrs. Poe allows the Baudelaires to stay in her home, she buys them "ugly clothes," some of which are so awful that "the Baudelaires orphans would never wear [them] no matter how desperate they were" (10.6). Luckily, Violet is able to tear them up and use them for her homemade grappling hook.
The Poe children are much worse than their mother, though. Here's how they react to hearing that the Baudelaires have found a new home:
"Good," said Albert, who had a piece of potato stuck between his teeth. "Now we can get our room back. I'm tired of sharing it. Violet and Klaus are always moping around, and are never any fun."
"And the baby bites," Edgar said, tossing a chicken bone to the floor as if he were an animal in a zoo and not the son of a well-respected member of the banking community. (2.5-6)
So basically, they're brats. Contrast this to the behavior of the Baudelaire children, who have lost everything and are still able to be kind and polite to other people. If you count Mr. Poe in with this group, none of the members of the Poe family are sympathetic to the tragic situation the Baudelaires find themselves in. This is a pretty good introduction to how most people will be treating these newly-minted orphans. Sorry, Baudelaires.