"The Flowers of Evil" by Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire’s poetry is often considered one of the beginnings of ‘carcass writing’ and so, it is only obvious that the reader would notice the numerous different ways in which death and dying are discovered, written, analysed and iterated throughout the anthology. Dying is especially important because of the fact it can be attached to various different ideas such as: religion - the reader sees the Devil and God ready at the dead’s moment of new being, violence - the amount of violence required to inflict death may not be so great, but the graphic descriptions of the violent actions are numerous and often linked to the mangling of the human body through pain and suffering. After this, the reader encounters themes such as: images and symbols of death - the way in which images of death (coffins, corpses and graveyards) change the narrative or the atmosphere of the poem either make the poem darker and yet, in the darker poems, the reader often sees a peacefulness brought to the violence, suffering, pain or anguish through the inevitable act of death. This shows that death is not only used as a darkness or evil in which the narrator and characters often fear and hate the own thought of their demise or the demise of those they love, but it is also the tranquility after the storm-like narrative in which the narrator and characters experience something terrifying in life, or are being purposefully hindered from doing something, completing something or are experiencing intense amounts of pain, depression or are suffering upon earth in any extreme way. When investigating the theme of death within this anthology, there are so many different things that the reader has to take into account that the image of death often overtakes the idea at hand or, it adds to it. Whether it is of suffering and pain or of peace and tranquility, death often makes the poem seem bearable for either the narrator or the subject of the poem, in the fact that either it is the beginning and therefore the lesser of the sufferings, the most important section of the grieving process that makes the narrator’s thoughts beautiful and picturesque or the end of the suffering that the narrator or character has suffered for what seems like too long according to the poem. Blended with the themes of the poem, this leads the reader to believe certain ideas such as whether the narrator or character has a belief in God, or whether they have faith in the Devil, whether they are emotionally violent or whether they are emotionally detached - but all in all, the reader will realise that there is often more than one dimension to the characters and the narrators of Baudelaire’s poems.

When Baudelaire explains other characters, there is often a violence to the language that is used to portray an emotional state. There is also a sense of duplicity to the language and whether this is because of the tranquility of death or the violent acts that come before it depends on who or what the poem is about overall. The poem states:

“Goya, a nightmare full of things unspeakable,/Of foetuses one cooks for midnight revellers,/Old women at the mirror, children fully nude,/Dressing to tempt the devils very carefully…” (p.23)

And so, there is a clear image of the violence of Goya’s works and the way in which death is directly involved with the poem without actually stating that death has happened. Instead, the reader observes the insinuation of religion, the fact that the devils are mentioned helps the reader interpret that Goya’s work is not only directly relative to death but is also directly relative to pain and suffering as nothing that connotes the devil is often peaceful.

However, death can also seem tranquil and peaceful even if it relates to someone other than the narrator. This is because death can also be unhinged from the act of religion and attached on to the way in which death can seem like other things and thus, create the picturesque:

“You are a candle where the mayfly dies/ In flames, blessing this fire’s deadly bloom./The panting lover bending to his love/Looks like a dying man who strokes his tomb…Angel or siren, spirit I don’t care,/As long as velvet eyes and perfumed head/And glimmering motions, o my queen, can make/The world less dreadful, and the time less dead.” (p.45)

The reader can definitely observe the way in which death can be relative to love and how picturesque the dead can be when related to a positive emotion. However, the act of death is still negative, but the image that the reader has been given is tranquil and has no real violence to it since the image is secondary to another idea.

Another way in which death is explored in this anthology is through the violence of natural imagery. Images of brute violence and force reinforce the idea that death is a negative act and yet, it cannot be avoided. The violence often makes the situation seem more realistic, slower and more drawn out across a longer length of time since on-going violence leading to death is often the central aspect of the poem itself:

“…one who’s dying, crushed by wounded men,/Stamped, trampled by a horse’s hoof./Oh, say it if you know, sweet sorceress…This broken soldier! Must he then despair/Of having cross and tomb,/ This dying man the wolf already sniffs!” (p.113)

The violence is drawn out across two verses and to the end of the poem and yet, there is still a tranquility to it since this quotation is taken from the time at which the violence is still building. The only time when the dying man is actually reference in the poem and thus, we have a direct correlation between death, violence, tranquility and then, climactic suffering.

Another force of death is characterising the narrator. Death and its relative images and symbols are often used to make a character of our narrator since the reader often relates death, violence and sadness and so, it would be more relative to relate the depression of the narrator to the act of death rather than just stating that there is a suicidal notion to the narrator in ways of explicit emotion:

“Romances, locks of hair rolled in receipts,/Hides fewer secrets than my sullen skull./It’s like a pyramid, a giant vault/Holding more corpses than a common grave./ - I am a graveyard hated by the moon/Where like remorse the long worms crawl, and turn/Attention to the dearest of my dead…” (p.147)

So, in conclusion, the violence of the act of death is often more violent than going through the moment of death itself or even ending the journey of the narrator or character with death. Death is seen as often depressing, isolated and yet, there is as aspect of the picturesque involved in the way in which death is visualised as an emotion towards another human being. However, death is mainly a violent act, a tranquil moment, a dangerous after-thought, a depressing revelation to the self and an emotion most often associated with the suicidal even when the suggestion of the depressing is only seen through the isolation and relation to the emotion of hatred that is associated with death by humans.

Citation:

Baudelaire, C (2008). The Flowers of Evil. 2nd ed. UK: Oxford World's Classics.