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Introduction
No English edition gives a precise translation of the title "Les FleursDu Mal" which is erronously translated as "The Flowers Of Evil", while itshould be "The Flowers From Evil". At first this may seem pedantic, but the change of a preposition can alter the meaning in a deep way. In French the words "de, du, de la, de l' " can mean both "of" or"from". The problem now is to understand which of the two meanings Baudelaire was referring to... In Baudelaire's poetry flowers can not absolutely belong to Evil, on the contrary they become the symbol of that Ideal Beauty always spoken of by the poet. Therefore "of" is definitely excluded. Let's presume therefore that the preposition indicates an origin: where do the flowers come from? Where is their origin? Evil. A flower in poetic language is often associated to the poem itself (see for example qu’est-ce que on dit au poète à propos des fleurs from Arthur Rimbaud or Fleurs by Stéphane Mallarmé). Therefore the title refers to the origin of poetry, the reality that surrounds the poet is filled with a strong negative effect due directly to the materialness of things, to their being "res in action" as in the Aristotle's view.
The Flowers From Evil must therefore be read as an "iter", a pathway that seeks to determine poetry's necessity beginning from the causes that are its origin. On observing the work's structure one may notice that the different poèmes are divided into six sections: Spleen et Idèal, Tableaux parisien, Le vin, Fleurs du mal, Rèvolte, La mort. Each section represents a voyage of existence in the poet's conscience:
Spleen et Idèal
At the beginning of each journey, a voyager must be able to indicate his final goal, or at least the place wich he wishes to reach. The prime objective in Baudelaire's journey, which succeeds in moving him toward strange lands, is the aspiration for the Ideal, the Absolute. (One must remember his relatively lazy nature: if we exclude his unsuccessful voyage to the Indies, and a brief stay at Honfleur, he has always lived in Paris, which he abandoned for Namur only at the end of his lifetime.) The Absolute is intended as the showing of a superior spirituality which arouses its own conscience, like a mystic illumination of the Universe.
The main obstacle that does not permit the realising the Ideal is the state of soul called Spleen which blocks, freezes the poet in a state of cataleptic paralysis stopping him from continuing his journey. The tension toward the Ideal is shattered into a state of spleenetic depression, conscience begins to sway from mystic sensations to profound discomfort causing a state of stasis. It's like trying to climb a stairway,
Tableaux Parisien
At this point one must succeed in comprehending the origin of this block. The poet's gaze focuses on everyday life in which the materialness of things prevails on the Absolute. The poet feels like an outcast of his society, not being able to find a way to escape from the horror of real life. One should remember that it is in the nineteenth century that the process of massification and suppression of the individual began, and generated the sense of bewilderment and individual emptiness. Hence, the uniqueness of the poet is not recognized as positive, but he is ridiculed. The boiling Magma of the Ville Lumière du fin du siècle absorbs the poet's aspirations leading him to stall at first due to his physical circumstance (I'm referring to his living in a specific historical period, in a certain place...)
Le vin
He tries to
avoid this stalling situation by consuming particular substances
(wine, hash, opium) which alter one's conscience. The effect is
initially positive, and the poet is hurled into new perceptions
of reality which disclose unknown and infinite horizons. It is
apparently the conclusion of the journey, but he hasn't really
reached the Ideal he has so long yearned for. The poet feels he
is newly trapped, imprisoned in Artificial Paradises, subjective
creations of his own mind, projections of his conscience beyond
itself. He realizes that this is a personal subjective
world, not the objective one of the Absolute. It is like a
thirsty traveller in an arid and desolate desert who, projecting
his desires, can see luxurious mirages of oases full of water,
but on approaching them he realizes that his thirst will never be
quenched by an illusion: on the contrary, it increases.
La Révolte
Increasingly exasperated, our voyager begins to scream. He screams against man, nature, God whom he thinks has turned his back on him. No one has outlined this condition better than Jean-Paul Sartre: " It is no coincidence that Baudelaire sees in Satan the perfect type of painful Beauty. Defeated, fallen, hated by Nature Herself, banned by the Universe... Satan wins over God, his master, and is victor through pain, through flame, the flame of sorrowful dissatisfaction and melancholic agony... Baudelaire is identified with Satan in the secrecy of his heart and a suffocated scream echoes faint throughout his entire work: "I am Satan"."
Satan not as the origin of evil from which the poet is desperately trying to escape, but as a symbol of rebellion against the order of the Universe.
La Mort
Unfortunately the poet is incapable of remodelling the Universe, and for this reason he decides to plunge into the unknown abyss of Death. Death intended as the end of existence, the quitting of the journey that will never see its end. It would appear to be a total resignation, a defeat on all fronts, but one thing the poet still possesses: his poetry. Through it he has become Demiurge and Creator, he has flown closer to Infinity.
Poetry is the only flower that could be picked from the garden which is Evil, after a long and painful journey across the negative.
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