Les Fleur Du Mal Analysis

‘Le Chat’ forms part of the ‘Spleen et Idéal’ section of ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’ by Charles Baudelaire, in which it is the first of a trilogy of poems devoted to the figure of the cat. It is a poem which also serves as an exception among the poems dedicated to the symbol of the cat by Baudelaire in this collection. In ‘Le Chat (LI)’ and ‘Les Chats’ the animal is presented as a noble, mystical, and sacred figure, whereas here the cat is presented as a rather ambivalent figure by its analogy with the figure of a woman. Throughout the poem Baudelaire highlights the dangerous and destructive potential of both the cat and the woman, and often the distinction between both figures becomes ambiguous – leading to a sense of confusion for both the reader

Again in this couplet the poet suggests a lack of clarity which is reflected in his word choice, as there appears to be a stark contrast between the subtleness of the air and the danger of the perfume, which enhances the ambivalent theme presented throughout the sonnet in its entirety. The final line of the couplet, and indeed the poem, is perhaps the most ambiguous of all within the sonnet as it is unclear as to whether Baudelaire is speaking about the cat or the woman, and as such the poem ends with an air of complete confusion, which is the poet’s intention. Personification of both the perfume and the air is also found in the final line of the couplet, as the poet depicts them both as subjects which are swimming, “nagent autour de son corps brun”. During the course of the poem Baudelaire employs a form of personification or humanisation to the figure of the cat as he explicitly compares the cat to the woman, and by creating the association between them both, “son regard, comme le tien, amiable bête”. It is also possible to associate this comparison as a sort of animalisation of the woman as the etymological field of the human body is blended with that of the animal body. The use of the imperative in the first stanza emphasises the superiority of poet over the animal and in a way as an exertion of dominance over the woman, which remains present until the ambivalence between the two figures appears in the