The Life and The Flask

Charles Baudelaire is a French poet most famous for his poem called The Flowers of Evil. Baudelaire was also known for translating some of Edger Allen Poe’s work. Baudelaire was born in Paris, France, on April 9, 1821. His father’s name was François Baudelaire and he was a senior civil servant and amateur artist. François dies in Charles early childhood and from then on Charles did not have a great relationship with his mother. Shortly after Charles father dies his mother remarried to the Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Aupick. After this, Charles no longer felt affection from his mother and claimed it caused him trauma. Baudelaire studied law in collage and at that time began to accumulate many diets mostly from clothes. After getting his Degree Baudelaire decided to take on a career in writing and literature.  After Declaring this to his Step father Baudelaire was sent off on a vacation to India to stop him from following his dream. After this trip Baudelaire started working on his most famous poem The Flowers of Evil. He got quite a lot of money for this poem but a few years later wasted most of it. In 1859 Baudelaire’s long term use of drugs and alcohol made him have a stroke that paralyzed him for the last two years of his life. On August 31, 1867 Baudelaire died and was buried in his birth place of Paris France  

In Baudelaire’s The Flask there is one idea that is very prevalent throughout the book. That Idea is the Idea of smell and how it helps remember memories. Baudelaire describes smelling a bottle as accessing old memories that were long for gotten. He says that as he smells them they shed light on old forgotten memories. This is referring to the memory of his mother and how as a child he sis not have a very good relationship with her. As he got older he and his mother got to have a second chance at their relationship. This is just like smelling something and getting the memories of old things from the past. One Idea that Baudelaire also brings to light in his book is the creeping feeling of old bad memories. He describes the memories as a dark ghost. This is referring to Baudelaire’s drug problem and how when we smells something that remind him of drugs he gets a dark ghost like feeling. This shows the relationship between Baudelaire’s addiction to drugs and how it was incorporated in his writing. The idea of smell and memory’s is very important to the story and relates the story to Baudelaire’s actual life and what was going on at the time. 

Works Cited

"Charles Baudelaire - Biography." Charles Baudelaire. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014.

"Charles Baudelaire Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 14 May 2014.

"Charles Baudelaire." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Oct. 2014. Web. 13 May 2014.