The Modernity of the 19th Century Paris Under Baudelaire's Eyes

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From Benjamin's essay, Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century, the 19th Century Paris is filled with the smell of industrialization. The rapid development of Architecture, Arts, Fashion, and Entertainment turned the old Paris to a modern city. In Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers Of Evil, especially in the section of "Parisian Scenes," the transformation of Paris can be revealed from the poet's description of people in Paris, Paris overall environment, and some specific locations in Paris. Baudelaire is a flaneur who pictures the city and its people by writing poems. He carefully employs rhetorics like metaphor and personification; and some colorful adjectives that boost the mood of the 19th Century Paris. As a local Parisian, Baudelaire has paradoxical feelings toward modern Paris. On the one hand, he misses the old Paris that treasured his memories and dislike the new Paris that isolates people's interactions and brings about air pollution; on the other hand, he is fascinated by the modernity of Paris. Through his poems, Baudelaire unmasks the industrialization as a double-edged sword: it promotes the economy and development of society, but also expands people's desire and emptiness.  

 

Gaming

In the poem, Gaming, Baudelaire enters a whore house, a hidden urban enclosure in Paris, witnesses and participates in gambling and erotic deals, and delivers his thoughts about gaming in the city with fashion and lust.

The first three stanzas in this poem are written in the third-person narrative, whereas the fourth to sixth stanzas are written from the first-person perspective. Such transition allows readers to develop a holistic view of the Parisian brothel and can resonate with Baudelaire's thoughts. Baudelaire employs plentiful adjectives to depict the image of "the pale old courtesans" and people in the whore house who "come to squander here their body sweats" (P195).

Baudelaire's unprecedented experience of urban modernity of Paris is depicted by poetic language and descriptive phrases of colors like "eyebrows painted, eye of fatal calm, smirking, and letting drop from skinny ears," "green cloth," and "faces without lips, lips without colors over toothless jaws" (P195). Such sounds like "jingling sounds of metal and of stone" draw an overall image of the 19th century Parisian courtesans who smirk to wait for their customers, wear jingling earrings and jewelry and put exaggerating makeup on the face (P195).

The poet means to state that industrialization, in the commodified age, brings about dehumanization: people were valued monetarily, and a prostitute would sell her body as merchandise in the economic market. Baudelaire's use of verbs like "twisted," "digging," and "panting" also deliver the sexual signals to impress and attract the customers who are willing to purchase the aged courtesans' body. Furthermore, the old, pale courtesans also reveal the violent side of modernity: they are old and pale in the face, but still, they have to wear cheap but colorful clothes, put makeup on the face and use exaggerated gestures to attract customers, and sell their body as goods to earn a living.

The 19th century Paris can also be reflected through Baudelaire's description of the gambling casino as a place with "filthy ceilings, chandeliers; and lamps of oil doling out their glow" (P195). As a flaneur, the poet observes the comparison between the colorful look of the pale old whores and the dark and dusty circumstance in the casino. The causation of such situation is because of the industrialization: while increasing the economy, it brings environmental pollution and empty lust at the same time. At the end of this stanza, Baudelaire states that the "brilliant poets" would squander their time in the casino to create poems, and employs a metaphor that their talents are "bloody sweat" (P195).

The sharp transition in the fourth stanza not only makes a transition to the first-person narrative but also conveys that Baudelaire himself is participating in the vain game of desire. The poet is attracted by the "morbid gaiety of the old whores," and envies the "men's tenacious lust" (P195). Baudelaire is clear in his mind that gambling and purchasing the services of the whores are useless and empty, but he is fascinated by them as well. This description of the poet's inner thought exposes the influence of the overall atmosphere under industrialization. Though the industrial age can only bring momentary pleasure, people are attracted by the flirty surface of the whores which can be bought by money at the same time.

I guess that there may be a metaphor between the old courtesans and Paris. In other words, those prostitutes are a group of representatives of the 19th century Paris. Paris is a city with a long history; it is old, just like the aged courtesans. However, because of the industrialization, Paris has to endure environmental pollution and darkness under its flashy surface. The prostitutes are old: their pale face, the faces without lips, lips without colors over toothless jaws, all symbolize their bitterness of earning a living at an old age. On the other hand, however, those whores are wearing colorful earrings and fashionable clothes, which indicates the trend and momentous fashion in the 19th century Paris.

In conclusion, in this poem, Baudelaire charts Paris’ transformation from a traditional city in Europe into a modern industrial metropolis by focusing on a specific group of people: the old courtesans who work in a Parisian whore house. The idea of urban modernity is exposed through the dehumanized value of treating human beings as commodities, and the fancy clothes which unfold the lust on the surface.

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Other Poems in the Section of "Parisian Scenes"

The poem, The Swan, shows Baudelaire's melancholy mood of the old Paris. Walking through the modern Carrousel Bridge in Paris, Baudelaire discovered that "the old Paris is gone" (P175). He compares the old Paris to Andromache, who saw the death of her husband and the destruction of her city. What is more, Baudelaire compares the modernity in the old Paris to the Greeks who destroy the city of Trojan. He believes that the 19th-century industrialization is killing the old Paris, despoiling the city's precious history and legend.

Baudelaire also has an alienated thought while walking in the city where he was born. When the urban renewal is taking place in Paris, the old, familiar sights and landmarks begin to disappear. At that moment, the poet comes up with the thinking that he is like the swan, which was taken from the lake; he is like the beautiful Andromache, who lost her husband and the city.

However, Baudelaire insists that "Paris may change, but in my melancholy mood, nothing has budged" (P175). This statement indicates that the poet refuses to forget his memories in the old Paris, as he says, "my dear memories are heavier than stone" (P175). Though the new and urbanized Paris seems attractive and happens to change all the time, it cannot substitute his memories in the old city.

Another poem, To a Woman Passing by, tells readers that on the street in modern Paris, at the very moment the poet’s eyes meet the captivating sights of a fashionable woman, he falls in love with her. Just like Baudelaire describes himself, as a drunk man, he seems like an addict and cannot move his eyes from the lady's "nimble and stately, statuesque of leg" (P189). However, the sad fact is that in a city with a fast-paced lifestyle like Paris, it is very hard for the poet to see that woman again. This is one of the frustrations that industrialization and modernity bring to the Parisian people. It is tough for people to make a connection with each other under such temporary, modern urban lifestyle.

Baudelaire's fleeting encounter with the fashionable woman illustrates his paradoxical emotion towards the modern industrial metropolis. On the one hand, it is the modern Paris that gives him the chance to meet such a beautiful and fashionable woman. However, on the other hand, Paris' modernity and its fast-paced lifestyle cut off all the possibilities for them to meet again.  

To sum up, Baudelaire has complex thinking of Paris' transformation from a traditional European city with a long history into a modern, industrial metropolis with a fast-paced lifestyle. He mourns the memories happened in the old Paris but is attracted to the modernity of the new Paris as well. By employing poetic languages such as the picturesque adjectives, rhetorical devices like metaphor, personification, and comparison, the poet reveals his views in the era that experiencing the old Paris changing to the modern city. For Baudelaire, modernity is a double-edged sword: It facilitates the economic growth and prettify the monetary values, but its violent underside brings about environmental pollution to the city and expands people's lust and emptiness.

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