I will start by giving examples of certain poems in which this is true, and later I will examine the reasons for this passiveness and hatred towards women.

The poem "a celle qui est trop gaie", starts off very gently, using stereotypical

imagery of women, e.g. flowers, beautiful landscapes, the sky etc. By verse five, the tone changes dramatically and Budelaire becomes sarcastic, dark thoughts prevail. Now he hates flowers, and he destroys them. He wants to keep the woman in his room and make a hole inside her, where he can inject his venom, thereby killing her (" a travers ces levres nouvelles, plus eclatantes et plus belles, t'infuser mon venin, ma soeur!"). Baudelaire's aim is to shock the reader; he combines the romantic (from the 19th century romanticism movement), with the gothic.

In the poem "le serpent qui danse", Bau

However, perhaps Baudelaire's pessimism towards women stems from somewhere else? It is evident in his poetry that he has been misunderstood all his life (this is demonstrated beautifully in the poem "benediction"). He has a natural resentment towards the world in which he lives, and women are a part of this world. Perhaps he has never found true love, or maybe he's been disappointed in all his relationships. It seems as if Baudelaire has found a connection between beauty and all that is evil. Maybe his experiences in life have taught him to stay away from that which is aesthetically beautiful, because it causes pain in the long run. Referring back to the title he sees woman's nature as something unpleasant. He has lost all faith in women; his encounters with the opposite sex may have had negative similarities, which caused him great pain and discomfort, thus building up his resentment inside. One can only speculate, no one knows Baudelaire's true reasons behind his pessimism towards women. There are numerous factors that may have contributed to his disappointment. However only Baudelaire is aware of what they are.

The last two lines are the key because the poem ends with a question "n'es - tu l'oasis ou je reve, et la gourde ou je hume a longs traits le vin du souvenir?". He is not sure whether this woman is really what he desires. It is at times difficult to distinguish between a dream and reality, and Baudelaire is very good at putting himself back down to earth after he lets him imagination drift away. Baudelaire is a realist,

Some common words found in the essay are:
De Satan, Charles Baudelaire, Pierre Phrases, towards women, jamais je ne, et jamais je, body spirit, pessimism towards women, la beaute, et jamais, tone changes, ou je, baudelaire's aim, pessimism towards, je ne, reality baudelaire,
Approximate Word count = 1039
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)